May
17
You use it multiple times per day, and probably give it very little thought.
Yet it can be quite discouraging when you do your business, flush the toilet and nothing happens. Toilet problems may seem overwhelming – after all, we all use today’s modern conveniences to maintain healthy living. However, before you rush to call the nearest plumber, take a quick look at the inner mechanism of your toilet. Your toilet’s flushing mechanism could be the problem and, most of the time, these problems are quite easy to fix.
If your toilet refills itself without being flushed, you could have a flapper problem. The flapper is the rubber piece at the bottom of the toilet tank. When the toilet is flushed, this flapper raises and lets the water run into the bowl. When the tank is empty, the flapper reseats itself and the tank fills with water for the next flush. If your flapper is not sealing tightly, the water will seep out of the tank, triggering the valve to refill the tank once the water level reaches a certain point. You can pick up a replacement flapper for a few bucks and make the repair on your own. Read more
Apr
19
Plumbing Terms And What They Mean
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When you need to call a plumber for help with your pipes, you are bound to hear several technical terms. Plumbers can sometimes forget that not everyone is a plumber. Therefore, not everyone understands “plumbing lingo”. You may find your head spinning when your plumber starts spouting BTU numbers or asking you where the angle stop is located. This helpful list of common plumbing terms will help you understand the lingo the next time your plumber starts talking air locks and back pressure.
Basin wrench – a wrench with jaws on a swivel and a long handle
Aerator – a device in the end of a faucet that mixes air with the water to reduce splashing
BTU – British Thermal Unit, refers to the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one Fahrenheit degree
Ball check valve – valve with a ball that seals to prevent flow of liquid
Air lock – flow of liquid being blocked by an air bubble
Back pressure – refers to a pipe system in which pressure resists the flow of fluid
Wash down water closet – water closet with a siphon trap way and a flushing rim Read more
Apr
5
10. Toilets are musical – rumor has it the great majority of them will flush in the key of E flat.
9. Think we’ve always separated out mens and womens toilets? Think again. That way of life didn’t start until a high society party in Paris made it fashionable in 1739.
8. The US spent over $100,000 on a study to determine how people hung their toilet paper – flap in front or behind. The results: 3 out of 4 have the flap in front.
7. Just like beds have progressed in TV-land, so have toilets. The first toilet was shown on the television show Leave It To Beaver. The first flushing toilet was shown in the movie Psycho. And as you can imagine, the scene in Psycho caused an enormous amount of complaints about indecency. Read more
Nov
3
How Does Plumbing Work?
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When you drain your kitchen sink of dirty dishwater, flush your toilet, or take a shower, you are making good use of your plumbing.
You may never think about how your plumbing works until the day that it does not work. As long as everything drains and flushes properly, your plumbing is probably the last thing on your mind.
Yet if you’ve ever had a curiosity for how things work, our modern day plumbing is definitely a thing to marvel. Imagine where we would be without it.
Your plumbing includes all of the pipes and necessary fixtures that are needed to remove wastewater from your home. Your home’s plumbing will include pipes, joints and valves. Your pipes can be made from a variety of materials, including copper and PVC. Joints are the areas where two pieces of pipe are connected, such as at a bend. Valves are used to control the flow of water – for instance, if you have a leak under your kitchen sink, you can use the valve to shut the water off for repairs. Read more
Oct
6
Are you in the middle of a construction project? Are you improving your small business, or building a new commercial location from the ground up? Chances are you are overwhelmed with the guidelines, rules and regulations that you have to follow before you are ready to open up for business.
When it comes to public restrooms, there are specific guidelines in place that are designed to make it possible for each toilet to be safe and accessible to those that need them. Understanding the guidelines can help you determine if a public facility may not be adhering to the regulations. Read more
Aug
18
The Evolution Of Shower Heads
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The next time you are standing under the water streaming from your shower, take a closer look. Have you ever wondered how showerheads came into existence? After all, people have been bathing in tubs and basins for centuries. When did someone decide that having a fresh flow of water pouring down was a good idea?
While it may seem like baths are easier, and therefore have been more prevalent throughout time, the fact is that people have been taking showers for just about as long as they have been using baths and basins.
