DIY Disaster
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If you’re looking for a laugh or have ever asked yourself the question “should I call a professional electrician, plumber, contractor, etc?” then read this story. I can’t even fathom going through what this poor guy did…
Not saying this is a typical scenario, but can you imagine? Yikes!
May Is National Electrical Safety Month
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From extension cords to light bulbs and bulky appliances, National Electrical Safety Month is here to call awareness to your family’s safety at home. It’s surprising, but many don’t always think twice about these potential electrical hazards. There are dozens of ways that you can check for electrical hazards at home to help prevent personal injury and property damage. Electrical fires and electrocution can be caused by a variety of factors throughout your home and you’ll want to take the proper measures ahead of time in order to prevent home injuries from occurring. So, in honor of National Electrical Safety Month, we wanted to provide you with some of the top home electrical safety tips we could find.
- Use the ADT Pulse™ app on your smart phone, tablet or computer to turn off lights and appliances that were left plugged
- Do not overuse electrical outlets and power strips, keep chords organized
- Make sure electrical cords to your appliances enclose the wires properly and are not frayed or cracked
- Use child safety covers over electrical outlets to avoid having them stick their fingers or toys in them
- Keep extension cords and power strips out of walkways and high traffic areas
- Contact an electrician to look at your home wiring if you’ve been experiencing any number of power outages or blown fuses
- Whether you’re in a bathroom or in the kitchen, keep all plugged in appliances away from the sink and any water
Just for fun, here is a puzzle you can play with your family to keep this important subject at the forefront of your mind.
You can also view the NFPA’s new Electrical Safety PSA below:
Home Warning Signs Part 4
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Mold problems are a very serious matter as this can severely compromise the health of you and your family. The symptoms aren’t always obvious, so you may not even know your indoor air quality may be compromised. So take a moment to evaluate your home and call a professional if you notice one of the symptoms below:
Water seepage or standing water in basement/crawlspace
Musty, moldy odor
Wood surfaces are discolored, dull or split
Paint blisters or peels
Mold on furniture
Residents in the home suffering from frequent colds and/or respiratory problems
For more information on mold problems and indoor air quality, click here.
Home Warning Signs Part 3
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Electrical problems are an issue no matter the season. They can be a huge risk if not taken care of in a timely manner. So take a moment to evaluate your home and call a professional if your home displays one of the symptoms below:
Flickering or dimming lights
Switches or outlets are hot and/or emit a strong, unpleasant odor
Fuses and circuit breakers blown or tripped often
Cords, outlets and switch-plates are discolored
Old aluminum wiring
Pre-50′s home construction
For more information on common electrical problems, click here.
Home Warning Signs Part 2
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Hot weather will be here before you know it. This is the perfect time to make a quick pre-season checkup on your air conditioning system and call a professional if your home displays one of the symptoms below:
Excessive noise
AC frequently turns on and off
Uneven temperatures room to room
Increased electricity consumption
Excessive dust in home
Requires frequent repair
System is over 10 years old
For more information on common air conditioning ailments, click here.
Home Warning Signs Part 1
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Spring is in full bloom and this is the perfect time to make a quick checkup on your plumbing and call a professional if your home displays one of the symptoms below:
Drains “chug” like sound of an emptying soda bottle
Toilets don’t flush properly
Slight, persistent running water sound in toilet
Tapping, banging noise from pipes
Low water pressure
Constant/repeated slow draining
Leakage or occasional mild flooding
Additionally, since we’re on the subject of spring and plumbing, follow this link to learn which plants and shrubs to avoid planting so you’ll ensure the integrity of your home’s plumbing system.
Nip The Drip
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What seems like a minor leak may surprise you in the amount of water and energy lost. Some simple fixes can add up to some major savings.
For example:
- Fix a leaky faucet … save 20 gallons a day
- Fix a leaky toilet … save 30 gallons a day
- Replace an old toilet with a low flush toilet … save 40.5 gallons a day
- Repair an outdoor pipe leak or broken sprinkler head … save 20 gallons a day
- Repair a leak around the pool or spa pumps … save 20 gallons a day
Obviously, those gallons add up over the year. A 1/32 inch size leak wastes 73,992 gallons a year. A 1/8 inch wastes over a million gallons.
