Living in a house may be one of the best thing to afford to yourself and your family, but there are also many things that you should know before you decide to undertake this step. Of course, it does not mean that you will successfully avoid all these things if you live in an apartment, but you will definitely have less things to think about and less to maintain. However, this should not break your spirit, as there are numerous maintenance tips and tricks, that you can even do yourself, without having to call professionals and spend money on it. Knowing that a plumbing system within a house is the most complex system and it seems that people mostly have issues with it, we bring you some of the plumbing tips and tricks you need to know. Hopefully, our list will help you make a difference between the issues that you can fix yourself and those that should definitely be fixed by a plumber. In this manner, you will get to save lots of your money and time, as you never know when you can find an available plumber that will immediately come and deal with presumably urgent issues. After reading this list, you will definitely learn a lot. Let us start.
- Think about plastic drain lines
Although you would normally think that metal drain lines under sinks are more reliable than plastic, you would be surprised to hear that plastic is better in every way. Besides being cheaper and easier to install, it is also much easier to adjust or tighten if a leak develops, not to mention that it won’t corrode.
Pixabay/Public Domain
- Loosen stuck pipes with heat
Yes, we all had issues with old connections and pipes that hardened over time, and it definitely happened to that the threaded connection simply won’t budge. In these cases, believe it or not, heat will do the trick, you just need to get the hot enough for a couple of minutes. Of course, this is only for water and waste pipes.
Pixabay/Public Domain
- Fixing a clog
There are many things that we immediately do when we realize that our pipes are clogged, such as running a drain snake or disassembling the trap, but there are definitely some other things worth trying, and maybe even less complicated. Next time, you can try yanking out a clog with a flexible-shaft pick-up tool or a Zip-It, but also with a wet/dry vacuum.
Pixabay/Public Domain
- Never overtighten supply lines
This is not a piece of advice to help you fix something, but something that you should definitely have in made for the sake of preventing additional issues. Believe it or not, this may be a bigger problem than undertightening, as it can wreck rubber seals and crack the threaded nuts.
Pixabay/Public Domain
- Don’t reuse supply lines
Anytime when we replace things such as faucets or toilets, we think how we could save some money by reusing old flexible supply lines, but that is actually the worst possible idea. This can provoke a catastrophic water damage, and it can cause a great disaster than can cost you a fortune.
Pixabay/Public Domain