Every Home Owner Should Know About Pipes

Having good working plumbing is an important to having a safe and healthy home. The tips will teach you some great ways in which you can easily handle issues with the plumbing in your plumbing.

Pump your septic tank every five years to keep it working well. Septic systems can back up when the septic tank builds up sediment. This can even result in the septic system failing altogether. Getting your septic tank drained occasionally may be expensive, but it’s dirt cheap compared to the cost of repairing a damaged septic system or the cleanup cost when raw sewage backs up into your home.

TIP! Toilet discs and odor removers should never be used in your toilet. It may help to get rid of your toilet’s odors, but it will damage any rubber parts, causing your toilet to malfunction, or even break down.

To eliminate the possibility of having frozen pipes, maintain a constant temperature in your home above freezing, and insulate external pipes. Pipes will freeze as soon as they are exposed to temperatures below freezing. It takes time to thaw so that you can have running water. However, your pipes can explode, leading to flooding and costly repairs.

If your water pipe freezes, turn on a nearby faucet so that thawed ice has a place to go. This helps to relieve the pressure in the pipe and may prevent bursting, which would reduce the damage done to your house.

If you aren’t having any luck using a plunger on a clogged toilet, you may want to try pouring warm water into it from waist high. Do this every time the water level gets too low.

Septic Tank

Have a professional flush your septic tank cleaned every five years or so to keep it working well. Although having a septic tank pumped costs money, it will cost a lot more having to clean sewage backup or having to fix or replace a septic tank.

Check for softness in your floor to determine flood damage. Straddle your toilet by rocking it from foot to foot to see if there’s any weakening or softness on the floor below you. It could potentially save money by discovering any problems before too much damage occurs.

TIP! Pour baking soda and vinegar down your bathtub drain every month. The combination will cause a chemical reaction, so just place a cloth or other object over the drain after pouring.

If your toilet happens to be clogged, there is a low level of water in toilet, you can pour a bucket of hot water down the toilet, you may fix the problem by dumping warm water from a bucket into your toilet from about waist level. Do this every time the water level dips back down again.

If you live in a home using well water and your bathtubs have stains pink and orange in color, this is most likely caused by an excess of iron in your water. You will need a water softener in order to take care of this problem, which you could purchase at a local store, or by hiring a professional to come out.

Run cold water in your sink when you turn on the garbage disposal. Blades will stay sharper with cold water, making disposal quicker. Hot water is not recommended because of what it does to greasy products.

TIP! Clean the lint trap in your dryer. This is a good idea for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is fire safety.

By regularly incorporating a routine using a combination of dish soap, lemon rinds, and even cherry pits, your disposal can be kept smelling fresh and running smoothly for many years to come.

Schedule all the plumbing work simultaneously. You might be tempted to call the plumber every time you need something fixed, but if you wait and hire the plumber for a single visit, you will have time to save money for the fixes. Most plumbers have an hourly fee that can be minimized if there is only one trip is cheaper than calling them more than once.

Frozen pipes can do very extensive and expensive damage. Fortunately, it is usually relatively easy to prevent your pipes from freezing. The first thing to do is make sure that all of the outside pipes are well insulated. And when the temperatures start dropping, you will want to drain your hoses and disconnect them, and then turn off all of the outside faucets. Making sure that all of this is done will have you a lot of money in plumbing bills.

TIP! If you want to add some water pressure to the shower or any spigot in the home, make sure you clean out the aerator. After removing the aerator, disassemble it, and use a small brush that’s been dipped in vinegar to clean it.

Pour baking soda and vinegar down your bathtub drain once a month. Plug the opening or cover it with a cloth while the chemical reaction to occur. After a few minutes, flush it out by running boiling water through the drain. This should open up the pipes of hair build-up and soap scum.

Energy Bill

Don’t run the water when the garbage disposal is used. Water will not make your garbage disposal run smoothly. Running water can help clear debris and keep the disposal’s temperature down, but it can also cause sticky materials to clog the disposal.

TIP! There are two ways to remove clean out plugs. One way is to make the fitting looser with a hammer and chisel.

Installing more efficient shower heads could save you a lot of money on your energy bill. Most households use a lot of hot water used in our showers. If you use energy efficient heads for your showers, you can potentially reduce your energy bill by $100 or more annually for every shower head used in your home.

Some people think it’s alright to get the cheapest version at the store. The disadvantage to doing so is that these models are not very sturdy and can break much easier.

It may be that you cannot control which plumber is sent to your house, though it is possible to read up on their qualifications. When your insurance company takes care of choosing a plumber for you, it is important to still look at their website, reviews and any customer comments they have. This will allow you to feel prepared when they come to your house.

TIP! Thoroughly check out a plumber’s skills, licensing and references before hiring them. Sometimes plumbers will not be very good at their job, and can even make problems worse than they are.

There are many methods that you can learn to fix plumbing. By utilizing these tips in your home, you can not only fix your plumbing in an emergency, but you can also cut costs by reducing the need for a professional plumber.