How to maintain your household plumbing

Unless you’re Tony Stark, you probably don’t have a self-maintaining plumbing system at home—so it’s best if you occasionally took the time to care for your pipes and fixtures. This will help everything last longer and helps make sure that you won’t be facing a major plumbing problem at the most inopportune times. Below you’ll find some tips and tricks when it comes to maintaining the plumbing in your home.

Check your habits

Sometimes, you may be disposing of stuff that shouldn’t be dumped into your pipes. Clean out scraps of food from containers before just blindly washing them down the sink, as these small pieces can mount over time and cause clogging. Avoid using strong chemicals to clear clogs from the drains, as they can only partially clear the drain while also eating away at the material composition of your pipes. Clear away materials that build up over your drains, or install screens on them to prevent large-ish items from getting through. Checking such habits can go a long way towards keeping your drains and pipes in great shape.

Keep your water ‘soft’

‘Hard water’—that is, water that has high mineral content—is not good for your plumbing. The minerals in the water can settle and build up in the pipes, thereby restricting the flow of fluids going through them and causing clogs. What’s more, the minerals can also corrode certain fittings in the plumbing.

There’s not much you can do about hard water, because it depends on where you live. If you have the resources to spare, you can get a plumber to install a water softener to offset the minerals present in your water supply. There are also electronic water softeners on the market, and you can usually install these on your own. You just have to make sure you have an electrical outlet nearby to provide the softener its power.

Lower the pressure

It’s nice having high water pressure, like when you’re showering, doing the dishes, or hand-washing clothes. However, high pressure is high pressure, and constantly being subjected to that can reduce the lifespan of your pipes. You can always install a gauge to measure water pressure. Check if the pressure in your home is in the normal range (40 to 85 psi), and anything in excess of that is too high and can be too taxing on the pipes.

You can have a pressure reducer installed by the plumber, although be aware that this piece of hardware can be quite costly. The benefits, however, make this investment worth it in the long run.

We hope these tips will help you avoid unncessary plumbing issues in the foreseeable future. Apart from those, the key is to make sure that problems are patched up quickly. Keep an eye out for leaks and try to do an inspection from time to time to spot problems before they become plumbing catastrophes. With the proper care and maintenance, you’re on the way to fewer hassles, lower utility bills, and less dependence on your trusted plumber!