Tag Archives: Plumbing

Get The Plumbing That You Are Looking For (4)

October 23, 2022   Matt

Get The Plumbing That You Are Looking For

If you’ve ever hired a professional plumber for something simple, you know how expensive and annoying the experience can be. If you’d like to save a little cash by learning how to solve your own plumbing problems, read on. This article will give you the knowledge you need for your own plumbing repair.

If you need to drill holes in your walls or ceilings, start with a hole big enough to fit your hand through it. Take a picture of the inside with a camera or a cell phone. Make sure you activate the flash function and take several pictures in different directions.

If your water bills are unusually high, check for undetected or underground water leaks. Turn off the water in your house and check the meter. If it is moving, there is a good chance that you have an underground leak. To check for indoor leaks, write down the meter number in the morning before you leave for the day, and check it when you return. If the number has changed, you have an undetected leak inside the house. Armed with this information, you can try to tackle the problem yourself, or it could be time to call in the professionals.

If you have minor ceiling stains from plumbing water damage that has been repaired, you might not have to repaint the entire ceiling. Try taking a solution of bleach and water and dabbing the area with a sponge to lighten them. Make sure you protect your hands and eyes when working over your head.

If one of your pipes is leaking, you can fix it easily. Drain the water from the pipe by shutting off your main valve and open the closest faucets to drain the remaining water. Clean up the pipe from corrosion with sand paper and apply soldering flux. Heat the pipe with a torch and apply new solder. Repeat until the leak stops.

If you are considering a plumbing project due to having what appears to be pink or red water have your water tested first. This coloration is likely due to having rust in your water, which an average plumbing project is unlikely to fix. The rust is likely coming from your well and installing a water softener there is the best remedy to the problem.

When searching for a good plumber you should always check references. It is easy to just go with the lowest price, but you have to do your research and make sure the plumber has a good reputation with the people they have done work for in the past so you do not get a bad plumber.

Avoid over-tightening water faucet handles. Use only enough pressure to stop the water from flowing and dripping from the faucet. Anything else is overkill and will quickly wear out the gaskets and washers inside those handles and cause leaking or the inability to stop the water from coming out of the faucet.

As you can see, hiring a professional plumber is usually an unnecessary and expensive thing to do, compared to fixing the problem yourself. Next time your plumbing needs repair, try pulling up this article and trying to solve it yourself. You may be surprised how easy it is to do!

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Hot Tips To Fix Tough Plumbing Problems (4)

October 18, 2022   Matt

Hot Tips To Fix Tough Plumbing Problems

Over time, plumbing in our homes is bound to fail. You can call a plumber to fix this, or you can try your hand at doing your own plumbing. Doing your own plumbing jobs is not always easy. The following article will contain helpful advice for anyone who wishes to do their own plumbing.

A great way to save a few dollars is to add insulation to your hot water heater. Much of the energy required to heat the water in your home is the expense from keeping the water in the tank hot for when it is needed. Adding an extra layer of insulation can help reduce this cost.

If you have minor ceiling stains from plumbing water damage that has been repaired, you might not have to repaint the entire ceiling. Try taking a solution of bleach and water and dabbing the area with a sponge to lighten them. Make sure you protect your hands and eyes when working over your head.

In order to ensure that your toilet works smoothly, make sure the chain connected to the handle is of the proper length. If the chain is too short, you will likely have a leak between the tank and the basin, and if the chain is too long, you run the risk of it catching in the flapper.

If your toilet is constantly developing moisture on the outside, you may want to consider turning up the heat in your bathroom. The biggest cause of “sweaty” toilets is cool and moist air. Believe it or not, this moisture could actually cause damage to your toilet, so it is crucial that you fix the problem.

Sometimes kitchen sinks can be clogged up due to a slow accumulation of solidified grease. One quick fix for this is to try pouring very hot grease down the sink, which will liquefy the grease clogging the drain and carry it down. Water won’t work, because grease will not dissolve in water.

If you are seeing areas in your ceiling or walls that appear to have water damage or are sagging, make sure you turn off the power before inspecting. Electricity and water do not mix. The last thing you need is to go into the attic and get shocked by a pool of water.

Be sure to have a running toilet fixed as soon as you can. Having a running toilet uses more water, which raises your water bill. To fix it yourself, you just have to find out what the problem is and buy the supplies you need. If you can’t fix it yourself, call a plumber.

If you are not able to shut off a main valve to your home before you leave for vacation, shut off the individual valves under the sinks and behind the toilets. Be sure that the valves are in good working order before you make the mistake of turning one that is ready to be broken at any time.

In conclusion, plumbing is bound to fail over time. There are two solutions: call a plumber to fix it or attempt to fix it yourself. Doing the job by yourself can sometimes be hard, but if you remember the helpful advice from the article above, you can do the task.

