subject: Why We Should Protect The Plumbing [print this page] Children bring an exciting element into our everyday lives, and most parents have a plumbing story to share. "Hey Mom, Frankie swam down the toilet!" If this is a phrase you've heard or is close to one you've heard, you've experienced children's fascination with things disappearing down the pipes.
Nearly every room in our house has a connection to the pipe system. Watching what we put down them at all times will prevent major repair costs or accidental mishaps that end up being very expensive. Although we may think our garbage disposal is a mean machine, it is really not meant to disintegrate every single thing in our kitchen, including steak bones.
Our bathrooms are breeding grounds for disasters involving rings, necklaces, charms and many other small items that slide down the drain before we can stop them. Once you drop them down there, it can require major pipe surgery to retrieve them again. If your toilet become clogged, you may be able to fix it with a plunger, or it may require the use of a plumbing snake.
Whichever room you're in, take care that whatever you are putting down the drain is actually meant to go down the drain. Teaching our kids what kinds of things belong down the drain, and which belong in the garbage, will also keep costs down from accidental clogs. As important as it is, it's not only important to take care of the inside of our pipe systems.
In certain areas, weather plays a big part on our plumbing systems and can sometimes freeze the water inside the pipes around our home. To prevent this, you will need to wrap your exposed pipes in pipe insulation and seal that with duct tape. The small amount of time this will take is nothing compared to the amount of time you will have to spend waiting for frozen pipes to thaw out again.
If we take the time to maintain our plumbing on a monthly basis, we can prevent many situations from developing. The small amount of maintenance time compared to the repair time of any accidents is minuscule in comparison. If need be, we can call a plumber for situations that are larger than we can handle, but it is much more cost-effective to do what we can before accidents happen.
