Plumbing is a crucial aspect of any home’s functioning. When something goes wrong with the plumbing in your home, you may want to bring in a plumber, but it just may not be in the budget. The following tips will make it easy to take good care of your plumbing.
To keep your pipes from getting frozen, always maintain a temperature in the house above freezing and make sure all pipes exposed to outside elements are insulated properly. The pipes may freeze if the surrounding temperature drops below freezing. It can take a while for the pipes to thaw, which means you will not be able to run water for quite some time. However, they could burst, which would cause a huge mess and an extremely big repair bill.
You can unclog a toilet by pouring warm water in the bowl from waist level. If one attempt doesn’t solve the problem, you can do it again once the water level stabilizes.
Every so often, inspect the floor around your toilet and see if it has gone soft. 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. This will save you a lot of trouble and money if you find the issue before something horrible happens.
If your home has well water and you start seeing orange or pink stains, that is from iron in your water supply. This is something that needs to be taken care of by water softener, which you can buy at a store, or have a company come out to your house and take care of it for you.
In order to ensure that your garbage disposal will last for as long as your home, keep it clean on a regular basis. By regularly incorporating a routine using a combination of dish soap, lemon rinds, and even cherry pits, you can keep your disposal running smoothly and smelling as fresh as the day it was installed.
A great maintenance routine for bathtub drains is to pour baking soda and vinegar into the drain opening once a month. Cover the drain with an old rag, because there will be a chemical reaction taking place inside the pipes. Wait a while, and then use boiling water to flush. Doing this will help rid your pipes of disgusting soap scum and blockages.
Garbage Disposal
You should always put plenty of cold water through your garbage disposal while it is running. Cold water helps to maintain the sharpness of the blades and makes the disposal run more smoothly. Don’t use hot water while running the garbage disposal. Hot water converts the grease in your trash to liquid form. When the liquified grease goes down the drain, it clogs the pipes.
If there is unwanted water draining into the dishwasher, it is most likely because of the hose to the kitchen sink being installed improperly. The hose connecting the kitchen sink and the dishwasher has to go up and then down in order for the water of both locations to not mix.
Trash should go in the trash basket, not the toilet. Use the toilet for what it is designed for, and it won’t give you a lot of problems. You should never flush cotton balls, sanitary pads, tissues, paper towels, diapers, or certain other materials, because these things don’t dissolve and could clog up your toilet. Also, be conservative in your use of toilet paper.
If you have pipes that are clogged, try a cleaner that is enzyme based. Enzyme based cleaners work by using natural bacteria that turns the sludge clogged in your pipes into a liquid, allowing it to flow down the drain with ease. The best options on the market now are enzyme cleaners.
An expensive plumbing issue to pay for repairs is when your pipes freeze. This problem is easily avoided. The first step is to check your outside pipes and ensure they are well 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. If you do this, it will help you to save on repair bills.
Make sure your toilet is not leaking. An easy way to determine this is to add a couple drops of food coloring into the toilet tank. If you then see colored water in the toilet bowl shortly after, you know a problem exists that needs tended to.
If you need to repair your home plumbing, you have a lot of options as to what to do. Using these tips can save you a lot of money and damage to your house, and can prevent needless calls to the plumber.