Protect Your Plumbing in Five Easy Steps

Like many problems in life, plumbing disasters usually happen because of neglect.

Most homeowners don’t think about their pipes until they’ve got a clogged drain or a chronic leak. Here are five easy, inexpensive ways to prevent your home’s plumbing from causing a predicament.

1.  Treat your drains once a month to prevent clogs, whether they seem to need it or not. But stay away from harsh, chemical drain cleaners. I like a natural, non-poisonous product called Bio-Clean, which uses a blend of bacteria and enzymes to attack organic wastes like grease, hair, food particles and sewage. You can use it on drains, grease traps, sump pumps and garbage disposals. Regular use will prevent clogging throughout your plumbing and septic system. Dilute the product with warm water according to package directions.
2. Be kind to your kitchen sink. Its drain is the busiest one in the house, so it can cause the most problems. If you don’t have a garbage disposal, be fastidious about keeping out food scraps and grease, which can emulsify once you turn on the cold water, and build up in layers in your pipes until they’re blocked. If you have a garbage disposal, run plenty of cold water every time you turn it on. If it chops up waste without water, particles will not flush through and you can wind up with a clogged drain.
3. Don’t flush anything down the toilet except for toilet paper. That includes facial tissue, Q-tips and even products labeled “flushable.” A tip: Switch from two-ply to single-ply toilet paper. The less you flush, the fewer visits you’ll need from the plumber. Your old toilet, which flushed five to seven gallons of water every time you used it, could handle more debris. Newer, low-flush models use only 1.6 gallons per flush, and are more easily clogged with paper and “flushable” cleaning products. 

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For answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com

Four DIY Plumbing Jobs

It’s 4 p.m. Saturday and you’re cooking dinner for a big crowd, and suddenly the kitchen sink backs up. Who do you call? Or can you fix it yourself before guests arrive?  Believe it or not, before you call a plumber, you can attempt this job yourself and probably succeed.

In fact there are several plumbing jobs around the house that you can take on, if you’re patient and careful and have the right equipment. Of course, many of our readers may find the following jobs pretty basic. But if you’re a new homeowner, you might want to read further:

1 – Unclog a Drain in a Kitchen Sink, Toilet, or Bathtub –

Unclogging that sink is really the most important repair of all because you don’t want to wash dinner dishes in the bathtub. With a double sink, start by putting a stopper in one of the drain holes, probably the one where there is no standing water; then go down through the water to put a bathroom plunger on top of the other drain hole and pump up and down. This back-and-forth pressure will eventually build up enough force to dislodge the clog. With a single basin sink (this will work in a bathtub or lavatory sink), plug the overflow holes with wet cloths, put a little water into the sink and do the same pumping action with a plunger. Plumbers tell us that sometimes the pipes under the sink can become disconnected when you do this, so keep an eye on them while you’re working to free the clog.

When you’re using a plunger in a clogged toilet, try to create suction by sealing the bell-shaped rubber end around the opening at the bottom of the bowl. If you need a new plunger, buy one with an extension flange on the rubber end.

Preventive advice: In the kitchen don’t put grease, onion skins or potato peelings down the garbage disposal and especially not all three at the same time. And always run water through the garbage disposal while it’s grinding away to flush debris down the drain.

Don’t throw anything in the toilet that doesn’t belong there. You might want to buy a toilet auger, a long snakelike device to use in case a plunger isn’t enough.


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For answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com

What kind of maintenance should I do on my plumbing?

Like many problems in life, plumbing disasters usually happen because of neglect.

Most homeowners don’t think about their pipes until they’ve got a clogged drain or a chronic leak. Here are five easy, inexpensive ways to prevent your home’s plumbing from causing a predicament.

1.  Treat your drains once a month to prevent clogs, whether they seem to need it or not. But stay away from harsh, chemical drain cleaners. I like a natural, non-poisonous product called Bio-Clean, which uses a blend of bacteria and enzymes to attack organic wastes like grease, hair, food particles and sewage. You can use it on drains, grease traps, sump pumps and garbage disposals. Regular use will prevent buildup throughout your plumbing and septic system. Dilute the product with warm water according to package directions.
2. Be kind to your kitchen sink. Its drain is the busiest one in the house, so it can cause the most problems. If you don’t have a garbage disposal, be fastidious about keeping out food scraps and grease, which can emulsify once you turn on the cold water, and build up in layers in your pipes until they’re blocked. If you have a garbage disposal, run plenty of cold water every time you turn it on. If it chops up waste without water, particles will not flush through and you can wind up with a clogged drain.

Read more...

For more information and for answers to all YOUR Landscape, Garden and Home Improvement questions, visit our website, Rosieonthehouse.com