Just like it’s important to winterize your plumbing, it is important to prepare your pipes for the spring as well. Preventative maintenance to your home and plumbing systems are essential to keeping problems from arising costing you a heavy repair bill. Understandably, seasonal changes on your plumbing might be far from your mind, but making an active effort to keep up on maintaining your pipes and faucets can help in establishing the longevity of your home plumbing system.
With a few simple steps, it becomes easy to keep your plumbing system working effectively through all seasons:
Get a Jumpstart on Your Landscaping
It’s not uncommon for storm drains to need clearing after a long winter; make sure to clear out as much debris from your drainage areas as possible. Make sure that your downspouts are placed away from your foundation and set to drain in the direction of the street. If you fail to eliminate unwanted debris from your storm drain, it could lead to future flooding and potential damage to your home’s foundation.
Check Your Faucets
While it doesn’t hurt to look for a leaking or corroded faucet, what you should be worried about is low water pressure, as this is could be a sure indication of a leak in your plumbing system. By turning on each hot and cold tap and allowing enough time for air to clear the line, if build up is a problem, you will be able to determine whether your plumbing system is working as normal.
If you are experiencing low water pressure and are unable to find or stop the leaking, you may need to call a professional plumber in Las Vegas.
Check Exposed Pipes
This is easily the most important step when you were winterizing your plumbing, but if you skipped this step last year, don’t worry. Start by checking your exposed pipes for leaks or cracks, if some are discovered, call your plumber right away. If no cracks are found, keep looking to make sure there is no discoloration, mold, or moss growth as those can be signs of leaking as well.
Investigate Signs of a Leaky Toilet
Arguably the most fun springtime inspection is checking for a leaky toilet; and, it’s also one of the easiest inspections.
All you need to do is place several drops of your favorite shade of food coloring in your toilet tank. Wait for about five minutes, and then check to see if the water in the toilet bowl has started to change colors. If not, your toilet is in perfect working order, but if it has, you know that you’ve got a leak and will likely require a replacement flapper. This is a really easy fix, and usually doesn’t require a plumber for help.
Flush Your Water Heater
One of the most effective solutions to long term success with your water heater is to flush it regularly. Regularly flushing your water heater has no negative side effects for your plumbing. By flushing your water heater regularly you can help prevent calcium buildup in your water heater. This calcium buildup is very detrimental to the interior of the water heater; and if it’s not taken care of, will eventually cause you to foot a hefty bill to buy a replacement.
Also, by flushing your heater at least once-a-year you can avoid having hot water water issues, such as no hot water in your shower. Not many people enjoy getting up in the morning for work, and jumping into an icy cold shower. The best way to prevent this from happening is flushing your water heater, as well as by calling a Las Vegas plumber to conduct a whole home plumbing inspection for you.
Installing New Angle Stop Valves
In the event that your shutoff valve is damaged or busted, it’s possible to repair existing valves; but the same problems will likely crop up months or years later so it is usually recommended to simply replace them.
Installing new angle stop valves can be a fairly easy task for all those DIY’ers out there. But, if you are unfamiliar with the plumbing components of your home, we suggest calling in a professional for this one. There are few intricate steps that go into installing a new shutoff valve, such as knowing if your home has a compression or sweat fitting valve connection style. For most people, especially those who aren’t professional plumbers, terms such as “compression” or “sweat fitting valve” sounds like something straight out of a science fiction novel! But don’t worry! Pure Plumbing is here to help you solve this plumbing problem.
Contact us now for more information on our promotion for buying angle stops at a discounted rate! Now that spring is here, we want to make sure you get an affordable rate for all your plumbing needs.
