When you are working on your plumbing, there is a lot that can go wrong. Sometimes a fix is easy, but sometimes it is not. No matter what the problem is, you need to be educated about plumbing so that you can fix your situation quickly. Here are some tips to help you learn more about plumbing.
Know your plumbing tools and exactly how to use them before you start on any plumbing repair. Read all the user manuals, and make use of the library and internet to learn all about projects you can do by yourself. Have a good grasp of what you’re attempting to do before you do it, so you don’t have to repair your repair.
Do not use harsh chemicals to clean or treat 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.
Keep a strainer over every drain in your house to prevent stray debris from clogging your pipes. Clean out the one in the kitchen whenever there’s something trapped there that shouldn’t be. Bathtub strainers need regular cleaning as well.
Avoid dumping oil, fat, and grease in your drain. These substances will clog the drain as they cool and harden. Your garbage disposal is particularly vulnerable to this issue, as the fat solids will slow the motion of the blades. This results in the disposal operating less efficiently. Pour the grease and oil into a can to cool, put it in the trash.
Baking Soda
Here is a good tip for a safe, inexpensive way to keep the drain in your bathtub trouble-free. Take one cup of baking soda and pour it into the drain. Then do the same with a cup of vinegar. Do this procedure once a month. Cover the drain with a plug or rag as you wait for the chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda to happen in your pipes. Wait for a little while and then allow boiling water to go down the drain. This method clears out soap scum buildup and accumulated hair that gets caught in the pipes.
Ensure overflow holes don’t have any debris in them. Overflows holes can be used in the event the sink overfills, which is a big problem if they are clogged. Make cleaning debris from the overflow holes part of your regular routine of maintaining your plumbing and checking it for problems and required repairs.
Having water leaking into the dishwasher, however annoying, is luckily an easy fix. The hose that runs from the kitchen sink to the dishwasher is not installed properly, and can be corrected quickly. You must have the hose going uphill and then down to get rid of the water in the dishwater.
The secret to low or even no repair bills from plumbing issues is prevention. A common serious repair is removing clogs in the drain. You can clog your drains with hair. This can be prevented by using a drain cover or screen to keep the hair from going down the drain. It’s a lot simpler to eliminate hair that is on a screen than eliminating it off a pipe.
If you have grout stuck in the line, it’s futile to try and clean it out yourself. You can try to break up the grout and send it further down. This works best with plastic pipes as opposed to metal. This is a tough problem, however, that very often requires professional intervention.
It is important not to run water while using a garbage disposal. While many people think that running water in conjunction with the disposal will cause it to work more efficiently, it simply isn’t true. In fact, it could cause garbage to stick to your disposal, which can create more damage.
You can use two different methods to remove clean out plugs. The first method involves a hammer and chisel to loosen the fitting. The only other option is to chisel right through the clean out plug.
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. By using the tips that have been provided to you in the above article, you will find that it does not have to be stressful when dealing with these problems.