Plumbing - You can keep drains free of clogging and odors by this onceaweek treatment: Pour 3 tablespoons of washing soda (sal soda) into the drain and then slowly run very hot water to dissolve any buildups. For better suction when plunging a clogged drain, cover the rubber cap of the plunger with water and plug the fixtures opening with wet rags.
If a plunger doesn't work when you tiy to unclog a drain, try using a straightened wire coat hanger, bent at one end to form a small hook. Using the hook, try to loosen or remove the debris that is causing the problem. A garden hose can sometimes be effective in unclogging floor drains such as those in basements and showers, especially if the debris isn't close to the opening. Attach the hose to a faucet, feed the hose into the drain as far as it will go, and jam rags around the hose at the opening. Then turn on the water full force for a few moments to blast the debris away.
If you hear a squealing noise when you turn the handle of a faucet, the metal threads of the stem are binding against the threads of the faucet. To fix this, remove the handle and stem and coat both sets of threads with petroleum jelly. The lubrication should stop the noise and make the handle easier to turn.
For a homemade, noncorrosive drain cleaner, mix 1 cup of baking soda, 1 cup of table salt, and 1/4 cup of cream of tartar in a small bowl. Stir thoroughly and pour into a clean, covered jar. To use, pour XU cup of the mixture into the drain and immediately add 1 cup of boiling water. Wait 10 seconds, then flush with cold water. Do this weekly to keep drains clogfree and odorless. (One blending of this mixture equals 2 1/4 cups of cleaner.)
If a dripping faucet is getting on your nerves before the plumber arrives or before you have time to fix it yourself, tie a 2footlong string around the nozzle, and drop the string s end into the drain. As the faucet drips, the drops will run silently down the string and away. What can you do if too little water comes from the tank to flush the toilet bowl clean? Check the water level in the tank, and if it doesn't come to within 1/2 inches of the top of the overflow tube, bend the float arm up slightly to allow more water to enter the tank.
If there's very little water in a clogged toilet bowl, flushing will only cause the bowl to overflow. Instead, use a plunger to unclog the toilet; bring water from another source to cover the plunger cup for better suction. To make a septic tank activator, combine in a large bowl 2 envelopes of active diy yeast with 1 pound of brown sugar; add 4 cups of warm water, stirring until the mixture completely blends. Set the mixture in a warm place for 10 to 20 minutes until it's foamy and its volume increases. Then flush it down the toilet.
If your water pipes bang and faucets leak, the water pressure in your home may be reaching or exceeding 70 to 80 pounds per square inch and you may need to install a pressurereducing valve. You can measure the average water pressure in your house by attaching a pressure gauge to the cold-water faucet nearest the main shutoff valve. If a water pipe is banging against a wall and causing noise, you can silence it by wedging the pipe off the wall with a wood block and clamping the pipe to the wedge with a pipe strap.
If you have a stretch of water pipe that often freezes, consider buying heat tape (sometimes called heat cable). The tape is wrapped around the pipe and an automatic thermostat starts the heat when the outside temperature drops to about 35°F. When thawing a frozen pipe, start at the tap end and open the tap so that melting ice and steam can run off or dissipate harmlessly. If you start at the middle of a pipe, steam from melting ice may burst the pipe.
When you're using hot water faucets regularly, there's no danger of hydrogen gas building up in your water heater. But if you 've been away for an extended period, this danger does exist. If you've been away for awhile, open all hot water taps for a few minutes to prevent the danger of an explosion.
Good sweat solderers gain their expertise through practice. Buy a few short lengths of copper pipe and some fittings and practice before you tackle the real project.
To clean copper pipe before sweat soldering, wrap a strip of emery cloth around the end of the pipe and move it back and forth as if you were buffing a shoe. Most amateur plumbers are so proud of their first sweat-soldered joints that they immediately turn on the water a big mistake. Allow the joint to cool naturally, because the sudden cooling effect of rushing water can weaken the joint and cause it to crack.
If a pipe springs a leak, consider replacing an entire section rather than just patching the leak. A pipe that is sufficiently corroded to leak in one place will often start leaking in other places. Whenever you secure a pipe, be careful to anchor it so that it can expand and contract with temperature changes. If you place a bracket on a pipe, include a buffer fashioned from garden hose, radiator hose, foam rubber, rubber cut from old inner tubes, or kitchen sponges.
To avoid having the teeth of the wrench scar a chrome-plated plumbing fixture during installation, first wrap the fixture with a double coating of plastic electrical tape. To keep the water shut-off valve in good working order, turn it off and then on again once every 6 months. Make sure everyone in the family knows where in your home the main shut-off valve is located. Also make sure eveiyone knows how to use it. This could prevent flooding in an emergency.
