Homeowner's Guide to Checking your Plumbing

6/18/2019 (Permalink)

A plumbing problem can happen out of no where and can cause massive damage. Here are some tips on how to periodically check your plumbing without being an expert.

Bathroom

• Checking your Faucets. Check all of the faucets in your bathrooms, including your sink, tub, and shower. If any of these faucets are leaking, replacing and bad washers or cartridges may take care of the problem. If you do not have good pressure running through the faucets sometimes that means you may have a leak in the pipes in your walls.
• Checking the Drains. Check all of the drains in your bathroom. The drains can easily get clogged by soap and hair. An easy fix is to disassemble the head of the drain and clean out hair and debris every six months.
• Toilet Checks. Take off the tank lid of your toilet and flush it to see what happens. If the water is continually running that means you are wasting water and an easy fix for that is to tighten up chain that is in the tank. Check to see if your toilet is leaking from the bottom and if so it may mean that its time to replace the wax ring at the base of your toilet.
• Check the Caulk around Tile and Tub. The Caulking stops water from getting into the walls of your bathroom. Make sure that the caulking is good will make sure that water is sitting in your walls, and that will help stop mold growth in your bathroom.

Kitchen

• Dishwasher. If you notice that your dishwasher is slow to fill up with water then that may mean there could be an issue with the valve that controls the water supply. 
• Check the Garbage Disposal. If the connection between the disposal and the sink comes loose then water can begin to leak. It can go on for long periods of time when not noticed.
• Sink Drains. if your sink drains slowly hen you can get snake  to remove any issues. Using drain cleaner is also a good option to periodically use to help break up any debris or buildup in the drain.

A water loss is not always expected but hopefully some of these tips can help you stay ahead of the game. If you do fall victim to a water loss then you can always call your local and trusted restoration company. SERVPRO of New Smyrna Beach/Titusville specializes in Water, Fire, and Mold restoration and mitigation. Check out some of our other blogs and before and after pictures to see why our slogan is: "Like it never even happened."