Summer Plumbing Tips

This summer, keep the plumbing system of your home functioning. Follow these plumbing tips to prevent problems in your home down the road.

Bathroom Plumbing

Your bathroom is full of plumbing systems from the shower to the toilet. Do a simple check of your bathroom on a regular basis, looking for obvious signs of water damage or potentially dangerous plumbing problems:

• Check around the base of the toilet for signs of water leaking, both before and after flushing. Stains can indicate a longer lasting problem.
• Check how fast the toilet flushes. If you hear the water running for an extended period of time after the initial flush, there may be a problem with the float, or a leak itself. Check for a deeper problem in these situations.
• Check the grout around the bathtub. When this is run down or not present, water can leak through, causing damage on lower levels.

Year round, the bathroom is an easy place for plumbing problems. Use the summer months to pay extra attention to this area of your home, preventing these problems from happening to you.

Outdoor Watering

During the summer, outdoor water becomes a bigger potential for problems. These water problems come from summer storms, sprinkling systems, and hose use. Some things to remember at this time of year includes:

• Check rain gutters for problems. Rain gutters wear out over time, or on some homes may not even be present. This system will help direct water away from the foundation of your home, protecting it longer. Be conscious of how old your gutters are, and whether or not they need attention.
• Keep the hose away from the home. Just like rain water without direction from gutters, hose water at the foundation of your home can be damaging. Not only will it potentially flood the basement, damage to the very foundation of your home is likely. Whenever you use a hose, make sure the water is directed well away from the surrounding area of your home. After use, be sure to turn the hose off completely.
• Monitor your sprinkling system. If you have sprinklers, take the time every few weeks to test them for a few minutes, ensuring they are functioning properly. Because it is common, and most effective to use the sprinkling system at night, most of the time we don’t notice when there is a major problem. Doing this regular test during the summer months can help prevent these issues, protecting our homes from water damage.

This summer, pay special attention to potential plumbing problems in your home. While there are some things that need to be checked year round, others are more specific to summer. Learn to recognize both of these, giving them the attention they need during these months.