Showering can be traced back to just about any point in history. If you’ve ever walked into a waterfall, and enjoyed the cool cascading flow of water, you’ve taken part in the first shower. Waterfalls were often used to bathe, and can be linked back to many civilizations throughout time. Ancient Greeks, for example, were known to have servants stand above them and pour water down over their body. Read more
Jul
21
The Many Uses of Caulk
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If you have done any type of home repair, you probably have at least a basic familiarity with the strange cylindrical tubes that dominate one aisle at every home improvement store. This strange substance (with it’s even stranger delivery system) comes in a wide variety of types and colors with an even wider list of uses.
Caulk is one of those strange words that can function as both a noun and a verb. You buy caulk at the store when you need to caulk something. Makes sense right? While caulk the noun refers to the putty like substance emitted from those strange narrow tubes, the verb refers to the action of sealing a gap using caulk. With such a broad definition, you can imagine that the uses of caulk are limited only by your creativity.
The most basic uses of caulk involve sealing gaps within a building. These gaps could be the gap between the wall and the edge of your shower or the gap between your window and the wall. This sealing action is useful along the edges of counters to provide a watertight barrier or along molding to provide a smooth finish. Caulk can also come in handy for patching up minor holes or dents, or as a seal on larger patch up jobs. Read more
Jun
28
Taking care of your “business” in the bathroom is not exactly dinnertime conversation. People tend to avoid any type of discussion that delves deeper than simply “using the bathroom”. However, if you’ve watched any television in the past few months, you know companies are now promoting flushable wipes, something once reserved for babies, now handy for all ages.
But are they the best thing to use every day? Will they flush smoothly ever time? And what will happen to your plumbing once you’ve flushed multiple wipes over the course of a few days?
Flushable wipes are a consumer’s dream come true and every plumber’s nightmare. While clogs can develop from any number of items, plumbers will now tell you one of the most common causes of a clog is flushable wipes.
Flushable wipes are quite similar to baby wipes. Just like a baby wipe, these flushable wipes are used to keep your nether regions clean. But unlike toilet paper, these flushable wipes simply do not disintegrate as they move through your plumbing system. While one or two may move through the pipes, when you send multiple wipes down over time, the clogging begins.
Consumer Reports did a test on flushable wipes and found that after 30 minutes of simulated swirling (just like a toilet bowl) the wipe was still intact. (You can watch the video here.) The wipe showed no signs of even beginning to break down.
If you are a fan of flushable wipes, it may be time to rethink your actions. For the sake of your plumbing, either dispose of flushable wipes in the trashcan or stop using them. It only takes a few wipes to get hung up in your pipes for a major disaster to happen. No matter what the packaging says, flushable wipes are not flushable.
Jun
23
The last time you looked in your medicine cabinet you probably noticed a smorgasbord of medicines. Generally, a medicine cabinet contains everything from aspirin and ibuprofen to sinus medications and cough syrup. Somewhere in the mix, there is a pretty good chance that you have a few prescription medications too.
And because the medicine cabinet is used for storage, those prescriptions range from 
things you took last week, to things you took several years ago. It is not uncommon for people to keep old prescriptions – not because they have plans of taking the expired medication, but because they forget about the meds or they just do not know what to do with them.
The official government policy for disposing of old prescription medications involves either flushing them or throwing them in the trash. In most cases, you should take your old meds, mix them with other garbage (cat litter, coffee grounds, etc.) in a Ziploc bag before tossing them. Read more
Jun
17
How Well Do You Know Your Plumbing?
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Your home’s plumbing is essential to your quality of life. With backed-up plumbing, you face potential contaminations, high repair bills, and a loss of the simpler things, like taking a bath. The key to keeping your plumbing operating at its best is to understand it. Knowledge is your best weapon against future plumbing problems. The following information will help educate you on the ins and outs of your plumbing.
Your plumbing is not just a single system. It actually consists of two systems – the incoming freshwater and the outgoing wastewater. In other words, you have one system for clean water that comes into your home. You also have another system for the dirty water (baths, toilets, sinks) that leaves your home.
The two systems DO NOT overlap. If your clean water mixes with your dirty water, you run the risk of contamination. This can be a threat to your health. All plumbing systems must have two separate sub-systems for fresh and wastewater. Read more
Blogroll
- Quality 1st Plumbing website - Quality 1st Plumbing website
- Troubleshooter - Tom Martino – The Trouble Shooter
- WaterSense