You may already know that your heating and cooling equipment needs yearly HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) maintenance, but did you know that you also should have an expert perform your annual plumbing maintenance? Neal Harris Service Experts offers the Plumbing PLUS™ Maintenance Agreement for Kansas City homeowners to help them discover issues before they result in big problems. While you should definitely call immediately for plumbing problems and plan your plumbing maintenance every year, here are a couple ways for you to get your home in tip-top plumbing shape for spring.
Inspect all your faucets and toilets for any leaks. When you turn off your faucets check around the connections for water dripping out; if there is, swapping out the fixtures or repairing the leak could help enhance the faucet’s performance and may even reduce your water bill.
After the faucets, examine all exposed pipes for signs of leaks. You can usually access visible pipes below sinks and down in the basement. Extreme weather can cause pipes to freeze and sometimes crack so spring is the ideal time to make sure the winter weather didn’t cause any damage that would result in plumbing problems.
- Give your drains some long overdue TLC
Examine your toilet for any fractures or leaks in the bowl and the tank. If everything seems to be in good condition, go ahead and pour about six drops of food dye into the water in the tank. Wait for about 35 minutes and then peak at the bowl. If the bowl water is clear, you’re in the clear. If the dye appears in the bowl, you possibly have a leak and should call a plumbing expert.
- Don’t forget your water heater maintenance
If a stench seems to be getting in from any of the drains in your home, it be an indication that plumbing maintenance is necessary. A properly functioning drain shouldn’t release smells into the air. Confirm there are strains inserted in all your drains to stop hair and other waste from spoiling in the pipes and causing them to clog. Following treatment with a common drain cleaner, pour eight pints of water into drains that are not used frequently. This will fill the trap and help to prevent odors from seeping in and smelling up your home.
Your water heater takes good care of you so make sure you’re returning the favor. Don’t forget that newer water heaters have a higher efficiency, so if yours is older than 15 years, it could be time to start looking into a new one to help make sure you don’t have that unexpected burst of cold water for multiple days. Whether or not you plan on investing in a new water heater, there are a couple things you can do to help keep it running properly.
Check the temperature setting on the water heater and make sure it’s not higher than 120°F. This will help lower your energy consumption (and help decrease your bills) while also evading scalding. For safety sake, you will want to relocate anything from around the water heater. Your annual Plumbing PLUS Maintenance plan includes a water heater maintenance; and it could actually help your water heater be more efficient and avoid plumbing problems in the future.
These are just a few ways of how to help get your plumbing springtime-ready, but if you are not confident completing any of these tasks, always feel free to call Neal Harris Service Experts and we can come out and perform your seasonal plumbing maintenance and fix (or help stop) any plumbing problems.