You will often hear that fixing your own plumbing problems is too hard. However, when you have the proper education and proper advice for a particular plumbing job, it is much easier. Read this article to learn how to fix basic things.
If you want to look for floor damage around your toilet, just check the flooring for softness. Straddle the toilet and rock from one foot to the other to see if you feel any weakening or “softness” in the floor beneath you. As with many problems, early detection can save you a lot of money.
Place a strainer on top of every drain so that you collect all debris that has the ability to clog the drain. Clean debris from these strainers after each use. Kitchen filters should be changed often, while bathtub filters can be changed as needed.
If your toilet gets clogged, your plunger is not fixing it, and your water level inside of the toilet appears low, you can sometimes fix the problem by dumping warm water into your toilet at waist level (or maybe even a little higher). Once the water level gets low again, repeat the process.
Never put fat, grease, or oils into your drain. When they cool, they will harden and create clogs in your drains. This can make your garbage disposal run slower. Dispose of oils and fatty liquids in the trash.
Pour equal parts baking soda followed by vinegar down your bathtub drain once a month. This will cause the vigorous bubbling you may remember from the “volcano” in a grade school science project, so be sure to close the drain with a stopper. Pause a few minutes, and then follow the mixture with boiling water. Although this is useful for clearing away simple clogs made of hair and soap debris, it will not work for serious blockages.
Overflow Holes
It is important to clean your garbage disposal often to keep it functioning for many years. If your garbage disposal begins to emit a bad smell, run some dish detergent and citrus rinds through the cycle to make it smell fresher.
Be sure that the overflow holes don’t clog up. Overflow holes are used in case the sink starts to overfill, which may not seem like a big problem–until it is. Inspect and clean the overflow holes as part of your regular household maintenance.
Installing shower heads that are more effective can save you a lot on your energy head. Your shower consumes a majority of the hot water usage in your home. If you use energy efficient heads for your showers, you can save hundreds each year on your bills.
When replacing your shower head, spend the money on a high-quality model. Some people think it’s alright to get the cheapest head for your shower in the store. The problem with doing that is the cheaper shower heads are not known to be sturdy, and they tend to break easier.
Keep the drain in your bathtub working well by pouring one cup baking soda into the drain quickly followed by about a cup of white vinegar. Seal off the drain with a conventional plug or a piece of fabric while the natural chemical reaction takes place. Wait for a little while and then allow boiling water to go down the drain. Although this is useful for clearing away simple clogs made of hair and soap debris, it will not work for serious blockages.
The key towards maintaining low plumbing repair bills is prevention. One of the major repairs is clogs. Practically anything can get stuck in those drains and cause them to lock up, including hair, foreign objects and sediment. A drain cover or screen can be used to stop hair from going down the drain and into the pipes. It’s a lot easier to take hair out of a screen than to pull it from a pipe.
Frozen pipes are on of the most expensive plumbing problems. Thankfully, you can prevent your pipes from freezing. Pipes in crawlspaces or outside your home should be thoroughly insulated. Secondly, when the temperature begins to drop, you want to drain and disconnect the hoses, then make sure you turn the outside faucet off. You can avoid future plumbing repairs by doing this, and therefore, saving you a lot of money.
As was discussed at the beginning of the article, while plumbing can be an extremely difficult chore for anyone to complete, it becomes significantly easier if you have the right advice and information. Use the advice from this article, and you’ll be on your way to doing your own plumbing.
The best way to avoid plumbing bills is to prevent problems before they happen. Clogged drains are one of the more common issues when it comes to plumbing problems. Practically anything can get stuck in those drains and cause them to lock up, including hair, foreign objects and sediment. To keep hair out of your plumbing, use a screen or cover for your drains that allows water through but keeps hair out. Taking the hair off of the screen and disposing of it is cheaper and easier than removing it from the pipes.