When you own a home, you deal with interesting and sometimes surprising situations.
One of those is the bill you pay for major plumbing repairs. Most homeowners are also shocked at the inconvenience when drains won’t drain, or sewer lines back up into their homes.
Surely there’s something you can do, right?
One of the most significant things a homeowner can do to prevent plumbing system drama is to take care of routine plumbing maintenance.
Performing routine maintenance on your home’s plumbing is the key to preventing future problems. Take a minute and learn about how you can partner with your plumber to keep the water flowing in your home.
Essential Routine Plumbing Maintenance Tips
The Kitchen Plumbing Dailies
We’ll get to the more involved maintenance in a minute, but for now, what can you do every day to keep things moving through the plumbing system?
One area where you have a direct impact on plumbing is the kitchen. Specifically, the sink drain, garbage disposal, and dishwasher. Here are a few easy steps you can take to keep pipes clear and minimize stress on your plumbing system.
Sink drains clog when people put things in them that just don’t belong in a drain. If you can avoid putting grease and other oils down the drain, you’ll prevent smelly backups.
Take care of your garbage disposal. Don’t use it as a trash compactor—peels from fibrous or stringy fruits and vegetables, coffee grounds, and eggshells are a big no-no. We know, you’ve heard it’s okay to grind eggshells in the disposal, but please don’t.
Next, we’ll cover daily plumbing maintenance in the bathroom.
Your Powder Room Plumbing Plan
Following a plumbing maintenance plan in the bathroom is one of the most proactive things you can do to avoid bathroom clogs. Try these DIY maintenance tips.
Bath oils smell lovely, but they leave a residue inside your pipes. Combine the oily buildup with months of hair washing down the drain and you have a recipe for a clog. Minimize the sweet-smelling soaks and place a screen over the drain to catch hair.
Like garbage disposals, sometimes household members mistake the toilet for a trash can. Two things belong in the toilet: toilet paper and human waste. Ignore labels on flushable wipes—they can clog the city sewers.
If you have a large household, it’s likely a scramble to get everyone bathed and dressed at the same time. The last person in line often takes a lukewarm shower.
Try waiting 10 minutes between showers. This can help maintain balance for your water heater. It can also help keep proper water pressure, which prevents undue stress on your plumbing.
Taking a few minutes each day to maintain drains and plumbing in the kitchen and bath are excellent DIY plumbing maintenance task. On the other hand, some parts of your plumbing system need the help of a qualified plumbing team.
Time for Sewer Line Maintenance
If you’ve never scheduled an inspection of your home’s sewer line, don’t feel guilty.
It’s easy to overlook drains and sewer lines—after all, you can’t see them. Most people don’t give the sewer much thought unless they have a serious plumbing problem.
Even though you can’t see them, sewer lines do give clues early on when there’s trouble brewing. Paying attention to symptoms and performing sewer line maintenance may prevent a plumbing catastrophe.
Here are a few common sewer line problems:
- Grease blockages
- Tree roots
- Yard debris blockage
- Foreign objects
- City sewer backwater
- Collapsed sewer line
Slow drains are one of the first signals your plumbing system sends when there’s a problem.
Sewage backups every time you flush a toilet or run water in the sink or shower usually also indicate an issue in your main sewer line. Sewer gas odor is another clue, which can also be dangerous.
Of course, you’ll call your plumber for any of these problems, but regular plumbing maintenance can detect problems early in the game. From there, your plumbing team can work their magic on blocked pipes or make repairs before you have sewage pouring into your home.
What Does Plumbing Maintenance Include?
When you schedule routine plumbing maintenance, your local plumber performs a comprehensive check of your plumbing system and its components.
If water runs through it, the plumber checks it out. You can expect an examination of the following:
- Showers and bathtubs
- Toilets
- Faucets
- Drains
- Pipes
- Supply lines
- Water heater
Maintenance may also include inspection of your garbage disposal lines (and unit), dishwasher, and washing machine hoses and lines. Maintenance sometimes consists of a drain and flush of the water heater. If you’ve purchased a plumbing maintenance plan, read the fine print and always ask for clarification.
When plumbers inspect plumbing components, they look for leaks, cracks, and corrosion. They also note drainage issues and clogs.
Clean Those Drain Lines
Another significant benefit of regular plumbing system maintenance is sparkling clean sewer drain lines. If your plumber discovers a clog, they use a variety of tools to clear the gunk and debris from your main sewer drain line.
Sometimes all it takes is running a motorized drain auger into a drain. Once it reaches the obstruction, the auger coil drills down until the clog break up.
Your plumber may also bring a hydro jet—a powerful hose that uses high pressure to force water through your drain line. If you have a clog, say goodbye, and even if you don’t, the blast of water scours your sewer line clean.
Need to Schedule Plumbing System Maintenance?
Hopefully, we’ve taken some of the mystery out of taking care of your plumbing system. Now it’s up to you to keep up with the DIY maintenance tasks and call us to schedule regular plumbing maintenance.
You’ll never again need to stare at a hopelessly backed-up sink and wish you had a plumber friend you could call. Now, you do!
Contact us today and we’ll get you on the schedule as soon as possible. For plumbing emergencies, we can usually come out on the same day you call.
