You may already be aware that your heating and cooling equipment needs seasonal HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) maintenance, but did you know that you also should have an expert perform your annual plumbing maintenance? Stevenson Service Experts offers the Plumbing PLUS™ Maintenance Agreement for Columbus homeowners to help them find issues before they turn into big problems. While you should definitely call immediately for plumbing problems and arrange for your plumbing maintenance annually, here are a couple ways to get your home in great plumbing shape for spring.
- Verify any plumbing leaks
Check both your faucets and toilets for any leaks. Make sure there isn’t any water dripping out of or around the connections when you turn off your faucets. If there is, installing new fixtures or repairing the leak could help boost the faucet’s performance and may even reduce your water bill.
After the faucets, examine all exposed pipes for indications of leaks. You can typically find visible pipes in the basement and under sinks. Sometimes pipes can freeze and then crack so spring is the perfect time to make sure the winter weather didn’t cause any damage or plumbing problems.
- Give your drains some long overdue TLC
Check your toilet for any fractures or leaks in both the bowl and tank. If it seems to be in good condition, go ahead and add about six drops of food dye into the water in the tank. Wait half an hour and then check the bowl. If the bowl is not colored with the dye, you’re fine. If the dye appears in the bowl, you might have a leak and should call a plumbing expert.
- Remember your water heater maintenance
If a stench seems to be coming from any of the drains in your home, it might be a sign that plumbing maintenance is needed. A properly running drain shouldn’t release a stench into the air. Verify there are strains inserted 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 often. This will fill the trap and help to avoid odors from getting in and stinking up your home.
Your water heater takes great care of you so ensure 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 may be about time to invest in a new one in order to ensure you don’t have that sudden burst of cold water for several days. Regardless if you plan on replacing your water heater, there are a couple things you can do to help keep it working properly.
Make sure the temperature setting on the equipment is not set higher than 120°F. This will help reduce your energy usage (and help decrease your bills) while also evading scalding. For the purpose of safety, you will want to remove anything from around the water heater. Your yearly Plumbing PLUS Maintenance program includes a water heater maintenance; and it may even help your water heater be more efficient and avoid plumbing problems in the future.
These are just a few ways of how to help get your plumbing springtime-ready, but if you are not comfortable performing any of these tasks, always feel free to call Stevenson Service Experts and we can come out and complete your yearly plumbing maintenance and repair (or help prevent) any plumbing problems.