It’s easy to take your Anaheim home’s plumbing system for granted. After all, except for the plumbing fixtures, most of your home’s plumbing system is hidden inside the walls or under the floor. Sometimes, it can be easy to get into bad habits that can cause damage to your plumbing system without you realizing it.
The good news, though, is if you follow some basic recommendations from HomeX Plumbing & Rooter, you can greatly reduce the amount of wear and tear you put on your plumbing system and help prevent serious damage to the system that could cause major problems in your home.
Watch What You Put Down Your Drains
Some people make the mistake of using their home’s plumbing system as a water-filled garbage can. Unfortunately, this approach will quickly leave you with damaged pipes that require major attention from HomeX Plumbing & Rooter.
Dumping items like grease, eggshells, coffee grounds, and paint down your drains can cause clogs, corrosion, and other problems that will significantly reduce the effectiveness of your home’s drains. Even if you have a garbage disposal, most food waste items are better left to the garbage can to ensure you don’t unintentionally cause damage.
Remove Excess Minerals
For supply lines, excess minerals in the water can be detrimental. As these minerals flow through the pipes, they tend to either corrode the metal in the pipes or stick to the walls of the pipes, thus restricting the flow of water. Since you can’t change the hardness of the water that comes into your home unless you move, the best way to handle hard water is to invest in a water softener.
These devices utilize chemical processes to remove the excess minerals from the water, so your home’s plumbing system stays safe. Given the complex nature of water softeners, it’s best to have a plumber from HomeX Plumbing & Rooter install one if you want to protect your home’s plumbing system.
Maintain Your Septic System
If you live away from the city and rely on a septic system to take care of your waste, it’s important to maintain your septic system so you don’t end up with problems that back up into the rest of your home’s plumbing system. As a homeowner, you can take care of your septic system by watching what you put down the drain. This ensures you don’t put too much demand on your septic system and helps you maintain proper drainage in the area around your septic system. Adapt these good habits on an ongoing basis to protect your system.
To provide the best care to your septic system, though, you need to have it flushed out every three to five years by HomeX Plumbing & Rooter. Although this is an ongoing cost, the cost of maintaining your septic system is far lower than having to replace it because you ignored it. After all, digging out a septic tank requires a lot of time and heavy equipment that can increase your repair bill greatly.
Keep The Pressure In Check
No one likes dealing with a lack of water pressure. Low water pressure makes it difficult to wash dishes, take a shower, and perform many other daily activities. On the other end of the spectrum, though, excess water pressure can cause serious issues with your plumbing system that you must avoid.
If your pipes are kept under excess pressure for long periods of time, they will inevitably develop leaks at the joints or cracks in other locations. In extreme cases, your pipes could even burst, resulting in a major mess that will require the efforts of HomeX Plumbing & Rooter to fix.
Therefore, if you notice that water comes spraying out of your plumbing fixtures even when the water is turned down low, it’s a good idea to put measures in place to control your home’s water pressure. In some cases, you may need to contact your local water provider to ask them to investigate the problem. You can also install a pressure regulator that reduces the flow of water to an acceptable level so your pipes don’t sustain any damage.
Stay In Control
One easy way to avoid damaging your home’s plumbing system is to understand how it works. By knowing where various control valves are located, you can prepare yourself to act quickly when you notice a problem. You will want to know the locations of the main water shutoff valve, individual fixture valves, and the location of all hookups for various fixtures.
It’s important to note that the location of these valves could vary depending on when your home was constructed. For example, in some homes, the main shutoff valve is located out by the street below the ground under a metal cover. In other homes, the main shutoff valve is located inside the home, making it easily accessible in an emergency.
If you can’t find these important components, we at HomeX Plumbing & Rooter are happy to help. In any event, make sure you have the proper tools to adjust the valves and the knowledge of where the valves and hookups are located.
Don’t Use Harsh Chemicals
Another key to preventing damage to your home’s plumbing system is to avoid chemical drain cleaners as much as possible. While it’s true that many chemical drain cleaners are quite effective at removing clogs, there’s a reason they’re good at what they do: chemical drain cleaners are incredibly caustic. This means they can eat through just about anything thanks to the chemicals they’re made from. This explains why the packages of these cleaners urge you to wear gloves and other protective gear during the drain cleaning process.
The problem with using something that powerful is that it could cause significant damage to your drains if your pipes are already showing signs of weakness. To avoid this problem, it’s better to call HomeX Plumbing & Rooter to take a look at the problem. Our experts have the skill in removing clogs effectively.
Clean Drains Sooner Rather Than Later
The time to have your drains cleaned is not when water no longer flows through them. Instead, you want to be proactive and have your drains cleaned regularly to prevent any significant buildup on the walls of the drainpipes.
After all, the longer that you let gunk accumulate on the walls of your pipes, the more likely it is that this gunk will have a chance to endanger the structural integrity of the pipes. Therefore, it’s a good idea to call HomeX Plumbing & Rooter every couple of years. Our trained professionals will inspect your pipes and take care of any problem areas.
Call The Experts
When it comes to many plumbing issues, it’s easy to get in over your head quickly on something that seems quite simple. Therefore, if you’re not sure how to tackle a problem with your plumbing system, be sure to call the experts at HomeX Plumbing & Rooter. We have experience in plumbing repair, water heater repair and replacement, water leak repair, and much more. Don’t hesitate to contact us at HomeX Plumbing & Rooter today to schedule an appointment.