Leaky faucets are typically caused by worn washers or “O” rings. For something that basic, you may want to pull out the do-it-yourself book and attempt the fix yourself. Or, if you want to save time while you’re confident it’s done right, just call us. You might even combine it with an overall plumbing inspection while we’re there, which may save major costs down the road in preventative maintenance.
Your leaky toilet may be a simple fix too, if you’re mechanically inclined. However, a leaky toilet often indicates you need a new one. In fact, if your toilet is ten or fifteen years old, you’re probably better off replacing it with an efficient low-flow toilet. You can save over five gallons per flush, so the savings add up quickly. Also, you’ll get a better flush with a pressurized model. You can conserve even more water with a dual flush toilet. It has two flush settings, one for solids and one for liquids. Incidentally, if you avoid using the toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket, you can save 400 to 600 gallons per month.
Simply replacing your showerhead with a new efficient model drastically cuts water consumption from 500 to 800 gallons per month, while you still enjoy excellent shower power. Current energy guidelines recommend a 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) rating. Placing aerators on three kitchen and bath fixtures saves 14 gallons a day, while retaining excellent water pressure.
Is the garden hose leaking? Seal the connection threads with thread tape. If it’s the hose itself that’s leaking, wrap it with sealing tape.
By implementing these simple ideas, you’ll be saving you and your community hundreds, possibly thousands of gallons each year. Imagine if everyone implemented these ideas as well. You might want to share this article with your neighbors.
One more extra bonus when you fix those leaks – you’ll hear no more annoying drip drip drip.
Bugs In Your Drain Line? If Not, Get Some
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A few weeks ago, I posted some tips that every home owner should know. One of those tips is not to use corrosive drain cleaners. So I wanted to expand upon that as I’m sure this is a very common practice (I know I’ve certainly been guilty of it in the past). As I stated in that post, one of the best things to happen in the plumbing field in recent times has been the development of biological drain cleaners as an alternative to dangerous and ecologically harmful chemicals. These biological products work via bacteria that consume organic waste.
There are various products of this nature on the market. The best one, in my opinion, is Bio-Clean. While the exact formula is a secret, Bio-Clean is a composite of bacteria, enzymes and additives, all coming from natural sources. These natural ingredients come in a powder that remains dormant in its protective container until you apply the right amount of water and pour the solution into waste matter. Then the bacteria come to life and start searching for yucky food. Once fed, their instincts turn to that other fundamental source of life, and they begin to multiply.
The Bio-Clean bugs eat their way through the filth of drain lines, septic tanks, cesspools, RV holding tanks and grease traps without harming pipes, containers or any other inorganic material. People continually find new uses for this amazing substance. I hear it also works great in removing odor from kitty litter boxes (I’ll be trying that one!), as well as toilets and urinals. You also can pour it on virtually any kind of organic spill and watch the gooey mess slowly disappear like the Cheshire Cat.
Since the bugs attack only organic waste, Bio-Clean is completely safe and commonly used in hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and other places subject to stringent health inspections. If you mix it with water and leave it in an open container, nothing will happen, until you drop some nasty stuff into the mixture. Then the nasty stuff will slowly disappear. If you drop some on the floor, don’t worry about it. Nor need you worry about using it around children, pets or plants (because it only attacks dead organic tissue, not live matter). People can even ingest Bio-Clean without any ill effects, which some of its salesmen are apt to do from time to time. While I don’t find their demonstrations particularly appetizing, they do drive home the point about its harmlessness.
Perhaps the best testimony to its safety is that you won’t find any warning labels on Bio-Clean containers. This is a mark of supreme confidence by the manufacturers and sellers in our lawsuit-crazed society.
SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE
Bio-Clean is not only better for the environment than the household drain cleaners sold in supermarkets, it works better too. The popular liquid drain cleaners are basically nothing more than bottles of diluted acid. When you pour the liquid or crystals down a drain, these chemicals helplessly succumb to gravity. They can’t climb the inner side and ceiling walls of pipes, so they can’t reach the waste that fills most of the interior. All they can do is seep along the bottom and burn a small tunnel in the accumulation. Picture a piece of 2-inch diameter tube with about a 1/4-inch diameter tube resting inside of it. The larger cylinder represents the accumulated waste matter blocking your drain line, the smaller tube the hole burrowed by the caustic chemical. It doesn’t take long for another solid to block that small hole once again.
