At Faulstick Plumbing we love a good DIY project, in fact we encourage learning about basic plumbing techniques.
Eventually, there is a point where you might have got in way over your head. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with a minor DIY project to fix or upgrade your plumbing problems in your home. It’s usually best to keep things you may not understand to a Plumbing company in the Poconos area.
Here are a few plumbing mistakes Plumbers encounter throughout Pennsylvania.
Water, did you turn it off?
Turning off the water should be the highest and most urgent thing on your to-do DIY list when starting any project, but it’s also the easiest to forget. Many Minor DIY projects can turn from a cheap fix to a expensive disaster in two seconds. When water is spraying from a loosened connection or pours right out of a pipe that you didn’t realize was facing directly at you, it’s definitely going to cause a lot of damage. Shutting off the water seems like a simple task, but it is far easier when you have the time and knowledge to find the appropriate valve. Once you have the water flowing onto the floor or into the walls, you would wish time would slow down because every moment wasted looking for that valve can cause more and more damage to your business or home.
Another important thing to never forget is that shutting off the water at the source doesn’t necessarily mean you are free from water. Make sure that draining the pipes by running the kitchen, bathroom or any where you don’t want water pouring out of for a few seconds.
Drain Cleaner is my friend, right?
Chemical drain cleaners are definitely effective at clearing out minor clogs, but the harm that they cause is definitely something that needs to be noted. The Chemicals used in these cleaners can cause significant damage to pipes and fixtures over time. Used in excess, they can even build up around the already clogged up pipes, presenting a toxic danger to anyone that might either use the pipes or come in contact with the liquid. Worse, Fumes from chemicals in the cleaner can make their way back up the drain to create breathing hazards.
When you have a clogged drain, it’s best to rely on natural cleaning mixtures made from vinegar, salt, baking soda, and hot water. If the clog persists it’s time to call a professional.
These pipes match, I think?
Plumbing utilizes a wide range of piping. From steel, copper, brass, plastic to all sorts of material. Some of these Items might be a bit confusing on where it might go, expecially to a DIY’er. Pipes sometimes need to be joined using special connections and others should not be combined at all.
With DIY, people sometimes decide to just “wing it” by using what they have filling gaps with tape or silicone but what they don’t understand is that this will cause further and more extreme damage then just finding out or hiring a plumbing service who know what connections go where. Unless there is no other way, it’s normally better to just replace pipes with the original then connecting a different kind of material pipe and with makeshift connections.
Is this connection too tight?
You would think that making any source watertight would be a necessity, right? Mostly yes but there is such a thing as making it too tight when most connections already form a water tight seal by design. Most of the time this can actually cause more damage to the fittings and break the seal or washer from pressure. It can strip the threads, crack plastic piping and even bend metal, making the connection obsolete.
Once a tight connection is loosened it can also cause damage, as the washer, pipe and fitting are already damaged loosening it will cause something to finally come undone sometimes snapping the pipe or making you have to remove / Cut the pipe.
If you find yourself in any of these situations after a DIY mishap make sure to definitely give Graydon Faulstick Plumbing a call!
