6 Healthy Plumbing Habits That Save You Money

As a homeowner, you may feel like something is always going wrong in your home. The heater stops working or a pipe bursts, and now you have to take time off work (and more importantly, pay) to have it fixed. Things add up over time, and soon enough, you can find yourself wishing that you never invested in a house in the first place.

The good thing, however, is that you can prevent these problems by developing habits to help keep your house in great condition. When it comes to plumbing maintenance, protecting everything from your drains to your pipes can save you money in the long run.

Be Careful When You’re Cooking

When you’re moving around the kitchen, it’s easy to just toss something down the drain and move on to the next step of your recipe without thinking about it. It’s easy, but not necessarily smart. Things like hot grease and butter can congeal in your pipes, preventing them from working properly. Additionally, even if you have a disposal in your sink, that doesn’t mean you can rinse anything you want down there. Disposals aren’t meant to break up anything and everything. Try to limit it to just crumbs and small bits of food that won’t wreck the disposal to keep your pipes clear.

Install Drain Guards

Drain guards are essential when protecting your pipes, especially if you have young children. They catch anything that your children–or you–might accidentally send down the drain, saving you time and money from having to fix things later down the line. Drain guards are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased at your local hardware store. They’re also easy to install, so follow the instructions on the packaging, and you’ll have one less thing to worry about when it comes to your home’s plumbing system.

Don’t Flush Everything

Similarly to how you shouldn’t pour food waste down your kitchen sink, you shouldn’t flush just anything down your toilets either. Many brands claim that their products are safe to flush, but in most cases, they aren’t. Things like wipes and feminine products are meant to be disposed of in the trash, not down the toilet. Keep a trash can in your bathroom, so you have a place to put your trash and keep the toilet reserved for human waste and toilet paper.

Routinely Clean Your Faucets

This may not seem like it would affect your home’s plumbing system, but cleaning the faucets and showerheads in your home can help save you money when something goes wrong. Over time, water, soap residue, and even limescale build up on your faucets and showerheads, leading to lower water pressure when you use them. Now, this may not be a huge problem because if your water pressure is low, you know what it is. But this buildup is not the only reason your home’s water pressure may be lower than normal. If something else is causing it, you don’t want to write off the problem because that could cost you more the longer it sits unaddressed. Keep your faucets clean, and you’ll be able to tell when something is seriously wrong.

Winterize Your Pipes

If you have uninsulated pipes, the quickest way to have a plumbing problem is to not properly prepare them for winter. Water expands when it freezes, so if you don’t winterize your pipes, it becomes more likely that your pipes will burst, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars in damages.

When the temperature starts to drop, shut off any valves that lead to your outdoor water supply. Let the water drain from those pipes and disconnect any hoses or sprinklers from the outdoor spigots. This will limit the water exposed to freezing temperatures and hopefully prevent any pipes from bursting and ruining your holiday season.

Know the Early Signs for Concern

The longer a plumbing problem lasts, the more expensive it’s going to be because you’re not only paying for the plumber to fix the problem. You’re paying for the water damage a burst pipe caused. You’re paying for the days you missed at work because you have to fix the problem. It’s important that you keep an eye out for early warning signs that there’s something wrong with your plumbing system. If you spot water damage on one of your walls or the water pressure suddenly dips, don’t assume that it will fix itself. The earlier you diagnose the problem (or hire a plumber to diagnose it for you), the more money you’ll save.