Sometimes the blockage is so dense that it cannot be completely penetrated by the chemical. Instead the chemical accumulates until it burns a hole in the pipe wall, or reacts with grease in the system to form a caustic soap that can congeal into a substance as hard as concrete. These caustic soap dams can be harder to eliminate than the original waste stoppage.
In contract, Bio-Clean bacteria spread out along the entire inner surface of the pipe wall, eating waste away from floor, sides and ceiling alike. Depending on the size and type of blockage, it usually takes 3 to 14 days for the bugs to consume all accumulated waste inside household drain pipes. When finished, those drain lines will be almost as clean as the day they were installed.
For initial treatment it is recommended to apply for 5 consecutive days a mixture of about 1 level tablespoon of Bio-Clean powder for each inch of pipe diameter, mixed with 1 pint per tablespoon of lukewarm water. Afterwards, a single treatment about once a month is usually sufficient for maintenance.
DRAWBACKS
While I think Bio-Clean is the best drain cleaning product around, you should be aware of a few drawbacks and limitations.
One is that during the initial treatment stage, it might momentarily worsen a blockage before eliminating it. This is because it works so well removing waste from the entire interior of pipes. As waste gets eaten from the upper portion of a pipe surface, it may loosen and fall in a heap that may block the flow for awhile until the bacteria can finish their feast on the floor. As a result, many plumbers who sell Bio-Clean recommend that you have your drain line rodded as part of the initial treatment. Odds are this would be the last time you’ll need rodding as long as you continue to use Bio-Clean.
You also ought to be aware that Bio-Clean will not attack inorganic compounds that may get trapped in the drain line, such as children’s toys. (It will work on toilet paper, tissue and sanitary napkins, because they are all made from organic substances.) Also, while Bio Clean will eventually degrade hair, this takes substantially longer than it does to get rid of most other organic
build-ups. Even using Bio Clean, from time to time you may find it necessary to take a plunger to the drains where you wash your hair. What comes up, however, will be almost pure hair instead of the foul mixture of hair and gunk found in homes that don’t use Bio-Clean.
Also, Bio-Clean will not work without the right combination of water volume, temperature and pH. However, using it correctly does not require a degree in rocket science. Each container comes with clear and simple instructions that virtually everyone can handle.
A can of Bio-Clean contains about 85 tablespoons of the substance. For most households, this is enough for a year or more of treatment and maintenance. This is less than the cost of a single rodding with a drain cleaning machine, and much more gentle on your fixtures and pipes.
St. Patrick’s Day Trivia
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Did you know that over 40 years ago the tradition of dying the Chicago River for St. Patrick’s Day was born? I’ll bet you didn’t know how it got started though. In 1961 Stephen Bailey, Business Manager of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local Union #110, discovered that the dye plumbers used to detect leaks would turn the river the perfect shade of Irish green. He discovered this purely by accident when he was approached by a plumber who was wearing some white coveralls that had been almost completely stained a distinctive shade of green. When he found out how the plumber’s coveralls got this way, the idea hit him. So the tradition began with the 1962 parade, and the rest is history!
Find out more about it here.
When To Service, When To Replace
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Agony is being told that a major household appliance is broken beyond repair. The job you thought might set you back $100 or so is going to cost many hundreds or even thousands.
“Can’t you just fix it?” is the plaintive wail we hear from homeowners in this situation. Sometimes we can, but often we can’t. Or we can, but it’s not in the homeowner’s best interest to do so. As is the case with radios, TVs, VCRs, and shoes, the cost of a major repair for many home fixtures and appliances is creeping ever closer to the cost of replacement.
Here are some things to consider in deciding whether repair or replacement might be the better option.
Furnace/Heat Pump/Boiler
These are the most costly systems to replace, so naturally you want to get as many years of use out of this equipment as you possibly can. The best way to do this is to make sure you have your system professionally serviced as least once a year. Many heating and cooling contractors offer service agreements that assure routine inspection and cleaning at least. Prices usually are a real bargain considering that a new home heating, ventilating and cooling (HVAC) system will cost many thousands.
