When considering your home’s plumbing, there is a long list of potential issues that can crop up. While some things require little knowledge or effort to repair, others may seem impossible. Whatever your particular situation, you need to be educated about plumbing so you will know if you need to call a plumber, or if you can fix it yourself.
If your toilet’s water level is low, the toilet is clogged up, and using a plunger isn’t resolving the issue, hold a bucket filled with warm water at about your waistline, and pour it into your toilet. Once the water level is low again, you may repeated this procedure.
Frequently inspect the floors around toilets for softness; this can tell you whether or not the floors are damaged. Sit reversed on the toilet (facing the tank) with your feet on the floor. Rock your weight onto each foot in turn and see if you can feel any weakness or “give” in the floor. You could save money if you notice these problems early.
Do not pour grease or other oils in your sink or down your drain. When they cool off, they become hard and will clog your pipes. Oils are especially damaging to garbage disposals. The best thing to do is to dispose of oil-based liquids away from your sinks.
Keep the drains in your bathtub working properly by pouring a cup’s worth of baking soda and than a cup’s worth of vinegar directly down your drain every 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. After a few minutes,just flush the drain out with water that has reached a boiling point. This procedure should be able to clear pipes of hair and soap scum.
Ensure that the overflow holes in your sinks are not clogged. You may not even notice the overflow holes on your sink, but if you have a major water leak you will soon regret your apathy. When checking for potential problems and repairs, you should also remove obstructions from the overflow holes.
If you operate the disposal on your sink, run plenty of cool water. The cold water will help keep the blades nice and sharp and will allow for a much smoother disposal. Avoid using hot water, as this will liquefy grease, causing it to build up in the drain and obstruct your pipes.
Installing efficient shower heads could save you a lot of money when it comes to your energy bill. Showers and baths are responsible for the bulk of your hot water usage. When you invest in energy-efficient shower heads, you will save around $100 a year for every shower head.
As was stated in the beginning of this article, there are many different problems that can go wrong with your plumbing, from something so small to something big. The information provided in this article will help you to deal with these problems without stress.