Little Plumbing Tips For A New Home Owner

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Little Plumbing Tips For A New Home Owner Learn some tips that can help you best maintain and repair your own plumbing. You can figure out everything you need to not fall for unnecessary equipment and expenses and how to save money by doing it all yourself. It's not so scary once you know the basics of plumbing. Find a plumber that you can trust. Make sure to get referrals from friends and family so that you can prevent getting ripped off, which happens often. Also make sure not to pay the plumber before the work is completed. If you do that, there will not be an incentive to get the job completed in a timely manner. Act quickly if your pipes freeze! Shut off the water and open the faucet, enabling it to drain when it thaws. Starting with the faucet, and working your way to the iced-up area, aim a propane torch or hairdryer at the pipe - this will quickly defrost it. You could also wrap the pipe in a heating pad or aim a heat lamp at it, but this will take quite some time. A last resort is to wrap the pipe in rags and pour boiling water over it. Routinely check your appliance connections and faucets around the house for any kind of obvious leaks or nearby signs of moisture. Not only do even the smallest leaks lead to a large waste of water and money, they also can lead to damage to your home or even the development of harmful molds. Avoid using hard cleaners on your toilets, such as drop-in cleaner tabs in the tank. When these tabs are almost completely dissolved, what's left of the tab gets washed into the bowl. This can then end up clogging the toilet's port holes, preventing the toilet from flushing properly. It can take months for this debris to finish dissolving in those holes.

Transcript of Little Plumbing Tips For A New Home Owner

Page 1: Little Plumbing Tips For A New Home Owner

Little Plumbing Tips For A New Home Owner

Learn some tips that can help you best maintain and repair your own plumbing. You can figure outeverything you need to not fall for unnecessary equipment and expenses and how to save money bydoing it all yourself. It's not so scary once you know the basics of plumbing.

Find a plumber that you can trust. Make sure to get referrals from friends and family so that you canprevent getting ripped off, which happens often. Also make sure not to pay the plumber before thework is completed. If you do that, there will not be an incentive to get the job completed in a timelymanner.

Act quickly if your pipes freeze! Shut off the water and open the faucet, enabling it to drain when itthaws. Starting with the faucet, and working your way to the iced-up area, aim a propane torch orhairdryer at the pipe - this will quickly defrost it. You could also wrap the pipe in a heating pad oraim a heat lamp at it, but this will take quite some time. A last resort is to wrap the pipe in rags andpour boiling water over it.

Routinely check your appliance connections and faucets around the house for any kind of obviousleaks or nearby signs of moisture. Not only do even the smallest leaks lead to a large waste of waterand money, they also can lead to damage to your home or even the development of harmful molds.

Avoid using hard cleaners on your toilets, such as drop-in cleaner tabs in the tank. When these tabsare almost completely dissolved, what's left of the tab gets washed into the bowl. This can then endup clogging the toilet's port holes, preventing the toilet from flushing properly. It can take monthsfor this debris to finish dissolving in those holes.

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Do not pour grease or oil down any of your household drains. Put them in containers and place in thefridge until they are solid, then throw them away. If you pour them down the drain, they can solidifyin cold pipes. These solid masses will clog your pipes and are very difficult to remove.

Basic problems with toilets can be a quick fix for even the rawest amateur plumber and is worthattempting if you can take the time to research the problem. Seek out the necessary part or partsfrom your local hardware store and ask for support in how to properly install them.

Before embarking on a plumbing project, make sure that you're aware of where the shutoff valve forwater in your home is, as well as the valves for shutting off individual structures like sinks, toilets,etc. This way, if something goes wrong, you'll be able to stop the water flow.

Your water heater works more during the fall and winter so make sure that you eliminate allsediment buildup around this piece of equipment. Flushing this device can lead to increasedlongevity so that you do not face plumbing problems during the winter. This precaution will savetime, money and effort.

Check the plumbing in your home. If your home has the flexible gray polybutylene water pipes, youneed to have a plumber come out and assess their condition. These types of pipe are prone to failureand can lead to very costly repairs if they have a failure within your home.

When leaving on vacation or leaving your vacation home, be sure to turn off the main water beforeyou leave. If something happens while you are gone you can cause some serious damage from aflooded basement or a broken pipe in the wall that leaks for weeks until you return.

If you find that your pipes have frozen during thecold winter months open all the faucets in yourhome. This lowers the water pressure for whenthe pipes thaw and the water is freely flowingagain. Make sure to open all the faucets not justthose that are frequently used.

Choose drain cleaners wisely. Certain cleanershave strong chemical agents which will causedamage to the pipes. For this reason, it isessential that you choose one that is gentle onyour plumbing pipes. A plumbinghttp://www.homeadvisor.com/task.Water-Heater-Install-or-Replace.40114.html system needscertain bacteria to stay clean, and somechemicals could be harmful to these bacteria orto you.

Plumbing is one of those jobs that you should notdo your self. If it is something easy like a toiletrepair or changing out a faucet, go ahead andgive it a try. If it is a major repair, then you are

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better off hiring a contractor and it may be required to have a licensed plumbing contractor do thework for you.

If you are thinking about becoming a plumber yourself, then you should first try to start out as anapprentice. If you can find a good mentor then you will learn a great deal more from watching andassisting him than you possibly could learn by working on projects alone.

If you have an automatic sprinkler system, you want to consider getting a spring-loaded timer whichhot water heater coil replacement cost can be attached directly to your hose. This prevents yourlawn from getting too much water in case you forget to turn your system off. Getting too much watercould kill your grass and plants.

Keep an eye on the grout between tiles in your bathroom. Watch for cracks and areas where thegrout seems to be falling out, and repair them immediately. Small grout crack issues can be easilyrepaired by pulling out the bad and putting in new grout. Allow any new grout to dry completelybefore exposing it to water.

You should try using a plumbing snake or plumber to unclog a clog. Liquid cleaners that are meantto unclog the clogs in a drain could ruin the pipes. You should also use strainers to catch hair so thatit doesn't go down the drain and get clumped and clog your drain.

The best thing you can do if you smell a foul odor coming from your toilet is to call a plumber. Thereis a good chance that you may have a sewer backup. Not only can this cause pipe damage, butinhaling the smells from sewer backups is harmful to your help.

When you have a plumbing problem that comes up in your home, you do not necessarily have to paya plumber a lot of money to come out and fix it for you. The helpful points you learned in this articlewill enable you to care for basic plumbing maintenance and repairs around your home yourself.