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Need Plumbing Help? Use This Great Info! (3)

October 13, 2022   Matt

Need Plumbing Help? Use This Great Info!

If you’ve ever hired a professional plumber for something simple, you know how expensive and annoying the experience can be. If you’d like to save a little cash by learning how to solve your own plumbing problems, read on. This article will give you the knowledge you need for your own plumbing repair.

Do you have a frozen drainpipe? You can use a garden hose to thaw it out. First of all, remove the trap from the drainpipe and insert the hose until it will not go any further. While lifting up the other end of the hose, pour hot water down it. Keep pouring hot water down the hose until the drainpipe thaws. To save time with cleanup, keep a bucket underneath to catch the water that overflows.

It’s important to know how to turn off the water in your home in case the worst happens. For example, if your bathroom sink started leaking, do you know how to stop it? Walk around your home and find all the shut-off valves for each set of pipes and write them down. Create a map so you can always have a reference if necessary.

Do a routine check around your house each month on each and every faucet to make sure there are no signs of leaks or drips. Over time, leaks can add a lot of money to your water bill and will worsen if you do not take care of the problem.

To make sure there is no accident or sudden rush of water when you tackle a plumbing project, make sure you are ready for a cleanup. If you go into the work with a huge stack of towels and blankets ready to absorb water, the prospect of needing to actually do it will keep you alert enough to avoid triggering the accident in the first place.

When dealing with a plumbing issue that is outside the home, understand that all of it is not yours to repair. The city is responsible for part of this plumbing so don’t do repairs on it unless it is yours. If the work is done improperly, you can be held liable for any damages.

You always want to solder correctly, the biggest mistake most people make when soldering is failing to get the interior of the fitting and the exterior of the pipe clean and shiny. Polish these surfaces with a fine emery clot until bright. When soldering, never heat the pipe, but instead heat the fitting. Doing so allows the solder to be drawn into the fitting by capillary action.

Always try plunging any clogged toilet or drain before snaking. Snaking can often push problems further down the pipe and make matters worse. A plunger uses nothing but your strength and water pressure to help clear clogs. For more effective plunging, boil some water and pour into the affected drain or toilet to help loosen things up before plunging.

As you can see, hiring a professional plumber is usually an unnecessary and expensive thing to do, compared to fixing the problem yourself. Next time your plumbing needs repair, try pulling up this article and trying to solve it yourself. You may be surprised how easy it is to do!

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What You Should Do If You’re In Need Of Plumbing (3)

October 10, 2022   Matt

What You Should Do If You’re In Need Of Plumbing

This is the best place for plumbing tips. You could look far and wide but you will not find tips as well written and clear as what you will find here. Use this article today if you want to know all that you should know about plumbing and your home.

Make sure overflow holes are cleaned out. This can help to prevent any water damage. Overflow holes are a way to stop water from overflowing if a sink is left on by accident. If the overflow hole is clogged it will not be able to do its job.

Don’t overlook the hair dryer trick for frozen pipes. If you have external pipes that are exposed, a simple hair dryer will get them back into working order. Make sure that you do not attempt it if there is pooling water in the area. Space heaters are useful for frozen pipes that are in the walls.

To avoid sediment buildup, drain gallons of water from your water heater to flush any corrosion. This will help your heater to run more efficiently therefore saving you regular energy costs. Make sure to read your heater’s instructions before attempting this, and do this periodically to make sure that your heater is running as well as it can.

Be sure that you shut off your drain lines and outside faucets when the weather gets colder. Cold weather, snow, and ice can cause these lines to freeze up, which can cause damage to them. If you can, try to have these shut off before the first frost of the year.

Make sure that the temperature of your home’s water heater is not above 120F. On older water heaters, be sure it is not above medium settings. When temperatures get higher than 120, scalding can occur. Also, having the settings above 120F, tends to use more energy than lower temperatures do.

If you have drains in your house that have not been used for a long period of time, pour one gallon of water through them to keep them functional. Furthermore, this will have the added benefit of reducing any odors from entering your house from lack of use during the year.

Avoid using harsh chemicals to clear clogged drains by purchasing a hand-held manual auger. A drain auger is a one-time purchase as opposed to purchasing a new bottle every time a drain is clogged. This is especially helpful for people who deal with clogged drains often, such as people with long hair or kids who like to drop things down the drain.

One of the things that you can do to maximize the security of your home is to seal all of the cracks in your outdoor faucets. Even a tiny crack can intensify as the season progresses and lead to serious problems down the road. Reduce drips and leaks for optimal protection.

In conclusion, plumbing is a skill that you should know about – plain and simple. It is something that you will always be able to use and you may be able to save yourself a lot of money and frustration in the future. Hopefully this article was beneficial to you.

