Archive for the ‘Plumbing Design’ Category

It goes without saying that there is never a good time for hot water heater leaks, or for plumbing and heating problems in general. But what do you do if your hot water heater suddenly sprouts a leak and you’re not there to catch it? Minor hot water heater leaks and a dripping water tank are one thing, but rupturing water heater tanks, especially those that aren’t caught right away, can cause major home damage and lead to significant repair bills. Of course, when it comes to fixing or stopping a water heater tank leak or rupture, the first thing to remember is safety – the water coming out of your hot water heater is, obviously, hot! But you would be surprised how many people forget that in the heat of a water tank problem and get significant injuries. The first thing to do is to turn off the supply of water to your tank, otherwise it will just keep filling and your hot water heater leak will be endless. Next, you want to drain the hot water tank in as controlled a fashion as possible to prevent as much water damage as you can. Most hot water heaters, especially the newer ones, come with a spigot to drain the tank where you can even hook up a hose. If you’re lucky, your leaking hot water heater is close to a drain. If not, be prepared to carry several buckets of water, depending on just how big your water boiler is. One of the best things that you can do to minimize problems and prevent when a hot water heater leak does occur is to become familiar with your existing hot water tank as possible, especially the ways of draining the water heater and shutting off any gas supplies as necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

Low water pressure in your bathroom can be a nuisance for even the simplest water usage task; from taking a shower to brushing your teeth. Oftentimes water pressure issues happen without warning and other times your home plumbing system will show signs that inadequate water pressure may occur inside your home if you are able to read the symptoms. The bathroom is one of the main areas that is usually affected with this low water pressure problem and given the overwhelming need that bathroom faucets, shower heads, toilets and sinks have good water flow, slow water pressure can make using your bathroom much more difficult or in some extreme cases, unusable. However, in many instances low water pressure in the bathroom is blamed on outside causes and the real problem goes overlooked, because some homeowners often believe that it is caused by the utility company instead of their own home plumbing system. Read the rest of this entry »

Installing a stop valve in your bathroom before you actually need to use one is the safest and best way to prepare for emergencies or unexpected plumbing mishaps in the future. Shut off valves allow you to turn off the water supply to an individual bathroom fixture, but still leave the water on in the rest of the house so you don’t inconvenience others. Stop valve installation can be located under your bathroom sink, behind toilets or behind a conspicuous, easily accessible panel on your bathroom wall. Unfortunately, this is not what is done and some homeowners only find that they need to install a stop valve when a water main burst or cracks unexpectedly and then they have to run all the way downstairs to their basement to disconnect the main pipe that sends water to their entire house. Read the rest of this entry »

Going green in our living accommodations has produced a major shift in building construction trends. This in turn has caused residential contractors to re-analyze how home plumbing is planned out and therefore adopt more sustainable methods in plumbing design that guarantee less waste and more conservation in residential plumbing systems. Whether a homeowner is in the process of remodeling his bathroom or has been looking for different ways to re-structure and upgrade his household plumbing and heating design for home improvements, he can benefit from looking into sustainable home plumbing ideas. However, the initial costs for adopting sustainable home plumbing measures that are green do not come cheap, but as the years drag on, the investment eventually pays for itself by reducing plumbing problems and home repairs. Unfortunately, some homeowners do not know the first place to begin in their home plumbing endeavors to ensure that they keep both their energy and water costs down. These new home plumbing tips will highlight some ways you can better plan for a more sustainable plumbing system in your dwelling and join the eco initiative that is sweeping the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Water heaters play an important role in maintaining the appropriate water temperature throughout our homes and inevitably to the end faucets that distribute water in our bathrooms. From gas powered hot water storage tanks, tankless water heaters to modern eco-friendly solar water heaters, given how far we have come from ancient times when we had to boil our water over an open camp fire or hot stove, it would be practically impossible to imagine life again without hot water heating supplies to increase the quality of our lives. However, despite the importance of these water heating devices, a number of homeowners don’t do their homework before purchasing and installing a plumbing heater in their house, only to find that their energy bill becomes more than they can handle. This is because water heaters consume energy to heat water and if they are not properly installed then heat loss and inefficiency are inevitable. There are certain important points that have to be taken into consideration before purchasing any type of equipment to heat water in your home. Given the long life span of most water heaters, a bad purchase decision or poor installation can drag on for years without the homeowner realizing it. Purchasing a water heater is not a life changing purchase but if you want to make sure your purchase is sound and will not unnecessarily drain you financially then you will find the information you need to make a good water heater purchase decision. Read the rest of this entry »

