Cost of New Plumbing

This is one frequently asked question that is very difficult to answer, but we will try our best to analyze the cost of a new house plumbing and take a look at what can unnecessarily add to the cost, as well as list a few tips that can potentially save you money as well.

The reason that this question is impossible to answer is that there are way too many factors that can influence the total cost: the size of the house, the number of stories that it has, the number of the bathrooms in the house, the foundation materials, as well as whether or not the plumbing has to be connected to a sewer system – all these factors need to be considered and the only way to get an accurate estimate of the total cost of a new plumbing is to get an in-place evaluation by a local plumbing contractor. The labor and material costs also vary by location and finding a professional, reliable and affordable contractor requires some hard work as well.

The cost of new plumbing is also higher if old piping has to be replaced – this is quite often necessary when moving to a house, where the faucets and the pipes are corroded and cannot be salvaged. Since the final bill of such plumbing work can be considerably high, there are a few simple tips that can help you bring the cost down:

1. Always get more than one quote – write down all the work that you think needs to be done, call no less than three different plumbing contractors and ask them to evaluate the cost and the time necessary to complete the work, and then carefully consider each bid. Not sure where to get started? You can compare multiple plumbing quotes here (it’s free and there’s no catch).

2. Purchase the necessary materials yourself – in most instances, regardless if you have to replace old plumbing or install entirely new one, the material of choice would be CPVC and if you purchase all the pipes and the fixtures yourself (after consulting with the plumbing contractor), you are likely to save money. When making such large purchases, always try to negotiate a better price with your local store and you would be surprised how often you would actually get a hefty discount.

3. Do some of the work yourself – this can save you a great deal of money, but undertaking plumbing renovation of the installation of new plumbing from scratch might not be something that you would want to do, unless you have the necessary experience and expertise. Quite often, hiring a professional can be considerably cheaper and get the job done in less time, which also means less inconvenience.

If you have just bought a new house, it is quite understandable that you would want to move in as soon as possible, but installing new plumbing requires careful planning and quality execution since this would result in lower maintenance costs as well. Choosing water-saving plumbing materials and finishes is also a wise choice since it can greatly reduce your monthly water bills.

© Cost of New Plumbing

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How To Unclog A Garbage Disposal

So you look in your sink and see that you have some standing water over the garbage disposal. Well it’s a pretty common problem, especially for those of us who love to stuff potato peels or shredded carrots down there rather than just throw them out. So just how do you unclog a garbage disposal? Well it’s not as hard as you might assume, there are really two ways you can go about it and it depends on what is causing the problem. Let me explain.

Let’s say you dropped a piece of steak down the drain either on purpose or by accident (we won’t judge you), and as we know steak can be very tough so garbage disposal blades will probably have a hard time grinding it up. Since the blades can’t move through or around the steak chunk your garbage disposal is jammed and you need it unjammed in a hurry. The good news is that it really isn’t very difficult to free it up.

The first thing you need to do is shut off the power at the main circuit breaker. Let me repeat that… shut the power off! You are dealing with electricity and water here, don’t mess around.

Next, your disposal should have come with a special wrench that is essentially a big allen wrench (the one that looks like an L). If you cant find yours you can try using a regular allen wrench or you can buy an InSinkerator Jam Buster Wrench which will cost you around six dollars.

Once you have the power off and you have located your jam buster wrench, get underneath the clogged garbage disposal and you will notice a hole directly in the center of the disposal. Place the jam buster wrench or allen wrench in the hole and turn clockwise until you feel resistance. Once you feel resistance turn counter clockwise until you feel the resistance again. The resistance you are feeling is whatever is causing the clog, so in order to unclog garbage disposal you need to knock it out. Keep repeating until the resistance is gone.

When you no longer feel resistance, turn the power back on at the breaker and underneath the disposal press the red reset button. Flip the switch and test the disposal out to make sure it was unclogged. Just one suggestion… you may want to stand back from the disposal especially if there is standing water as debris and water may spray out when you start the disposal.

