My Best Plumbing Maintenance Tips

All home owners would like to avoid costly plumbing repairs in the future. While plumbing repairs or replacements may be inevitable over time, we can at least delay them by performing plumbing maintenance tasks.

To help you keep your home’s plumbing in tip-top shape for as long as possible, here are my best plumbing maintenance tips that basically cover essential aspects of your plumbing system.

Toilet Maintenance

You should check your toilet for leaks on a regular basis. To do this, put some red food coloring to the water in the tank and leave it there for a few minutes. When the water in the bowl turns red by the time you come back, then you can be sure the tank in your toilet is leaking. As hundreds of gallons of water could be wasted this way, you need to repair or replace tank internals the soonest possible time. And if you’re really serious about conserving water, trade-in your 13-liter per flush toilet and replace it with a low flush model such as dual flush toilets which could cut up to 67% of water usage in most homes.

Maintaining your Faucets and Sinks

As with toilets, you should always regularly check your faucets and sinks for any signs of a leak. If your faucet is dripping even when it’s supposed to be shut off, then your faucet’s washer may already need to be replaced. If the problem persists even when you have replaced the washer, then it’s probably the faucet that needs replacing. To prevent damage to the pipes and fixtures, check under the sink for signs of any leak or moisture. Whatever problems you detect, I recommend that you take care of them straight away.

Your faucet aerators ensure an even flow of water. To keep things that way, you have to remove and clean all faucet aerators throughout your house at least once a year. To prevent any flooding, the overflow holes on your sinks and tubs must be clear and open all the time, and it’s your job to check them on a regular basis.

Preventing Clogged Drains and dealing with them

One simple way of preventing clogged drains is by being careful about what you stuff into them. Fats and oils, for instance, are always poured down drains by many homeowners, and that is one of the biggest mistakes you could make. Grease, after all, solidifies in the often cold pipes, and when they do, they create clogs that could cause a lot of problems for you later on.

Another great way of preventing clogged drains is by installing strainers on all your drains so that hair and other stuff won’t make it down the drain and cause clogs.

If you do experience a clogged drain for one reason or another, I don’t recommend using any of those commercially available chemical drain cleaners. They could be harmful on so many levels. To clear clogged drains, a drain auger, also known as a snake, is the best DIY option you have.

Maintaining Water Heaters

For the average homeowner, the best way of maintaining water heaters would be to drain and flush them annually to remove any sediment buildup that could cause your water heater to not function as efficiently as it’s supposed to. To make sure that the flue in your gas water heater burner isn’t clogged, check if the flame under the heater is blue and not yellow. If the flue appears to be clogged, I recommend that you call a qualified water heater technician because clogged flues could prove to be dangerous. While we’re on the subject of technicians, it is essential that you have your water heater checked once every two years as part of your maintaining water heaters routine to make sure that it is running efficiently and safely.

Should the time come when you are going to need qualified personnel to do plumbing checks, repair and replacements for you, just give us a call. At Beez Neez Plumbing, we have a roster of plumbing professionals who have the skills, experience, and tools necessary to perform any plumbing task you may require.