Running plumbing pipes through your bathroom walls and floors is normally not an option if you want to protect your pipes and keep your bathroom looking uncluttered. The good part is, if you are undergoing a complete bathroom makeover, the framing members are already exposed so you don’t have to remove the drywall with demolition tools. If you are new to plumbing renovations, and this is your fist time rerouting pipes through walls, just be prepared to spend two or three days cutting into walls (possibly flooring also) and running your plumbing pipes through your framing members, not to mention the time afterwards when you have to patch up your handiwork. It would also be prudent to have working knowledge of your homes architectural structure, so you don’t accidently cut through a load bearing wall, thereby jeopardizing the integrity of your home. It’s also important that before running pipes through your wall and floor joists that your plans have been approved by your local municipal building authority to ensure building code compliance. Renting or owning a right-angle drill with a hole-cutting saw attachment would also be an asset along with some basic carpentry skills. Read the rest of this entry »

The plumbing tools for working with plastic drain pipe can be purchases at a nominal price as compared to hiring a professional plumber for his services. And while you may only use these plumbing tools for plastic drain pipe and fittings no more than a couple times when renovating your home and bathroom, it is still important to invest in quality plumbing tools especially ones that are tough and comfortable enough for you to easily work with plastic drain pipe. The plumbing tools you will need for working with plastic drain pipe are a plastic pipe saw, a miter box, some form of deburring tool, plastic pipe cutter and a plastic tubing cutter to round off your plastic pipe plumbing tool box. Read the rest of this entry »

Diagnosing faucet problems in your bathroom is easy once you understand that no matter what type of faucet you have, faucets are designed to do just one thing and that is to control the flow of water coming into your bathroom. When diagnosing potential faucets problems in your lavatory, the other thing you must realize is that all faucets have some type of valve mechanism along with other moving parts that must be sealed to prevent your faucet from leaking. So besides occasionally cleaning out built up mineral deposits, the major cause of faucet maintenance problems in your bathroom will be the replacement of seals and valve components that have worn out or lost their resiliency over time. Read the rest of this entry »

Bathroom sink drains appear to be quite simple but believe it or not there is centuries of trial and error behind the design. Long before the p-trap, the problem that early bathroom sink drain manufactures faced was keeping sewer odours at bay. Plumbers never found it difficult to drain water from your bathroom sink, mainly because any sloping downward drain worked fine just fine. The problem that the p-trap solved was keeping the smells of the sewer out of the house and from crawling back up the bathroom sink drains. As it were, the same pipes that carried the waste water to the sewer systems down below similarly carried the pungent and possibly dangerous sewer gas back up into the bathroom. Fortunately for us the p-trap effectively solved the odour and volatile gas problem. Modern sink drain design has evolved with plumbing technology thereby making the installation of a new sink drain assembly relatively easy enough to be installed in an afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

Many first time home renovators are intimidated with copper plumbing because of its unforgiving nature. While it is true that copper can sometimes be a little tricky to work with, it is also a very stable, resilient and versatile plumbing material. Unlike plastic pipes, copper pipe takes special tools and practiced skills to get it right. Just be aware that you will be using a red hot soldering torch with equally hot solder in order to “sweat the joints” probably in a tight or enclosed cupboard space. But it’s not as intimidating as it sounds. Once you learn to respect the medium, soldering copper tubing will just be another skill you can use in your arsenal of tools when remodelling or renovating your bathroom. Read the rest of this entry »