That’s it, you’re done.

Now some of you will try this and wonder to yourself why you don’t feel any resistance. If you don’t feel any resistance from your clogged garbage disposal, your garbage disposal may not be clogged… the drain pipe may be. What probably happened is that the disposal was able to process the food, but it was too much for the pipe to handle. This is very common with carrot or potato peels especially as they seem small but they stick together easily and don’t decompose as rapidly (just think of how long it takes for them to get mushy when you make soup).

Don’t worry this one isn’t hard to fix either. First find a plunger. I would HIGHLY recommend that you buy a new plunger rather than use the one that you use on your toilet, but hey to each their own. If you have a double sink, plug the non-garbage disposal sink with a rubber stopper, if you don’t have one buy one.

Place the plunger over the opening of the garbage disposal sink and press firmly which will force air down in to the pipes. Repeat a few times, unplug the non-disposal sink and try the disposal to see if it is unplugged. If not repeat a few more times and try again.

If the plunger still doesn’t work you could let the water stand for a little while (not too long though) and try the process again. Sometimes the pressure building from the standing water is enough pressure to clear the clogged drain, but more than likely you will need to call a plumber to take the pipes apart. If you are familiar with plumbing and drains you can try taking it apart yourself, but for 99% of the folks reading this article I would highly recommend a plumber.

There you have in, unclogging a garbage disposal isn’t that difficult, in fact if you have the right tools it can be downright easy.

© How To Unclog A Garbage Disposal

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How To Unblock Toilet

A blocked toilet is one of the most annoying things we ever have to deal with. For one thing it’s usually pretty gross, can be frustrating to unblock and always seems to happen when we are in a hurry. So how do you unblock toilet? Well there are any number of ways you can do so, some simple and some more time consuming. Let’s take a look at how it can be done.

Unblocking a toilet can be very messy in more ways than one so you want to make sure you are prepared for an overflow of water and whatever is backed up in the bowl. I would highly recommend you get something to clean up any spillage before you do anything. Towels, newspaper or anything absorbent would be good, but you don’t want to use anything you don’t want to eventually throw away.

One of the first things you can try is to dump a large pot of warm or boiling water in to the toilet. Obviously if the bowl is full already this is not an option, but if you have room to add water you can try this. Adding warm water attacks the clog in two ways. First, it ads pressure to whatever is causing the toilet blockage, and second the change in temperature can cause things to expand which may loosen up whatever is causing the plug.

If this doesn’t unblock the toilet, try using a plunger to remove the blockage. Using a plunger is really pretty simple, you push the head of the plunger down to the bottom of the bowl where the water drains. Press down hard so the head of the plunger creates a seal and forces air down in to the pipes. The theory behind this is that the air causes a pressure build up in the pipes which will loosen whatever is stuck. Typically when you do this any water remaining in the bowl will also be forced down. Repeat this until all or most of the water has been forced down and try flushing the toilet. If water doesn’t drain properly repeat the process a few times and test again.

If the hot water and plunger don’t work then you may have a particularly tricky plug in the toilet that may require a more advanced technique. For this you may need a plumber’s snake which is essentially a flexible metal rod that can bend and fit through a curving pipe. It really lives up to the “snake” name based on its shape.

Using a plumber’s snake, run it down the toilet until it reaches whatever is causing the toilet plug. Once you reach the cause of the plug maneuver the snake back and forth to try and dislodge whatever is causing it. Once you think you have the clog loosened try flushing the toilet and make sure that water flows normally. If it does you should test it by wadding up some toilet paper and make sure it can flow properly.