Myriad repairs can be made on HVAC systems to keep them running for decades. Yet when a boiler section cracks, there’s little that can be done except replace the entire unit. Likewise, central air conditioners and heat pumps have two major components – the indoor evaporator coil and the outdoor condensing unit (compressor) – that when they fail, cannot readily be fixed.
When one needs to be replaced, it is best to replace the other with a compatible unit. Unmatched evaporator coils and condensers usually will operate together for a time, but with a steep penalty in performance, energy usage and premature system failure. So even though it entails higher initial cost, replacing both components at once is the smart thing to do in the long run. Unfortunately, studies have shown that about half the time, people opt for the cheaper but shortsighted single unit replacement.
While HVAC systems ought to last for decades, it’s not necessarily a bargain to keep them running that long. Tremendous strides have been made in energy efficiency in recent years, leading to quick cost paybacks from lower energy bills. The United Homeowners Association (UHA) is a Washington-based consumer organization that offers the following advice:
“If your furnace is over 15 years of age, it’s probably time to boot it out the door…If your furnace’s efficiency comes in somewhere in between 50-75%, you ought to begin investigating rebate offers for buying a high-efficiency new furnace.”
This is not a contractor talking. This advice comes from an organization dedicated to protecting consumer interests. UHA can be reached at 1511 K Street NW, Suite 345, Washington, DC 20005. Membership cost $18 a year.
Water heater
Industry statistics show that the average water heater lasts 12 years. With regular maintenance and routine repairs, some keep operating two or three times as long. As with HVAC systems, however, it’s not always to your advantage to hang on to older units. Modern high-efficiency water heaters often can pay for themselves in energy savings within 3-5 years.
Almost all components on a water heater can be fixed or replaced except for the tank. Once the tank rusts through, there is no way to rescue the water heater. Replacement is the only solution.
Water heaters come with internal sacrificial anode rods to protect against rusting. An anode’s sole purpose is to corrode away so the steel of the tank can’t. Replacing the anodes every 3-4 years (more frequently if water is softened) will add considerably to the life of a water heater.
Another main cause of failure is overheating from sediment build-up inside the tank. Ask your plumber to inspect the anodes and sediment periodically. Sometimes this can be done as part of an annual service agreement.
Some plumbing firms also offer extended water heater warranties lasting 10 years or even a lifetime. If you plan to live in your home for quite some time, these warranties may be worth looking into.
Dishwasher
Automatic dishwashers are another appliance that should last a decade or more – though here, too, you often can save money by buying a newer energy-efficiency unit.
Brand new units can be bought for $400-$600, while repairs of various operating mechanisms typically run $150 and up. If your dishwasher is getting near the 10 year mark, a major repair may be a signal that other components are also on their last legs. It won’t take many service calls to pay for a brand new unit.
Disposal
Stoppages and minor malfunctions are worth repairing. But if the motor goes out, or the blades break, you are better off replacing the entire unit. Especially so if you deal with a plumbing company that warrants the product for 5-10 years or even longer.
Toilets
Unless you crack the porcelain, a toilet can easily last a lifetime. What will wear out are the flushing mechanisms comprised of moving parts. Leakage may occur from the wax ring seal by the floor, but that can be fixed short of replacement.
Toilets commonly get replaced for reasons other than malfunction. Water conservation is one. Modern toilets operate with 1.6 gallons per flush or less, compared with 3.5 gallons for older standard models. (A few 5-gal. and 7.5-gal. flush versions from many decades ago also are still in operation here and there.) Depending on water rates, sometimes you can save money by replacing a toilet.
Styling and quieter flushing are two other reasons to replace. This is a matter of homeowner choice more than necessity.
Faucets
Leaking faucets can be repaired by replacing a cartridge, washer or other internal component. Tarnishes and nicks are harder to fix.
Good faucets will give at least 5 and often 10 or more years of trouble-free operation. Plumbers can keep them operating almost indefinitely, but here too most people would rather pay a few more bucks for a replacement that offers better styling and convenience.
Decades ago plumbers repaired more faucets than they replaced. For most companies the opposite now holds true.
