How To Prevent Backflow In Residential Areas
‘Backflow’, as the name suggests is not healthy for you and your plumbing system. Your residential plumbing system is structured in a way that wastewater stays away from your potable water. The clean water enters your home through municipal water pipelines while dirty water takes exit from your home through Municipal sewer lines. So basically, backflow is a situation when filthy water flows in the wrong direction, flows backwards into clean water lines, and enters your home plumbing systems. For instance, a toilet is overflowing and backing up with dirty water instead of flushing out through sewage lines. Let's get aware of the kinds of backflow issues and their prevention. These two kinds of backflow problems are back siphonage backflow and back pressure backflow.
What is Backpressure backflow?
When the pressure of non-potable water is greater than the pressure of the main water, backpressure backflow occurs. This downfall in potable water pressure can occur due to line flushing, breakage in the main water line, or elevation differences. This situation might arise due to high booster pumps, which create downstream pressure or high temperature or heat expansion from boilers.
What is Back-Siphonage backflow?
This type of backflow occurs due to negative pressure in the waterline that means the pressure in the supply line falls below the atmospheric pressure. This leads to a reversal of non-potable water into a clean water supply. The differential pressure and cross-connection creates a link between the clean water and the dirty water source. Likewise, backwater backflow can cause due to construction activities, breakage in the main water supply, or firefighting activities.
Threats of backflow
A backflow problem contaminates the clean water by mixing the clean water with filthy water. Potable water is essential for the survival of life around us. With the advancement of the modern plumbing system, we have better sanitation and better waste removal practices. This has to lead to keep many life-threatening diseases at bay for generations. Contaminated water contains animal and human feces, harmful chemicals, deadly bacteria, and germs that transmit deadly diseases.
How to prevent backpressure and siphonage backflow?
It is better to take precautionary and preventive measures to protect yourself from the haphazard of backflow. By being one step ahead about your plumbing safety measures, you can bank upon a lot of time, energy, and money. However, there are two common ways to prevent backflow in the first place that includes:
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Backflow preventing valve
Backflow valve can be installed or fixed in those areas, especially, in which clean water is more prone to contamination. These valves need a regular inspection because of the moving parts used in. -
Air gaps
This is a common practice to maintain the pressure in the plumbing system to avoid backflow.Where there is no scope of air gap their backflow preventer is to be installed.
To conclude further, regular sewage maintenance should be carried down to prevent backflow. This will involve monitoring cross-connections, and inspection of the backflow preventer valve to ensure it is working properly.
Who is responsible for the prevention of backflow?
If you are the owner of the property then it is your responsibility to install the right backflow preventer in your house and must ensure that you have an appropriate backflow replacement system. The devices should get timely maintenance for proper functioning.
Summary
Backflow is not merely a clog in your water pipe but a very serious situation where wastewater mixes with your clean water and pollutes it. Backflow preventive device is compulsorily vital for residential areas as most of the consumption of water needs arise from these areas. Backflow preventer devices can be installed below the ground, above the ground, or with the building itself.
Consider the various common shreds of evidence of contamination of water due to backflows outbreak of illness, change in the color of the water, foul or dirty smell, and visible foreign particles. However, in some cases, contamination can be left unnoticed, as you would not see any visible difference in the clean and dirty water.
There are various types of backflow preventers available in solutions. Fix an appointment with expert plumper and get your plumbing line check. And even if after having backflow preventer already, you are facing water pollution issues, then you need to get this fix as earliest as possible.