Residential Plumber – Services – Repair

At this moment in time, what more could you want than the best plumbing tips? You currently are having an issue at your house and want to know how to take care of it quickly and efficiently. If you want the best people to handle the issue simply contact our plumbers. If you are looking for a great deal on kitchen, bath, and other plumbing supplies for your DIY project, call us. Otherwise, take the advice in this article and you should be in great shape if you are a do it yourself type person…

Prevent Freezing Pipes

Keep water trickling slightly from faucets to help prevent frozen pipes when the temperature drops significantly. Colder than normal temperatures can cause problems if pipes are not insulated appropriately, even when pipes are not exposed to the elements. By leaving the water running slightly, you keep moving in the pipes which can prevent freezing.

Before taking a trip

Make sure you shut off your main system before leaving your house for a few weeks. The water will stay in the pipes, but this should prevent any further damages in case a leak starts while you are away. Check that your shut-off valve is working properly before you leave.

Blocked Sinks/Drains
You may be surprised to know you can use a plunger to unblock a sink as well as a toilet. Just be sure if you do that you cover the overflow holes with a moist cloth otherwise the plunger will not build the necessary pressure to clear things out.

Toilet Trick – Leaky float ball

If the float ball is filling with water due to a small leak/crack, there is something you can do until you are able to buy a replacement. Properly remove the entire ball assembly, empty it of all water, then after re-screwing it back into place, wrap the ball in a plastic bag to cover the leak.

Cutting Pipes

It’s important to remove any burrs you create when cutting pipes so that they will fit into their joints cleanly and tightly. You can use a plumber’s cloth on copper or a primer on plastic. Make sure to clean any pipe which is dirty or feels greasy before you apply a primer to it.

When Turning off Water for Maintenance

If you have to shut off your plumbing system for maintenance, fill up a few buckets of water so you can still flush your toilet. Fill the bowl with a full bucket to flush it. This will prevent your toilet from clogging if you need to maintain your plumbing system.

Find out Now if you are prone to a problem
Check the plumbing in your home, or contact our plumbers to do it all for you. If your home has flexible gray polyethylene water pipes, you need to have a plumber come out and assess their condition. These types of pipes are prone to failure and can lead to very costly repairs if they fail within your home.

Learn early what type of faucet you have and learn how to handle common issues that may arise with it. There are four basic faucet types: compression, cartridge, disc, and ball. If you know ahead of time what you have and how to fix it, you will save yourself some major frustrations down the road.

To summarize, When it comes to taking care of plumbing issues that might arise in your house, you are looking for the best advice available. Call our plumbing company. You might think the cost that it would take to hire somebody might not be something you can deal with right now, but our company can work with you. Otherwise, I hope the tips in this article will prove to be beneficial and point you in the right direction if you plan to handle things yourself.

Adding an Electric Heating Element to Your RV’s Hot Water Heater

Aka a “lightning rod” in the hot water heater of your RV is not that difficult. I will take you through every step needed to complete the project. I am well qualified for the task at hand considering the fact that I was a full-time RV’er for over nine years and worked at a very large RV repair center.

When my wife and I started out full time in our RV, we had to learn to take showers over again. That’s right we couldn’t just stand in there and let the water run as we did in our regular home. Most RV’s are equipped with a shut-off button at the neck of the showerhead. Basically, you get wet, turn the water off with the button at the showerhead. Get the shampoo and wash your hair. Turn the water on and rinse your hair, turn the water off. Scrub up with soap, turn the water on and rinse off. That would be about the end of the hot water. I was used to a long hot shower, something had to change and fast.

I learned very soon about the lightning rod. An electric heating element screws right in your RV’s hot water heater. I couldn’t wait to get to Camping World and purchase one. It was a warm sunny July morning when I started the installation. The package is not very big and the instructions are on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper all folded up and neatly tucked behind the element.

The installation is as follows. Make sure the water heater is turned off and water has cooled, next turn the water supply off, drain the water tank. Unscrew the drain petcock from the unit. Use Teflon tape if recommended by the manufacture. It screws right in the drain hole, very carefully tighten with the proper size wrench. Hook up wiring into the 12-volt system as the instructions indicate. Your propane bill will be lower and you can now take a longer shower. Oh, happy day! This is a very basic look at how the installation process is performed. Please read the instructions supplied by the manufacture. Enjoy more hot water, lower propane bills, and be a happy camper!