It's a good idea to check your home plumbing regularly so you can catch problems early and call a plumber when needed. There are several things you can do yourself to look for plumbing problems and prevent them. Here are some home plumbing maintenance steps you may want to adopt.
Use The Water Meter To Look For Leaks
You probably won't need to test your toilet and other places in your home for leaks if you check the meter first and find out there are no leaks in your home. If the meter reveals a leak, you may want to hunt it down or just call a plumber for help.
To test the water meter, all you have to do is read the numbers and write them down. It's important not to use the water in your house at all for about an hour until you check the meter again. If the numbers don't change, there's no leak. If the numbers go up, there's water leaking or being used somewhere in your house, and you want to find out where in case the plumber needs to fix a leaky pipe. You may want to perform this test once a month or so to stay on top of water leaks, especially if you have old plumbing.
Flush The Water Heater
If you know how, you may want to flush your water heater to get rid of sediment. If you have a water softener, you may not need to flush the heater as often as you do when you have hard water. You may want to flush the heater about once a year unless you find your tank has a lot of sediment. If it does, it may need to be flushed more often.
Check The Sump Pump
If there's a sump pump in your basement, it should be checked regularly too so you know it's working properly. You can check the pump by pouring a bucket of water into the pit to verify the pump kicks on and pumps out the water. If the pump doesn't come on, look for debris in the pit that may be blocking the float. If you don't see anything wrong, you may need to call a plumber so the pump is ready to go when it rains again.
Clean The Drains
You might avoid drain clogs if you clean the drains regularly. You may want to pour a natural enzyme cleaner into the drains once a month or so to keep them free from debris and smelling fresh. You may also want to use a hair removal tool in shower and tub drains to pull out hair before it turns into a big clog.
Test The Shut-Off Valves
An annoying problem to deal with is stuck shut-off valves. Shut-off valves help you when you have an emergency plumbing problem, but often the valves are stuck and won't turn on or off. You can keep this from happening by turning the valves occasionally to keep corrosion and hard water scale from building up and causing the valves to freeze.
Contact a local company to learn more about home plumbing maintenance.
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