Your plumbing is one of the most important aspects of your home, as it funnels the life-giving fluid to your home, and takes waste away tirelessly. You don’t realise how often you use your plumbing until it’s taken away, and random occurrences, as well as long-term damage can result in your plumbing dropping out entirely at the worst possible times.
The holiday season is possibly the most inopportune time to lose your plumbing privileges, as most plumbers spend time with family away from work around the New Year, leaving you without plumbing for days on end, sometimes. We have prepared an article filled to the brim with tips for protecting your plumbing through this holiday season, in the hopes it puts you in good stead to ring in the new year.
Preemptive Pipe Check
Pipes are the essential plumbing fixtures that everyone seems to forget about. They take one look at their fixtures in their homes, see that they look normal, and assume that’s all that needs to be done. Unfortunately, pipes are hard to access and hard to check, but they really are essential to the functioning of your plumbing at home.
Calling up O’Shea plumbing in Melbourne to check your pipes before the crucial holiday times take hold is a good way to ensure your pipes are damage free and ready to continue in their purpose for years to come.
Tree Trimming
Trees pose a bigger risk to pipes than might seem believable, but more often than not plumbing troubles arise from trees. Though they may be beautiful around our homes, tree root systems are always seeking water wherever it is.
Through millennia of evolution, they have gotten quite good at finding that water and absorbing as much of it as possible, which is why their roots often find their way into drains and pipes underground, and why they often form a tight clump of root mass that blocks the pipe entirely. Having your trees checked by plumbers for proximity to your pipes before the holidays is not only good for your pipes, but good for your peace of mind too.
Drain Clearing
Drains in your home can be clogged by any number of things, and a clogged drain will always cause problems. The first signs you’ll get that you’re in for a blockage sooner or later is that your sinks and drains will start to empty slower and slower, and it’s at this crucial stage that you take action.
Going to a hardware store or supermarket and picking up some drain clearer is the fastest and best way to ensure your drains are unblocked quickly and effectively. Be careful with the chemical clearer, as many brands use corrosive acids in their drain clearing products to ensure fast removal of the blockage, but it will damage your skin if given the chance.
Plunger Choice
Your choice of plunger could actually save your toilet from destruction, believe it or not. Traditional plungers are designed to only use a small amount of pressure to clear blockages from the pipes. Alternatively, some kinds of newer plungers use gas canisters to force a large amount of pressure through the plunger and into the pipes. This clears blockages more quickly in newer toilets, but can shatter and destroy older porcelain.
Roadworks Check
Always remember to check your local council website for notices for roadworks in your street. The holidays are an odd time to be undergoing roadworks, but many kinds of work mean that water needs to be stopped in the street, especially when excavating. Checking whether or not anything is planned for your street will let you prepare for a lack of water.
Utility Check
The very last step is to check your units themselves. The toilets, sinks, bathtubs, and showers of your home can mostly be checked by you, not requiring a professional unless you find something. Look for cracks, breaks, or dripping water, and if you see nothing your plumbing is likely ready for the holidays!
With these tips taken into account, your various plumbing needs will be taken care of before the holidays take off, leaving you with a peace of mind and some time to relax.