Plumbing Mishaps to Avoid

Plumbing is something that many individuals take for granted until something goes wrong with it. When clogs or broken pipes occur, it can send the household inhabitants into a frenzy scrambling to take showers, wash dishes, flush the toilet and more. While mishaps sometimes occur in spite of being cautious, there are other times when negligence or carelessness is to blame. Here are some problems that can be avoided with a bit of care.

- Broken garbage disposal: One of the most common reasons for a garbage disposal to break down is by a chef peeling carrots or potatoes into it and attempting to grind up the veggie skins. These vegetable peelings are the perfect skinny sizes to become wedged into the mechanical gears, causing it to grind to a halt. Peeling potatoes and carrots into the trash bin will save your garbage disposal.

- Flushing the wrong items down the toilet: Toilets are meant to flush water, human waste products and scant amounts of tissue. Some heavy duty systems can handle certain types of feminine hygiene products but this will depend on the fixture. Anything else tossed and flushed is just asking for a clog or overflow. Q-tips, paper towels, diapers, napkins or massive wads of T.P. are all no-nos.

- Frozen pipes: Homes built in regions that freeze in the winter months need to take some extra precautions with the household plumbing pipes. Insulating them with foam rubber insulation tubes is one tactic that might work. Positioning them closer to the center of the house rather than against outside alls should help too. Using heat tape to keep the pipes warm when the temperatures drop can be advantageous.

- Inexperienced DIY installation: While many do-it-yourselfers can unclog a toilet or sink, installing new pipes or fixtures should be left to the professionals. When something is plumbed incorrectly, there will be no end to the headaches.

- Frozen hoses: During the winter months, gardeners need to remember to unscrew and put away the garden hose. Leaving these rubberized watering tools out can cause frozen water to backup into the outside spigot as well as the attached pipe-ways. It will also crack and ruin the hose.

- Pouring bacon grease down the kitchen sink: Grease from bacon or other meats will solidify as it cools. When cleaning up the dishes after cooking a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, the cook needs to pour the grease into a container such as an empty soup can and toss it, when cooled, into the trash. Your kitchen drain will thank you for this small step.

Putting bleach in a septic system: If a house has a septic system, the cleaning products utilized to scrub out the toilet must be compatible. The way that a septic sewage system works is by natural biodegradable decomposing. Tossing bleach into the bathroom bowl to whiten it can hamper the sewage system’s ability to do its job.

Plumbing can be functional a lot more of the time if a homeowner will use a bit of precaution and thoughtfulness. The garbage disposal, toilet, pipes, garden spigot and hose, kitchen sink and septic system will all work better if they are taken care of properly.