Taking the time to learn the skills necessary to complete a few plumbing tasks can be extremely rewarding. It reflects a level of care in the maintenance of your home and the ability to address concerns in your own way. Those are admirable traits. Like anything else you can always increase your knowledge on the subject. Below you will see some helpful tips.
If your toilet is slow to flush add some white vinegar to the overflow tube. White vinegar helps the water from your tank to flow quickly which will make the toilet flush faster. It is recommended that you use about a quart of the vinegar and let it stay there for at least an hour before flushing.
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.
Its a bad idea to makes use of toilet tablets composed of bleach or in the color blue or in fact any one designed to remove odors. These products will reduce the smell but they will also cause problems with the rubber gaskets. Over time the damage will accumulate and could eventually stop the toilet from functioning at all.
Whenever you have plumbing work that needs to be done you should schedule all problems at one time. This allows you to save up for necessary parts and equipment while saving money on hiring a professional. It is a lot more cost effective as you will only be paying for one call-out fee instead of multiple trips.
If you have bad water pressure in the shower the showerhead might be clogged. Take a plastic baggie fill it with regular vinegar and tie it to the showerhead so that the showerhead is covered. Leave it overnight. In the morning take the baggie off and use a small toothbrush to scrub away any mineral deposits.
If you have noisy pipes you can cushion them with a rubber blanket or add additional anchor straps. Banging pipes are usually caused by loose pipes water hammering to a stop as you turn it off or hot water pipes shifting in their position. All of these problems can be solved by cushioning and anchoring the pipes.
If your sewer is backed up there are things you can do to troubleshoot and clean including renting equipment like a main line cable. However often times this does not fully take care of the problem. A professional needs to assess the issue then using a camera method and thoroughly cleaning the main line.
Try to limit the amount of hair that goes down your drains. Hair can become tangled up in the pipe and end up blocking up the them preventing water from flowing smoothly. Buy a cheap screened drain cover to put over your drain to stop any hair from going down and clean it off regularly.
If you dont want to spend a lot on repairing plumbing problems learn to prevent problems before they occur. Clogs are a big problem with plumbing and they are quite common. Drains are easily clogged by hair. Avoid this by using a drain cover or screen that keeps hair and other particles from clogging your pipes. Taking the hair off of the screen and disposing of it is cheaper and easier than removing it from the pipes.
When chilly weather approaches it is time to disconnect your water hoses from your outside faucets. If you forget to do this water in the hoses can freeze and expand. This can cause the faucets and the connecting pipes inside your house to freeze and break. By simply rolling up your garden hoses and storing them for the winter you can help prevent costly plumbing repairs.
Using a snake tool to remove blockages is very easy. Just insert the tool a few inches into the drain and then turn the handle to change the direction of the snake head and search for blockages. Continue moving down slowly and searching until you find the cause of your blockage.
When leaving on vacation or leaving your vacation home be sure to turn off the main water before you leave. If something happens while you are gone you can cause some serious damage from a flooded basement or a broken pipe in the wall that leaks for weeks until you return.
To be successful in any plumbing project make sure you turn the water off before you start unscrewing pipes. This tip might actually sound insulting but you are probably getting caught up in having the right tools and parts and being dressed right. Double check that there is not a splash waiting for you. Then triple and quadruple check.
Check for leaks behind the wall tile in your bathroom especially any tile surrounding your bathtub by gently pressing each tile and feeling for some give. If you find any mushy or soft spots you will need to find the source of the leak and repair it to prevent further damage.
Governmental regulations sometimes prevent plumbers from actively providing maintenance to copper piping. If you have a calcium buildup in your copper piping you are going to need to take care of this yourself. You have to get rid of all the water and add vinegar which eats away the calcium buildup out of copper pipes.
When it comes to plumbing an ounce of prevention is the best thing to prevent things from going haywire. In order to prevent clogging avoid doing things that would clog drains. Do not pour oil down the kitchen sink and install hair catching filters in all your bath tubs. This will prevent a lot of unnecessary clogs.
As tempting as it may be to try and save on the heating bill keep your furnace set no lower than 55 degrees over the winter to prevent inside pipes from freezing. If you have pipes located in an excessively cold basement consider running a space heater in the basement but only when it can be checked on frequently.
Kitchen and bathroom plumbing is often located on exterior walls and freezes more easily than interior wall plumbing. Keep your furnace at a safe temperature throughout the winter and open cabinet doors in bathroom vanities and beneath kitchen sinks to expose the pipes to warmer room air to prevent freezing.
Now that youve read this article I hope that plumbing doesnt seem as daunting to you! Just like other aspects of life there is much to learn about plumbing. Sometimes you need little more than a nudge in the right direction before you can address the problem fully. Hopefully the tips above have given that to you.