If a plunger doesn't work when you tiy to unclog a drain, try using a straightened wire coat hanger, bent at one end to form a small hook. Using the hook, try to loosen or remove the debris that is causing the problem. A garden hose can sometimes be effective in unclogging floor drains such as those in basements and showers, especially if the debris isn't close to the opening. Attach the hose to a faucet, feed the hose into the drain as far as it will go, and jam rags around the hose at the opening. Then turn on the water full force for a few moments to blast the debris away.
If you hear a squealing noise when you turn the handle of a faucet, the metal threads of the stem are binding against the threads of the faucet. To fix this, remove the handle and stem and coat both sets of threads with petroleum jelly. The lubrication should stop the noise and make the handle easier to turn.
For a homemade, noncorrosive drain cleaner, mix 1 cup of baking soda, 1 cup of table salt, and 1/4 cup of cream of tartar in a small bowl. Stir thoroughly and pour into a clean, covered jar. To use, pour XU cup of the mixture into the drain and immediately add 1 cup of boiling water. Wait 10 seconds, then flush with cold water. Do this weekly to keep drains clogfree and odorless. (One blending of this mixture equals 2 1/4 cups of cleaner.)
If a dripping faucet is getting on your nerves before the plumber arrives or before you have time to fix it yourself, tie a 2footlong string around the nozzle, and drop the string s end into the drain. As the faucet drips, the drops will run silently down the string and away. What can you do if too little water comes from the tank to flush the toilet bowl clean? Check the water level in the tank, and if it doesn't come to within 1/2 inches of the top of the overflow tube, bend the float arm up slightly to allow more water to enter the tank.
If there's very little water in a clogged toilet bowl, flushing will only cause the bowl to overflow. Instead, use a plunger to unclog the toilet; bring water from another source to cover the plunger cup for better suction. To make a septic tank activator, combine in a large bowl 2 envelopes of active diy yeast with 1 pound of brown sugar; add 4 cups of warm water, stirring until the mixture completely blends. Set the mixture in a warm place for 10 to 20 minutes until it's foamy and its volume increases. Then flush it down the toilet.
If your water pipes bang and faucets leak, the water pressure in your home may be reaching or exceeding 70 to 80 pounds per square inch and you may need to install a pressurereducing valve. You can measure the average water pressure in your house by attaching a pressure gauge to the cold-water faucet nearest the main shutoff valve. If a water pipe is banging against a wall and causing noise, you can silence it by wedging the pipe off the wall with a wood block and clamping the pipe to the wedge with a pipe strap.
If you have a stretch of water pipe that often freezes, consider buying heat tape (sometimes called heat cable). The tape is wrapped around the pipe and an automatic thermostat starts the heat when the outside temperature drops to about 35°F. When thawing a frozen pipe, start at the tap end and open the tap so that melting ice and steam can run off or dissipate harmlessly. If you start at the middle of a pipe, steam from melting ice may burst the pipe.
When you're using hot water faucets regularly, there's no danger of hydrogen gas building up in your water heater. But if you 've been away for an extended period, this danger does exist. If you've been away for awhile, open all hot water taps for a few minutes to prevent the danger of an explosion.
Good sweat solderers gain their expertise through practice. Buy a few short lengths of copper pipe and some fittings and practice before you tackle the real project.
To clean copper pipe before sweat soldering, wrap a strip of emery cloth around the end of the pipe and move it back and forth as if you were buffing a shoe. Most amateur plumbers are so proud of their first sweat-soldered joints that they immediately turn on the water a big mistake. Allow the joint to cool naturally, because the sudden cooling effect of rushing water can weaken the joint and cause it to crack.
If a pipe springs a leak, consider replacing an entire section rather than just patching the leak. A pipe that is sufficiently corroded to leak in one place will often start leaking in other places. Whenever you secure a pipe, be careful to anchor it so that it can expand and contract with temperature changes. If you place a bracket on a pipe, include a buffer fashioned from garden hose, radiator hose, foam rubber, rubber cut from old inner tubes, or kitchen sponges.
To avoid having the teeth of the wrench scar a chrome-plated plumbing fixture during installation, first wrap the fixture with a double coating of plastic electrical tape. To keep the water shut-off valve in good working order, turn it off and then on again once every 6 months. Make sure everyone in the family knows where in your home the main shut-off valve is located. Also make sure eveiyone knows how to use it. This could prevent flooding in an emergency.
No comments:
Post a Comment