5 Life-Saving Plumbing Tips

Protecting your plumbing at home is one of the vital things any homeowner must learn. Of course, we all know that plumbing professionals are the right people to ask for help from when dealing with problems relevant to our home’s plumbing system because they have the tools, skills, and experience necessary for fixing all kinds of plumbing issues such as leaks, clogs, and frozen or burst pipes among others.

However, even though plumbing professionals exist, homeowners still need to possess at least basic knowledge in terms of troubleshooting whatever plumbing malfunctions or defects at home. The advantage of knowing how to keep your plumbing in shape without relying much on professional plumbers is saving finances. Instead of hiring a plumbing company, which usually demands as much as $200 for services, you can keep your budget if you know a few life-saving tips to maintain the good quality of your home’s plumbing system.

Useful Tips to Plumbing Maintenance

Learning some basic plumbing tips can definitely go a long way. First, you can avoid unnecessary expenses and you will be able to conveniently accomplish your plumbing projects. If you want a less-stressful home environment and prevent major damages to your plumbing to occur, you must practice the following ways:

It’s funny but the truth is that a lot of homeowners are actually oblivious of their main water valve. Many homeowners do not even know where their main water valve is installed in the house. This should not be the case. To save your home from major plumbing catastrophes and irreparable damages in the future, you must know where to find your household’s main water valve so that you won’t have difficulties locating and turning it off if problems like burst pipes, major leaks, and/or flooding occur.

Early detection of leaks will help you avoid serious plumbing problems. To spot early signs of leaks in your toilet, you should spare time to examine your flush valve seal. The first thing to do is employ a simple but effective tactic to verify if your toilet is leaking–the food coloring technique. First, you need to pour a few drops of food coloring into your toilet tank. Wait for a few hours and then find out if the colored water in the tank somehow makes its way into the toilet bowl. If this is the case, then the flush valve is leaking. 

One of the things you also need to pay attention to at home is your pipes. Always make sure to prevent having frozen pipes. That is why during the colder months, you must alleviate water pressure from your piping system by keeping your taps dripping. If there is a constant flow of water through the pipes, it is less likely that they get frozen. Another way to prevent frozen pipes is to open your cabinet doors, particularly the ones in the kitchen and bathroom, so that warm air circulates inside the household. You may also use a fan, a portable heater, or a blow dryer to send forth warm air to your pipeline. Moreover, you should maintain a temperature of at least 55 degrees within your household. Next, properly insulate your pipes by wrapping them with newspapers, towels, blankets, or towels or with insulating tape and foam sleeves. Most of all, cover or seal any cracks or openings to block cold air from entering your home.

Educate your household members to always be mindful of what they throw down your toilets and drains if you want to protect your plumbing system. It is important for people to understand that drains and toilets should not be treated like garbage bins. Thus, one should never dump just anything down the sink or toilet, especially nasty debris like grease, baby wipes, food leftovers, plastic wrappers,  fruit/vegetable peelings, hair, and other household objects. To prevent clogged drains, install a basket strainer on your shower drain or kitchen drain so that whatever residues there are can be collected.

Teflon tapes, also called plumber’s tapes, are classified into two–the yellow tape (used for gasoline connections) and white tape (used for ordinary plumbing tasks). Teflon tapes are especially important to have at home. You can wrap the tape around pipe threads when sealing leaking joints and fittings.

These five plumbing tips are easy to do and any homeowner can surely learn them. If you know these techniques, your life will be easier at home and you will be spared of future troubles involving your plumbing system.