With many of its main features buried underground or hidden behind drywall, the plumbing system in your Marion, IL home is easy to overlook. As long as your plumbing fixtures continue working and your drains stay moving waste and wastewater in the right direction, you might think little of it. But when residents lack access to clean, potable water or when whole-house backups occur, failing plumbing systems can instantly render homes uninhabitable. Fortunately, you can stave these and other problems off and extend the lifespan of your plumbing system with the nine steps that follow.
1. Be Mindful of What Goes Down Your Drains
Among the best ways to protect your plumbing system is limiting what you put down your drains. Items that clear your drains aren’t guaranteed to pass through all of your home’s narrowest pipes. Solid and slow-degrading items that don’t get lodged and cause blockages could get snagged on rough pipe interiors, built-up debris, or existing obstructions.
Don’t Use Your Garbage Disposal as a Catch-all
According to most plumbers, “garbage disposal” is a misnomer. Don’t use this appliance as a catch-all for all of your kitchen waste. There are lots of common food items that can cause problems, including:
- Eggshells
- Nuts and nut butters
- Coffee grounds
- Fruit and potato peelings
Always scrape your plates and cookware into the trash or your compost bin. This unit is only meant to grind up small amounts of residual food debris. Dumping whole containers of old food into your garbage disposal when cleaning out your refrigerator can overwhelm this unit and could lead to drain issues.
Get Rid of Grease the Right Way
Put all used cooking oil, grease, and rendered fat in covered, heat-safe containers. After they’ve cooled, throw them away. Putting these things into your drains can lead to serious plumbing clogs.
Install Drain Mesh or Drain Sieves
Keep hard, non-degradable items from slipping into your drains by installing drain mesh or other drain covers. This way, dropped toothbrushes, razors, and toys won’t get lodged in your pipes. Drain covers can also limit the amount of hair and other organic debris that finds its way into your drains.
Beware of “Flushable” Items That Aren’t Plumbing-friendly
The only things that you should flush down your toilets are human waste and toilet paper. Never flush “flushable” self-care wipes. Despite being marketed as flushable, these products don’t rapidly break down when submerged like toilet paper does. Often reinforced with durable polymers, they can remain intact and trapped in plumbing systems for months at a time. Worse still, they can absorb fats and grease within sewer lines, attract other wipes, and form hard, solid masses.
Other items to avoid flushing down your toilets include:
- Cotton swabs and cotton balls
- Paper towels
- Dental floss and floss swords
- Cigarette butts
- Condoms and other physical prophylactics
When in doubt, throw it out instead.
2. Schedule Annual Drain Cleaning
Despite your best efforts to keep grease, rendered fats, and cooking oils out of your drains, your pipes will eventually develop tough, tacky buildups. Annual drain cleaning service will slough this waste off, eliminate drain odors, and reduce your risk of drain gnat infestations. Drain cleaning services open up pipe interiors so that both liquid and solid waste have plenty of room to move through.
3. Practice Smart, Strategic Planting
All of your drains deliver wastewater and solid waste to a single sewer line. If your sewer line ever cracks, develops offset sections, or gets blocked, it could dump raw sewage in your yard or send effluence backing into your home.
Two of the biggest threats to your sewer line are tree roots and underground weeds. These growths seek entry into sewer lines to access the rich nutrients and moisture they contain. Not only does sewer line encroachment from tree roots and weeds create openings for sewage to seep out, but it also sets the stage for major pipe blockages and whole-house backups.
If you intend to plant new trees in your yard, make sure that they are at least 15 feet away from your sewer line. If you have existing trees that are less than 15 feet away, consider having them removed to prevent future issues.
Maintain Your Landscape
Take good care of your yard. Regularly weeding your lawn will limit the risk of sewer line encroachment, too. Routine landscape maintenance will also help you identify the signs of developing backups early on, such as perpetually soft, soggy areas, pungent sewer gas odors, and suddenly verdant terrain.
Call Before You Dig
It’s important to always call utility line locating services before digging in your yard. Ahead of all earth-moving and excavating projects, utility line locators identify the exact locations of sewer lines, fiber optics, natural gas lines, and more. Even for minor, do-it-yourself landscaping projects, it’s important to know where these things are. Some sewer lines are buried as shallow as just 18 to 30 inches deep.
4. Schedule Annual Water Heater Maintenance
Schedule annual water heater maintenance. During these visits, our team can flush your water heater out to get rid of built-up sediment. We’ll also replace your water heater’s sacrificial anode rod to prevent premature failure caused by corrosion.
5. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Plumbing Repairs
Keep your plumbing system healthy by always scheduling professional repairs when problems arise. Although quick, do-it-yourself fixes can be tempting, they often cause more problems than they resolve.
The Dangers of Using Drain Snakes and Augers on Your Own
When homeowners use mechanical drain-cleaning tools like snakes and augers, they run the risk of forcing solid or exceedingly dense obstructions deeper into their pipes. With their sharp tips, these tools can also puncture old pipes, scratch porcelain fixture coatings, and void fixture manufacturers’ warranties.
How Chemical Drain Cleaners Affect the Lifespans of Plumbing Systems
Dumping store-bought drain cleaning chemicals down your drains can greatly reduce the lifespan of your plumbing system. Whether corrosive or caustic, these products eat through pipes and other plumbing features indiscriminately. Frequent use can wear pipe coatings down and cause cracks, holes, and leaks.
6. Schedule Annual Whole-House Plumbing Inspections
Schedule a whole-house plumbing inspection at least once each year. During these visits, our plumbers look for slow and hidden leaks, verify the integrity of shut-off valves, and inspect all plumbing fixtures. We also test water pressure levels to identify developing or existing problems.
7. Moderate Your Home’s Water Pressure
Excessively high water pressure can wear your appliances and pipes down long before their time. Installing a pressure-reducing valve can save you hundreds of dollars on preventable repairs and extend the lifespan of your entire plumbing system.
8. Take Care of Hard-Water Issues
If your home has excessively hard water, the interior of your pipes could be filled with heavy buildups of dissolved minerals. Having a water softener installed will prevent unsightly limescale build-ups on your plumbing fixtures, optimize your water pressure, and extend the lifespan of your pipes.
9. Practice Diligent Cold-Weather Prevention
Protect your pipes from freezing and rupturing when the outside temperature dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit by insulating all exposed pipes at the interior and exterior of the building. You should also keep your thermostat set at 55 degrees or higher throughout the winter months.
We help homeowners in Marion, IL save money with expert residential plumbing services. You can also count on us for top-notch leak detection, drain cleaning, and sewer repairs. For quality plumbing service or to find out about our storm shelters, contact Baker & Sons Plumbing today.
