When we tell you to “watch out for FOG!”, we don’t mean to be cautious of sinister figures lurking in a mist spreading across the city at night. (Although you should always drive cautiously in fog, no matter the time of day.) The “fog” we’re talking about is FOG, an acronym for “fats, oils, and grease.” They are some of the worst things that can affect the drains in your home—specifically the kitchen drain, although they can get down into the sewer line as well and make trouble for the entire house.
If you’re cautious about preventing FOG from going into the drains, you can reduce the chance of having major clog problems.
Winter brings many threats to a home, and one of the worst is frozen pipes. A frozen pipe not only stops the flow of water, but it also puts the pipe in danger of bursting. Trying to thaw out a pipe often speeds up the bursting, since it increases pressure in the pipe to the point of a lateral burst.
The bathroom uses more water than any other room in the house. Considering how much water goes to daily showering, this makes a lot of sense. The toilet alone accounts for 40% of all indoor water use. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a large part of the work of a professional plumber centers on providing installations, repairs, and maintenance for the bathroom plumbing.
The first two months of a new year bring the realization that you actually have to do something about any resolutions you made. Even if you didn’t make any resolutions, this is the time when you want to plan improvements for your house and put everything in order in the wake of another busy end to another year.
A few weeks ago, we wrote a “for” and “against” article
Nobody really wants to waste water. But it’s too easy to fall into patterns in a home that lead to water waste or to let basic plumbing tasks that can lower water consumption go undone. Eventually, you might find yourself looking at water bills that seem far too high—higher than you remember paying.
Everyone would love to have a magical household tool capable of solving any dilemma. Sort of like a Swiss Army Knife of home tools. People often treat duct tape as this type of cure-all (although, bizarrely, it doesn’t work on ducts). When it comes to plumbing, the drain snake, a.k.a. the drain auger, is elevated to the same lofty position of the Answer to All Drain Troubles.
We know you take pride in your house and always aim to make it as clean and welcoming as possible. The end of the year, when you’re likely to be entertaining more guests and family members than usual, is when you’ll be especially concerned with the cleanliness and overall pleasantness of your home.
Professional cleaning of drains is an important plumbing job. It’s also misunderstood, and this leads to many homeowners neglecting to have it done at the right time, or attempting to do it in a way that ends up creating more problems.
Fall is one of the two “shoulder seasons” the come between more intense weather. It’s during these times people often investigate replacing important comfort appliances. Often it’s replacing the heater or the air conditioner, but the water heater is another vital part of home comfort that will eventually need to be replaced. The water heater does much more work around the year than any furnace or air conditioner, since it has to operate almost every single day, and all that wear and tear accumulates until the unit has to be replaced. And, maybe, this is the fall when you need to replace yours?