Expert Guide to Spring Plumbing Maintenance
You may already be aware that your heating and cooling equipment needs yearly HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) maintenance, but were you aware that you also require annual plumbing maintenance by an expert? A1 Chesney Service Experts offers the Plumbing PLUS™ Maintenance Agreement for Calgary homeowners to help them discover issues before they result in big problems. While you should definitely call immediately for plumbing problems and schedule your plumbing maintenance every year, here are a couple ways to get your home in tip-top plumbing shape for spring.
- Verify any plumbing leaks
Check both your faucets and toilets for any leaks. Confirm there is no water dripping out of or around the connections when you shut off your faucets. If there is, installing new fixtures or repairing the leak could help improve the faucet’s performance and may even save you money on your water bill.
After the faucets, inspect all exposed pipes for signs of leaks. You can usually access visible pipes in the basement and under sinks. 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 much needed love
Examine your toilet for any cracks or leaks in both the tank and the bowl. If your toilet seems to be in good shape, go ahead and add about six drops of food color into the water in the tank. Wait half an hour and then check the bowl. If the bowl water is not colored with the dye, you’re good to go. If the food coloring appears in the bowl, you could have a leak and need to call a plumbing expert.
- Don’t neglect your water heater maintenance
If something foul seems to be coming from any of the drains in your home, it may be evidence that plumbing maintenance is necessary. A properly operating drain shouldn’t release a stench into the air. Confirm there are strains installed in all your drains to stop hair and other debris from spoiling in the pipes and clogging them up. Following treatment with a common drain cleaner, pour four quarts of water through drains that are not used frequently. This will fill the trap and help to prevent odors from getting in and filling up your home.
Your water heater takes excellent care of you so make sure you’re returning the love. Don’t forget that newer water heaters have a higher efficiency, so if yours is more than 15 years old, it could be time to start looking into a new one in order to ensure you don’t have that unpredicted burst of cold water for multiple days. Whether or not you plan on investing in a new water heater, there are a few things you can do to help keep it working properly.
Verify that the temperature is set no higher than 120°F. This will help decrease your energy usage (and help decrease your bills) while also evading scalding. As a safety precaution, you will want to remove any items 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 from happening.
These are just a couple ways of how you can help get your plumbing springtime-ready, but if you are not confident performing any of these tasks, please call A1 Chesney Service Experts and we can come out and complete your seasonal plumbing maintenance and fix (or help stop) any plumbing problems.
