Aside from adding convenience to your quality of life, it’s a necessity to have consistent access to water for your health and hygiene, not to mention that saving water from leaks and faulty plumbing system can considerably cut utility expenses. Even if you’re planning to sell your home soon, you need to ensure that the plumbing system is properly maintained to avoid lowering the house’s price tag.
Never Pour Grease or Oil Down the Drain
Grease and oil are very resilient substances that can clog a drain pretty quickly. People are often tempted to pour grease down the drain because they think it will just flow outside the house’s plumbing system. The problem is that grease starts sticking to the piping’s materials, therefore clogging it in the process. It’s not noticeable at first, but you’ll soon be dealing with serious plumbing issues. If it’s clogged, try to opt for environmentally friendly ways to dissolve the grease. Always look for safer solutions for discarding grease/ oil, like waiting a bit for it to solidify then bag it up and throw it in the trash.
Draining the Heater
Water heaters’ maintenance is often overlooked by many people. Water contains a lot of minerals, and if it stays in your heater for a while, it starts creating sediment or precipitations on the heater walls. This will make the heater work extra hard to heat the water, costing you extra energy bills, not to mention that if the sediment gets out of control, the heater simply won’t work at all.
Don’t Forget the Drains
If you’re noticing that the sinks, tubs, or shower drains a bit slower than usual, that is your cue to give the drains a checkup. Clogged drains are very common and they’re easy to fix if you notice them early on. The best thing you can do about it if you lose a lot of hair in the shower is to use a special guard that catches any fallen hair.
It’s very important to properly use your sink and garbage disposal system as they are intended to be used. This means that you shouldn’t use them as a trash can and check the manufacturer’s manual to know what exactly it can handle. As a good rule of thumb, never put grease, oils, eggshells, rice, or fibrous food in the garbage disposal system. If you’re noticing soap buildup, get the pipes pressures-cleaned from time to time. Water softeners can also work magic on your pipes as they reduce the mineral sediment buildup in the pipes.
Water Pressure Maintenance
By using a water pressure gauge, you can find out how strong or weak your water pressure is. The gauge should be hooked with the faucet that you’re testing first while ensuring that all other faucets in the house are completely turned off. If it’s around 30 to 80 psi, your water pressure is good. Low water pressure can be annoying, from unsatisfying showers to unclean dishes. If the water pressure gets too high, it will damage fixtures and waste water in the process, costing you money in repairs and water bills. More often than not, leaks and mineral buildup are the main culprits for water pressure issues.
Know When to Call the Professionals
As important as it is to maintain your plumbing system by the following tips, knowing when to call your plumber is very important. There are a few problems that you should never attempt to resolve on your own. Deep drain cleaning and sewer cleaning, for example, are jobs that require the right equipment and expertise. Some locations are more susceptible to certain plumbing issues like Cerritos more than others. So you’d want to call your local Cerritos based plumbers to get the job done. Your plumber will give you a few tips and tricks to avoid such issues from happening in the future.
Flushing is for Only One Thing
The magical notion that toilets can flush anything is just nonsensical. If you begin treating your toilet as a disposal bin for anything you want to get rid of easily, it’s going to backfire and it will be a lot sooner than you’d expect. This includes hygiene products, pills, cotton balls, and stuff that may seem harmless to flush. Only toilet paper and bodily waste are to be flushed in the toilet, if you don’t want to clog it. Toilet clogs are quite annoying to deal with, not to mention that not a lot of people can stomach it anyway.
Plumbing systems can make or break the integrity of your home, yet they are often overlooked until a major crisis happens. A proper plumbing system enables you to always have a fresh supply of hot and cold water, in addition to maintaining a clean home.
