Category: Bathroom Plumbing

Summer is the perfect time to tackle essential home maintenance tasks, ensuring your home remains in top shape and ready for the season’s demands. From checking your sprinkler system to addressing your sewer main, a thorough checklist can help you avoid unexpected issues and costly repairs. Here’s a comprehensive summer home maintenance checklist, including the critical areas to focus on and the benefits of maintaining key components like the stop and waste valve, sprinkler system, and drain cleaning.

1. Inspect and Maintain the Sprinkler System

Why It’s Important: A well-maintained sprinkler system keeps your lawn and garden healthy, saving you time and effort in manual watering. It also prevents water wastage and high utility bills.

Checklist:

• Check for Leaks: Inspect all sprinkler heads and pipes for leaks. Leaky sprinklers can waste a significant amount of water.
• Test Sprinkler Heads: Ensure all sprinkler heads are functioning correctly and providing even coverage. Replace any damaged or malfunctioning heads.
• Adjust Timers: Set your sprinkler system’s timers according to seasonal watering needs, ensuring your lawn receives adequate water without over-saturation.
• Clean Filters: Clean the system’s filters to prevent clogs and maintain efficient water flow.

2. Examine the Stop and Waste Valve

Why It’s Important: The stop and waste valve is crucial for preventing water damage during winter by allowing you to drain your irrigation system. Ensuring it’s in good working condition during summer can prevent issues when the colder months return.

Checklist:

• Inspect for Leaks: Check the valve for any signs of leaks or corrosion. A leaking valve can lead to water waste and potential damage.
• Test Functionality: Operate the valve to ensure it opens and closes smoothly. If it’s difficult to operate, it might need lubrication or replacement.
• Seal Check: Make sure the seal around the valve is intact to prevent leaks and ensure proper operation.

3. Conduct Regular Drain Cleaning

Why It’s Important: Regular drain cleaning prevents clogs, backups, and foul odors, ensuring your plumbing system functions efficiently throughout the summer.

Checklist:

• Clean Bathroom Drains: Remove hair and soap scum from bathroom drains. Use a drain cleaner or a natural solution like baking soda and vinegar.
• Clear Kitchen Drains: Avoid pouring grease and food particles down the kitchen sink. Clean the drains regularly to prevent buildup.
• Inspect Outdoor Drains: Ensure outdoor drains and gutters are clear of leaves, dirt, and debris to prevent water damage during summer storms.

4. Inspect and Maintain the Sewer Main

Why It’s Important: The sewer main is a critical component of your home’s plumbing system. Regular maintenance prevents blockages and costly repairs.

Checklist:

• Check for Slow Drains: Slow drains can indicate a blockage in the sewer main. Address these issues promptly to avoid major problems.
• Schedule a Professional Inspection: Have a professional inspect the sewer main for any signs of damage or blockages. Regular inspections can catch issues early before they become significant problems.
• Consider Sewer Cleaning: If you notice recurring drainage issues, professional sewer cleaning can help clear out blockages and maintain the health of your sewer system.

Focusing on critical components like the sprinkler system, stop and waste valve, and regular drain cleaning helps maintain your home’s plumbing health and prevents costly issues. At Valley Plumbing and Drain Cleaning, we provide comprehensive maintenance services, including sewer main inspections and cleaning, to keep your home in optimal condition. Contact us today to schedule your summer maintenance and enjoy a worry-free season.

Your Toilet is Running Away

Everyone has heard the old joke - is your toilet running? If it is, better catch it before it runs away! But as funny as that joke is, running toilets are a serious problem and, if left too long, they can actually run away on you. Running toilets are more problematic than you might think at first glance and if left long enough can contribute to a much more expensive water bill than normal.

Thankfully, there are several steps you can take to do something about it. When it comes to plumbing, it’s always better to fix a problem rather than ignore it. If you ignore a problem, it will always get worse.

What’s Behind Your Toilet Clogs?

There are numerous reasons why your toilet starts to slowly leak from the tank into the bowl and eventually causing a running toilet. Inside your toilet tank, there are a number of moving parts that ensure that your toilet works properly.

The seal in your tank which allows water to flow into the bowl when flushing and refilling is often the culprit for running toilets. Seals are made from rubber or plastic and over time, these pieces will crack or break off, resulting in a less than full seal on your tank.

When the seal starts to wear out, it will slowly allow water into the bowl and soon you’ll have a toilet that regularly runs. If left for long enough, this problem will not correct itself but will only grow worse. Seals that need replacing will continue to deteriorate over time and will worsen until fixed.

How the Pros Fix the Problem

Fixing a running toilet isn’t a costly proposition, but letting it run unchecked, is. By letting your toilet run, you’ll be adding gallons of water use onto your regular water bill. Even if the leak is slow, you can unknowingly use several gallons a day! It’s always best to fix plumbing issues right when you discover them.

Thankfully, for this issue, all that needs to be done is replacing the seal in your toilet tank. Once a plumber installs a new seal and checks to ensure the chain and plunger are both in working order, your toilet will be back to regular operation.

What You Can do To Stop a Running Toilet

If you want to catch your toilet before it starts running away on you, the best thing is to regularly maintain your toilet tank. By cleaning the water in your tank, you’ll be able to cut down on mineral buildup on the moving parts such as the seal. The cleaner your tank stays, the longer it’s lifespan and better it will function.

