Summer is officially here, and now is a good time to take some basic steps to protect your plumbing and make sure everything works as it should. This way, you can hopefully avoid any plumbing issues and reduce how much water your home uses. It’s also important to ensure that all your water needs are efficiently met.
Check Inside Your Home for Leaks
Summer is a great time to go around your house and check for any plumbing and drain leaks. This means looking inside sink cabinets and using a flashlight to check underneath your dishwasher, washing machine, and refrigerator for water or any signs of a leak. You also want to look around to make sure you don’t see any wet spots or yellow water marks on your walls and ceilings and check for moldy or musty odors. Other things to look for are if any of the flooring near a sink, shower, bathtub, or toilet has started warping, lifting, or coming loose or if the floor feels spongy and soft. Check around your water heater for streaks or mineral residue on the tank, which could indicate a slight leak.
A leak can quickly result in mold growing and potentially spreading around your home, particularly in the summer. Mold issues can potentially develop at any time of the year, but the risk is always higher in summer due to the higher temperatures. When moisture and warmer temperatures are present, mold can grow within 24 to 48 hours. That’s why you must contact a plumbing company specializing in leak detection and repair if you spot any signs indicating a leak in your home.
Another reason you want to make sure there are no leaks inside your house is that the water will cause your home to become more humid as it evaporates. That means your house will feel hotter, and the higher indoor humidity will also make your air conditioning system work harder.
Inspect Your Hose Bibs and Sprinkler System
You also need to check all the hose bibs outside your house to ensure none are leaking. Similarly, if you have a sprinkler system, check each of the sprinkler heads and look for any signs that underground lines may be leaking. Outdoor leaks can be especially problematic since they can cause the ground near a home’s foundation to become waterlogged. This is a serious issue that can result in the home settling and the foundation cracking. If your home has a concrete slab foundation, water can also end up seeping up through the floor of the foundation and damaging your flooring. Checking for outdoor leaks is also important just to ensure you’re not wasting water.
Make Sure You Have the Right Water Pressure
A home’s water needs are generally higher during the summer months. This is because you often end up doing more laundry in the summer. After all, you’re more active and sweat more, and you might shower or bathe more often, too. Nonetheless, the main reason is obviously that most people have lawns, gardens, flowers, and other plants that frequently need watering.
The fact that you likely have increased water needs during the summer is why it’s a good idea to check what your water pressure is. If the pressure is too low, you’ll often end up encountering issues if you try to shower or do dishes or laundry at the same time as you’re watering your lawn or garden.
You can pick up an inexpensive water-pressure gauge at any hardware or home improvement store, and you can then hook it up to a hose bib to check your water pressure. Ideally, the pressure will be between 40 and 45 psi. Anything under 40 psi is considered too low, and anything higher than 60 psi is too high.
High water pressure can be an even bigger problem than low water pressure. The reason is that the high pressure can often cause seals inside a dishwasher or washing machine to blow out and lead to the appliance leaking. Having your water pressure too high also increases the risk of one of your pipes developing a leak.
If your water pressure is too low or too high, a plumber can adjust the pressure-regulating valve on your main water line. There’s also a chance that the valve is worn out and will need to be replaced.
Conserve Water However You Can
One of the most important things you should do is make every effort to conserve water however you can. This can be something as simple as taking shorter showers or turning off the water while washing your hair. Other useful methods include washing only full loads of laundry and only running your dishwasher when it’s full.
Approximately one-third of the average home’s total water usage in the summer months is for outdoor purposes, such as watering the lawn and plants. That means you should also try to minimize outdoor water usage, such as not watering your lawn more than twice a week. You should also only water in the early morning, late evening, or at night. Watering anything during the day is a huge waste since most of the water will end up evaporating before the roots of your plants can take it up.
Turn Down Your Water Heater
Many people turn up the temperature on their water heater during winter. With a tank water heater, doing so helps so that you can run the hot water longer before it starts getting cold. When you use hot water, cold water flows into the tank and dumps at the bottom. This helps to prevent it from mixing as much with the hot water in the upper part of the tank, but some of the water still mixes. This will cause the water to cool down more in the winter simply because the water flowing into your house is colder, and you can at least minimize this issue by turning the temperature up to 130 or 140 degrees.
While setting your water heater to 140 degrees isn’t necessarily bad, the water can feel too hot in the summer. Turning the temperature to 120 degrees will help conserve energy, but you never want to go any lower than this, or bacteria could start growing inside the water heater.
Clean Your Drains and Garbage Disposal
Never pour fats, oils, or grease down your kitchen sink or garbage disposal. The main reason is that they can stick inside the drain pipe or your sewer line, increasing the risk of them clogging. Another reason is that in the warmer months, fat, grease, and food particles inside your kitchen sink drain can attract cockroaches and other pests and potentially lead to them infesting your house. Cockroaches can live in the sewer system and can travel through a home’s sewer line and come up through sink and shower drains. They can also get inside a home other ways and end up living inside drains where they have access to food and water and scurrying around the kitchen or bathroom at night. That’s why it’s a good idea to regularly clean your drains and be cautious about what goes down them.
Bumble Bee Plumbing is a locally operated company offering exceptional plumbing services in Glendale, Phoenix, and the surrounding areas. We specialize in drain cleaning, sewer services, water heater repair, and installation and are ready to help with any of your plumbing needs this summer. Contact us today for more information or to schedule an appointment.