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Tips On How To Handle Any Plumbing Situation

October 08, 2022   Matt

Tips On How To Handle Any Plumbing Situation

Ready to begin with your own plumbing jobs? Do you know where to start or how to begin? Do you know what equipment and techniques will work for your next task? Well, the tips that are listed below may be the very ones that you need.

Make sure everyone that lives in your house knows where to find and use the main water shut off valve in case there is a burst pipe emergency. This is especially important if you live in an area where your pipes may freeze. Take a moment to show your family members where the valve is and how to properly shut it off.

Don’t shrug off that trickle coming from your toilet as a small problem. Even the tiniest leak can be quite expensive in the long run as you end up wasting potentially hundreds of gallons of water. See if you can find the root of the leak, or seek out professional advice, and keep your toilet running efficiently.

Before starting a plumbing project be sure to know your pipes. Each pipe has a different use and every municipality has different codes for what pipes can be used for. Making a mistake in this area can be very costly, if you are forced to remove all the pipes from the work you have just completed.

If you are losing water through the fill valve and into the basin of your toilet, check to see if the problem is the valve itself or if it is just the result of the tank ball being improperly adjusted. Both issues are easy to fix, and finding and fixing it yourself will save you both money and headaches down the road.

If you have issues with the plumbing making a hammering sound when you turn it off, check your water pressure. Any time your water pressure is above 80 PSI, you will hear extra water noise. This can be easily solved by the installation of a pressure-reducing valve, which can be done by most homeowners.

If your plumbing is making strange noises you may have lost something called your “air cushion”. To turn this back on, you’re going to need to turn off your main water supply. Run all faucets in your house and then turn back on your main water supply. This should make everything sound better again.

When you are working with plumbing, you also need to have some basic skills in other areas. This is especially true of electrical problems, as the two systems often overlap. This doesn’t mean that you need to solve the problems, but that you understand what the problems could be.

If you are the kind of person who travels a great deal, then remember that different countries may have very different kinds of plumbing systems available. If you are not sure of how things work in the region where you experience problems, then you should either do research or avoid fixing the problem yourself.

Fair enough, you’re not going to become an expert overnight – but there are surely one or two pieces of advice here that you can use. Every job that you do yourself is one less job that you have to pay someone else to do!

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Plumbing Information That Can Save You Money! (4)

October 05, 2022   Matt

Plumbing Information That Can Save You Money!

Doing your own plumbing repairs can have many benefits. You can save money by not having to call a plumber and pay for their labor. You can also gain a sense of accomplishment by learning new skills and completing tasks yourself.In this article you will find a few ideas that you could find to be very handy.

Look at your hot water heater and make sure that the temperature is not higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is, it could cause you to get burned or it could reduce the unit’s energy consumption. If you determine that the temperature is too high, adjust immediately to avoid any of these things from happening.

Do not ignore a slow flushing toilet. This is usually a sign that something is wrong. It can also cause backups and overflows. The most common causes of a slow flushing toilet are sediment build up, tank malfunctions, or partial clogs. You should periodically check for these problems.

If the hot water heater in your house is over ten years old, you should look at replacing it. Hot water heaters are very susceptible to corrosion on the bottom. This can lead to leaking and flooding whatever room it is in. Then not only will you have to replace it, but you’ll have to fix any damage caused by the leak.

You need to winter-proof your house. You have to make sure you switch of the master circuit breaker or the shut-off valve before you leave your house. Since one small hole or congested water can quickly freeze and cause pipes to break and expand, you need to drain and open all outdoor and household water lines.

To avoid plumbing disasters in your kitchen, never place hard-to-grind, stringy, fibrous waste, such as poultry skins, banana peels, carrots, celery, or cantaloupe pulp, into the garbage disposer. The disposer can’t sufficiently grind these food products and they will clog your sink drain. You should also run cold water down the drain for about 15 seconds before and after using the garbage disposer to flush the waste down the main drain.

If you absolutely need to contact a plumber, be careful with the professional that you pick. Like mechanics, plumbers are experts in their particular field, and they may try to convince you to do a job or service that is completely unnecessary given your problem. Try to find one who has gotten good reviews, especially when it comes to honesty.

If you need to get a new toilet, be sure you go with a trustworthy brand. Cheap toilets are more likely to break down easily and you will end up having to buy a new one. If you are unsure of which brands are good, ask the salesperson in a home improvement store.

There is no doubt that many of the common maintenance and repair jobs that need doing on your plumbing are things that you are well capable of. You just need to adopt a cautious and methodical approach. Don’t rush anything or take chances and you’ll be fine. And, if you’re a husband, you can score major brownie points with your wife!

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