Plumbers can be incredibly expensive. You’ll only want to pay their fees when it’s absolutely necessary. To save yourself from paying some unnecessary plumber’s fees, here are some plumbing DIYs that you can try:
Insulating Your Pipes
Your water pipes can freeze when the temperatures outside drop. Frozen pipes can be a real pain to deal with since they stop you from accessing any running water. You’ll have a hard time cooking, cleaning or bathing until the pipes are thawed and everything is back to normal.
Another issue with frozen pipes is that they can burst open and send streams of water into your home. And if you’re not there to notice this disaster and shut off the water supply valve, you could come home to a massive flood and thousands of dollars’ worth of water damage.
A simple plumbing DIY chore like insulating your water pipes can prevent problems like freezing and bursting in the colder months. You only have to cover the water pipes that are exposed (you don’t need to deal with pipes behind the interior walls) in areas of the house that aren’t well insulated, such as the basement, the crawl space or garage.
If you’ve forgotten to insulate your pipes and they freeze, you should call up a plumber to thaw them safely. And you should do the same if your pipe bursts and needs repairing right away. They’ll know exactly what to do.
What if you don’t have the budget to pay the plumber? You should call them anyway. When you don’t have the savings to cover their fees, you can go to a website like CreditFresh to see whether you can apply for a fast cash loan with a speedy application process in your home-state.
A fast cash loan can help manage the emergency expense in a short amount of time and then deal with the repayments later on. You can’t ignore this problem and hope for it to go away on its own.
Checking a Toilet Tank for Leaks
If you’re suspicious that something is wrong with your toilet, don’t call a plumber just yet. Save some money by investigating it on your own with the food coloring test. Pour a few drops of food coloring into the tank and then leave it alone. Come back to the toilet in 20 minutes and check the bowl. If the water sitting in the bowl is taking on the shade of food coloring, that means that there must be a leak between the tank and the bowl.
Once you spot the leak, you can call the plumber. The solution could be that you need to fix or replace the flapper — a quick, affordable fix. If you’re confident in your handy skills, you can repair your toilet’s flapper on your own.
Clean Your Showerhead
Is the flow coming out of your showerhead weak? It might not be a water pressure problem! One clue that it’s just an issue with the showerhead is that the water pressure is strong with the rest of your plumbing. The answer could be that your showerhead has build-up that’s blocking the water from coming out.
You don’t need a plumber to fix this. All you need to do is soak your showerhead in vinegar — this will break down the calcium deposits. Give it a good rinse and then put it back on. Give it a test. You might find that your water pressure is perfect when you’re done.
These simple DIYs can keep you from spending more on professional plumbing services than you need to. You can save yourself some money.
You may also read: How to Prevent Pipe Corrosion in Plumbing
