As unlikely as it may seem, Q-tips and dental floss are the enemy when it comes to toilets and drains in your home. Q-tips have a propensity for getting caught in the trap of the toilet, or at the floor flange where the toilet bolts to the floor. The next time paper and waste is flushed, BAM; it hangs up on the Q-tips and you have a blockage or an overflowing toilet, an awful mess no one wants to deal with. If the Q-tips do make it out into the sewer line, they easily get caught up on tree roots. Now everything that comes down the drain is going to get caught and the whole house is going to be plugged up. You’ll be calling someone to deal with that problem, and if your luck is anything like mine, it will be on Christmas or Thanksgiving when you have a house full of company.
Dental floss works pretty much the same way-it finds some thing to get caught up on (like a burr in the pipe, or a sharp bend) and then it catches anything and everything that tries to go past.
Q-tips and dental floss should only be thrown into a waste paper container.
At Sav-On Plumbing, we are well schooled in remedying this problem should it occur. Feel free to give us a call at 602-488-4647 for a free estimate.