If the plumbers snake doesn’t unplug toilet then there is one last thing you can try to help remove the clog. You can try using a drain opening solution like drano that will slowly reach the plug and dissolve it. There are many of these on the market of varying strengths. If you’ve tried all of the above steps and still haven’t been able to unplug toilet then I would highly suggest consulting your hardware store and getting the strongest strength. Be careful though, many of these solutions are very caustic so you want to make sure you don’t get it on your skin.

If none of these solutions work then you have a really severe toilet plug and you should consult a professional plumber. If the plug is in deep enough in the pipes a plumber might have to take the toilet and/or the pipes apart. Regardless trying to unblock toilet is important and isn’t something you can just let sit until later, you need to fix it immediately, whatever the cost.

© How To Unblock Toilet

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Basement Flooding Cleanup and Prevention

So you have basement flooding cleanup issues and you aren’t sure what to do next? Don’t worry it happens to the best of us, unless of course you live in the desert. A flooded basement can cause quite a number of problems so you don’t just want to sit on this and not do anything about it. What exactly can you do about it? Let’s break it up in to two groups: prevention and cleanup.

Basement Flooding Prevention

If you think you’re in an area where your basement could get flooded (and don’t fool yourself most of us non-desert dwellers could have flood problems) then there are a few steps you should take to save yourself some frustration and expense.

First, go out and clean out those gutters you’ve been ignoring for all these months/years. Gutters are designed to move water away from your house and your foundation so when gutters get plugged up with leaves water doesn’t flow properly, causing it to drip off the side. All the water that drips off the side has to go somewhere so it leaks in to your basement by default. Cleaning out gutters is really easy and only takes an hour or so, stop being lazy and go do it.

Next, make sure your yard is landscaped so that water doesn’t pool in any areas, especially near the house. If you notice that after it rains you have puddles next to your foundation it is a great idea to go out and build up the top soil so the slope of the ground flows away from your house. This will go a long way to prevent standing water from ending up in your basement.

Then, buy some foundation waterproofing paint or have an expert put some on for you. Waterproofing paint (or drylock) goes on like regular paint but it absorbs any water in the foundation preventing it from seeping in to your basement. Don’t be stingy with it, apply a good coat and if necessary apply two coats. Basement flooding can be a major pain, so don’t find yourself in a bad spot because you didn’t want to spend $20 on another can of waterproofer.

Lastly, look in to installing a sump pump in your basement if you already don’t have one. A sump pump is a hole in the ground that collects flooded water in your basement. Once the water in the hole reaches a certain level it pumps the water out to a safe area. This can go a long way to solving any potential flooding problem you may have.

Basement Flooding Cleanup

So you may be reading this and you already have a flooded basement and you want to know what you should do. A flooded basement can cause all sorts of problems from rotted sheetrock, to damp insulation to weakened support beams so you want to take this flooding problem seriously.

First, make sure there are no electrical wires or outlets that could reach the flooded area. As you know water and electricity don’t mix so if you see any wiring coming in contact with flood damage then call a professional immediately and keep everyone away in the meantime. Don’t take chances here.

Next, get any items stored in your basement away from flooding. Fragile items and cardboard boxes can be damaged very easily by water so be sure to get them to higher ground. Even those durable items like plastic toys should be removed from the flooded area because if they are not cleaned properly mold and mildew will build up on them causing a health issue for you and your family. Also be sure to get any appliances up off the ground as well, cement blocks underneath work great in flood prone areas.

Then make sure the area is properly dried. This you may need to consult a professional on if the damage is too much to dry on your own. Professional flood contractors have fans and dehumidifiers that will dry the room out quickly and easily. Remember any water not dried out will turn to mold and mildew so you want to make sure you do it right.

Last, make sure everything is cleaned properly. Flood damage can cause a lot of health issues, not to mention unpleasant smells in your basement, so you want to make sure you clean as thoroughly as possible.

Bottom line basement flooding is a serious problem, so don’t take chances. If you can prevent it do so, but if you find yourself with a flooded basement, call a professional and breathe easy.

© Basement Flooding Cleanup and Prevention

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