The summer months are a great time for food, fun, and family, but this combination can create big plumbing issues for your home. Fortunately, we can help you to prevent these plumbing pitfalls with a little care and attention.
Remember Your Toilet is Not a Trashcan
When you’re entertaining house guests, your bathroom is bound to end up as busy as your backyard. Since your toilets are experiencing extra use, it is easy for them to end up clogged. This can be particularly troublesome if your toilet is being treated like a trashcan. Toilets are only designed to eliminate human waste and toilet paper, so you should keep a wastebasket nearby so that your guests won’t be tempted to flush paper towels, diapers, tampons or other objects.
Lighten Your Dishwasher Load
When you have guests over for burgers, apple pie, ice cream and other treats, the multiple courses for your family and house guests will put additional stress on your dishwasher. Don’t fall into the pitfall of jam packing your dishwasher with all your dirty dishes, and run a second dishwasher cycle. If you are expecting house guests, prepare your dishwasher by running the appliance on its hottest setting with a dishwasher safe cup filled with white vinegar. This will deodorize and sanitize your dishwasher, so you’re ready for company and won’t feel embarrassed if a guest helps out loading dishes.
Reduce the Risk of Disposal Jams
An annual barbecue is usually the biggest draw of the summer, and when you’re clearing up from all that chicken, ribs and other grilled items, you need to ensure that you don’t put leftover bones down the disposal. You should also take care with corn husks, grease, oil and even watermelon seeds that can pose a risk to your garbage disposal. In this busy time, don’t forget to run cold water through the disposal before and after you use it to clear any food remnants. To reduce the risks of a jam, keep a garbage can handy and remember the mantra, “if in doubt, throw it out!”
Shut Off Your Sprinklers
Rather than being about plumbing problems, this is more to avoid problems for your guests. An unexpected shower is one of the quickest ways to kill the party mood, so if you’re planning on entertaining outside, be sure to shut off the timer on your sprinkler system.
Clear Your Drains
To get your home ready for the arrival of your guests, you need to make sure that your drains are clear. Grease, hair and other debris can accumulate inside your drains, and this can lead to embarrassing plumbing issues. Once your guests have made themselves at home, keep an eye on what’s being poured into the sink and down the drains, particularly if you’re hosting small children.
The best way to reduce the risk of a home plumbing failure this summer is being proactive. Detecting issues early before a leak can develop into a flood, moisture turns into mold or even worse problems, call in a
professional plumber.
By Giovanni Longo President Flood Brothers Plumbing
Giovanni Longo is a 3rd generation master plumber who has been practicing his craft and trade in the greater Los Angeles area for well over a decade and a half. A plumbing and hydraulics-engineering innovator, Giovanni’s particular world-class expertise focuses on dealing with challenging sewer system designs as well as resolving complex commercial and residential draining issues. As a certified Flood Mitigation expert, he is also well versed in a wide variety of water damage and remediation solution.
