3 Common Plumbing Problems You Can Inspect and Fix to Save Money

3 Common Plumbing Problems You Can Inspect and Fix to Save Money

As you continue to look at the interior and exterior of your home, we found three common plumbing problems that most home owners can fix themselves – often for less than $5.

Credit: ?KHOU 11 News’ Shern-Min Chow

While you are looking at your plumbing, take just a few minutes to check the following related items as well.

• Clean the garbage disposal.?It’s good to get in the habit of doing this monthly. Pour a cup of vinegar into an ice cube tray, fill up the rest of the tray with water and stick it in the freezer. When the solution has frozen, pop out the vinegar ice cubes and place them in the disposal. Turn it on and let the ice cubes scrub the disposal as they are ground up. The vinegar will remove accumulated grease and eliminate odors coming from the disposal. Clean all drains, including the disposal, two or three times a year by pouring in equal parts salt, baking soda and vinegar, followed about 30 seconds later by two quarts of boiling water. Give the mixture a chance to work overnight to clear clogged drains. (Learn more: ?Drains 101: Skip the plumber and tackle these tasks yourself.?)
• Clean or replace garbage cans and pails.?Check garbage containers inside and out for cracks and breakage. Replace cracked or broken outdoor cans and use bungee cords to keep lids closed tightly. Take the kitchen garbage pail outside, sprinkle in a half-cup of baking soda and fill the can with hot water. Let sit for an hour, then dump out the water and use spray cleanser to wipe down the can inside and out. Dry it thoroughly before putting it back in the kitchen and inserting an empty garbage bag. Clean the refrigerator by removing everything and washing down the inside with hot water and baking soda.
• Eliminate bathroom and kitchen smells.?Trapped moisture encourages smelly mildew, mold and rot, which can create odors in the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. Thoroughly inspect each of these rooms for cracks and breakage in grout and caulking that let water seep behind tile and flooring. (Learn?how to replace cracked or chipped tile grout and read ?How to caulk your bathtub neatly.?) Check appliances for plumbing leaks by looking for moisture under or around sinks, tubs, washer, dryer, shower and toilets. Check for toilet leaks: Add a few drops of food coloring into the tank (not the bowl) of a toilet. Don’t flush. Come back in an hour to see if any of the color has reached the toilet bowl. If it has, you probably need to replace the flapper in the tank. If water is collecting around the base of the toilet, the seal ? the wax gasket between the toilet and floor ? may have failed and need to be replaced. ?(To diagnose more toilet troubles, read ?Troubleshoot your toilet without a plumber.?)

And, for extra money saving, look into installing two simple water-saving devices:

• Toilet-tank displacers.?If you’ve been meaning to try some of those water-saving tricks you’ve read about, here’s an easy one to start with: Older toilet tanks hold a lot more water than they need for flushing. Cut water usage by displacing some of this tank water. The?http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/Toilet_Retrofit_Devices.aspx?cautions that this is a good idea only for toilets with a rated flush volume of 3.5 gallons or more. (Look for information about your toilet’s rated flush volume on a label behind the seat hinge or stamped into the porcelain of the back of the tank. If you can’t find it, ask your water utility to help while conducting a no-charge home audit of your water usage. Or contact the toilet’s manufacturer for help identifying your model’s specifications.) Here’s how to displace water in the tank: Fill a clean, half-gallon plastic milk bottle with water and add some small stones to help weight it down, then lower the bottle into the tank, being careful to avoid the working parts. Or, purchase and install a Toilet FlushLess water displacement bladder bag. But whatever you do, don’t ? as some advise ? put bricks in the toilet tank. They’ll crumble and the sediment can wreck a toilet.

• Aerators. Kitchen and bathroom faucets consume a great deal of water. Trim your home’s water usage by installing aerators in the faucet heads. Some shower heads accept aerators, too. Aerators mix air into the water to maintain good water pressure while reducing the amount of water flowing through the faucet. They cost $2 to $3 at a hardware store. Some water utilities give them free to customers. To install, screw the aerators onto the faucet tip. If you already have aerators on your faucets, remember to remove them annually to clean off any mineral deposits that can clog the screw-on screen and interfere with your water flow. Just toss and replace badly clogged aerators.