Have you had a hard time with the bad weather of late? Think yourself lucky you don’t live in Nebraska. The residents of one particular house, woke up one morning to find a river had flown through their garage and out onto the driveway, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the overnight freezing temperatures had turned the river to ice.
The people of ‘Arctic Temperature’ countries also have a problem with the wildlife as they search for a warm spot to spend the night. Crawling into pipes seems a smart option, until they begin to breath in the sewer fumes, pass out and block the pipes. Messy!
As well as the more bizarre call outs Plumbers answer, there a number of seemingly simple problems Plumbers are called to fix. Here are the Top 5 ‘obvious’ plumbing problems that occur and ways to prevent or correct them. If you don’t know, now is your chance to brush up:-
- A burst washing machine hose is the Number One claim on house insurance. Check those hoses regularly and replace with steel pipes if the rubber seems flimsy or worn.
- Familiarise yourself with the main stopcock in your home. It’s surprising the amount of damage that can be done from gushing water and people running around screaming- HELP!
- Loose, fallen hair in the plughole can cause far more damage than you think. Invest in a drain strainer or encourage your ‘hair shedders’ to remove the hair with paper towels and bin it after showering.
- No matter how tempted you are- DO NOT flush away baby wipes. They are not bio degradable, are a menace to sea life and can cause huge blockages in your plumbing system. .
- That old devil called ‘fat’. Yes it’s made it into our chart at Number 5. Fat clogged pipes are easy to generate but even easier to prevent. Just DO NOT pour oil or fat down the sink.
This list make seem like an Idiots Guide to disaster prevention but we are human and we do tend to take our wonderful fully functioning water, drainage and heating systems for granted- until they go wrong that is!
What’s your top tip to prevent plumbing disasters?