All parts do have a limited life, however, so if you notice some wear and tear on your seal, chain, or plunger unit, it’s a good idea to replace them before they start causing problems. Upkeep is the best prevention method to avoid costly repairs and increased water bills due to common problems.

Exceptional, Trusted Plumbers

Valley Plumbing and Drain Cleaning provides plumbing services in Lehi, UT. They offer hassle-free experiences, superior customer service, and honest, competitive pricing on all plumbing projects. Whether you need installation, repair, maintenance, or 24/7 emergency services, VAlley Plumbing has the expertise for your job.

We recently celebrated World Environment Day and were reminded of the importance of protecting the environment and our limited natural resources. One such important resource is water, which is essential to life, a limited resource and, often, a costly resource.

It’s important that we all take steps to limit our water usage and avoid wasting water whenever possible. One easy way to do this is by using low flush toilets, a bathroom renovation!

Since water can be wasted with just the flush of the toilet, today we’ll talk about low flush toilets, how they work and why they’re important.

Low Flush Toilets

Low flush toilets are toilets that use significantly less water than traditional toilets. Low flush toilets use a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water per flush, as opposed to the 3.6 to 7 gallons of water than traditional toilets use.

For the average home, toilets use more water than anything else, so they present a good opportunity to save some water. For a family of four, the simple step of switching from traditional to low flush toilets can save around 15,000 gallons of water per year.

Obviously, this will not only help you to protect the environment but also will provide a noticeable reduction in your water bill.

All toilets made since 1994 are low flush toilets. However, newer models use even less water, with some using as little as 1.28 gallons per flush. If your toilets were installed before 1994, it’s a good idea to check to see if they are low flush and, if they’re not, to consider replacing them.

How Do They Work?

While there were initially some concerns about low flush toilets, they now work as effectively as traditional toilets while using significantly less water. To achieve this efficiency, they use one of two methods:

• Gravity-driven toilets clear waste when the flapper moves by releasing water and having water flow down into the bowl. Gravity then takes the waste down and through the pipes.
• Pressure-assisted toilets have pressure tanks that work as a water balloon. With this technology, water fills the tank and is held there under pressure. When the valve opens, the water and pressure work in combination to effectively remove waste.

Utilizing these methods, low flush toilets work effectively and efficiently to remove waste. As a result, switching to low flush toilets will not result in a decrease in the effectiveness of your toilets.

Water Use and Conservation

Thanks to everyone reading and sharing this for your efforts to help save water. Water is a valuable, limited natural resource, and it’s important that we all do our part to help conserve it.

It’s the efforts of people like you that are going to make a difference and help to ensure that we protect our environment and resources. With this goal in mind, if you’re not already using them, consider installing low flush toilets throughout your house.

If you have questions about this process or about the type of toilets in your home, call Valley Plumbing and Drain Cleaning today at (801) 341-4222. And, please continue to think of and share ways that we can all work to protect the environment and save water.

With the popularity of smart home hubs growing in recent years, people can now use their smartphones to control their TVs, their home security systems, the temperature in their homes, the lights in their homes, their ovens and more!

With everything else in the house becoming automated and digital, doesn't it make sense that your shower should be too? Read on to learn more about how you can get your own automated digital shower, with a couple bathroom plumbing adjustments.

1. Setting up Your Smart Home (And Smart Bathroom)

In today's day and age, having a smart home is no longer a dream out of a science fiction movie.

Smart Home devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Hub, are top-selling holiday gifts because they promise the ease and convenience of being able to control a number of appliances in your home.

With a smart home set up and digitally automated fixtures, you could turn your bathroom into your own personal oasis. Your shower and bathtub, your sink faucet, even your toilet can all have features that make the room more relaxing.

This way when you come home from a long day of work and unwind with a simple "hey, Google…" All you have to do is have the digital appliances and fixtures installed, then connect them to your smart home hub.

2. Unwind in a Digital Shower

Admittedly, installing a digital shower isn't as simple as just calling up a plumber and replacing your shower.

There are a variety of different features to choose from, so it's important to do your research to get the perfect shower for you.

If you're the kind of person who just enjoys soaking in the bath after a long day of work, for example, there are 2-in-1 shower tubs that can easily switch from tub fill mode to shower mode. If you want to be able to start running the shower, or adjust the temperature, before you even enter the room, then a shower that can be turned on via a smartphone app, or remote.

Want to create a soothing, spa-like atmosphere in your shower? In that case, you'll want a shower with built-in music and chromotherapy, or color light therapy. There is a digital shower out there for everyone; you just have to find it!

3. Making The Most of Your Shower Head

If you're going to have automated shower plumbing installed, why not have a new shower head installed with it?

Adjustable tile shower heads, or body sprayers, are one popular option with automated systems.

They are an especially good idea for people with recurring injuries since they can be adjusted to spray different areas of the body.

Rain showers are a good option for a spa-quality shower. Installed directly overhead, a rain shower gives the relaxing feeling of standing under a warm rain. Paired with soothing music, this makes for a wonderful spa experience, right in your own home!

Call Valley Plumbing today to speak with a plumbing professional about installing automated shower plumbing in your home! Give us a call at (801) 341-4222 for service in Salt Lake City. Don’t forget to share this article with your friends and loved ones who might be interested in automated showers for their own homes!