A fatberg is just as disgusting as it sounds – a congealed mass of oil, fat, wet wipes and sanitary products. They can be large or small, but the blockages they cause can lead to long-term damage of a drainage system.
What Causes Fatbergs?
Fatbergs happen when materials which should be disposed of in the waste or recycling bin are washed down a plughole or flushed down the toilet. They include things like food scraps, oils and grease and cleaning wipes. The only things that should be going down your drains are toilet paper, human waste and liquids like water, tea and juice. Anything else risks causing a blockage. Last year, Thames Water cleared a 35-tonne fatberg from a sewer in East London which was made up of items which are unflushable, such as sanitary products and wet wipes.
How Can You Tell If You Have One?
If there is a bad smell around your drains, and they have become slow to drain or if your toilet isn’t flushing properly, it’s likely there is a blockage in one of your pipes. You may also hear gurgling sounds coming from the pipes. You can try and shift the blockage using either a DIY solution of baking soda and vinegar or one of the commercial products available, but if this doesn’t work, you will need to consider carrying out a CCTV drain survey. These are carried out by professionals and involve lowering a camera on a flexible rod into the drainage system to see what’s going on inside. They will then be able to diagnose the problem and check for any damage done to the pipes. For anyone looking for a CCTV drain survey Leicester, companies such as https://www.wilkinson-env.co.uk/drainage-services-cctv-surveys-midlands/cctv-drain-surveys/leicester can advise.
Getting Rid of Fatbergs
A CCTV drain survey will locate the fatberg, and a drainage expert can then blast it away using high pressure jets. This will break it down, and it can then move freely in smaller chunks into the main sewer and eventually your local sewage works.