Imagine that it’s an ordinary afternoon—you’re a little tired from work. You park in the driveway—first one home. The couch and Netflix are calling you, maybe a cold beverage too.

As you walk through the front door, the stench assaults your senses.

Sniff…Sniff

Your nostrils burn. Your eyes water. You gag—the smell is like death.

When you go to investigate, you are horrified at what you find: water and raw sewage bubbling from the toilet, the shower and the sink, dripping down the counter top, pooling all over the floor.

See a video.

You’ve just fallen victim to a main sewer line clog.

Want to keep yourself protected from disasters like this?

Basic plumbing care and some simple plumbing rules can prevent large and small disasters. Read on to learn about the Do’s and Don’ts of plumbing, why they matter, and see how many rules you’ve been breaking.

DO’S

These simple rules can save your hide. How many of these do you follow?

Do: Buy a Drain Screen

Also known as drain guards or drain strainers, these simple devices fit into shower drains. They allow water to pass but catch hair like a colander catches spaghetti.

Keeping hair out of your pipes goes a long way towards eliminating drain clogs. Keeping hair from your drains can even prevent a sewage-spewing sewer line clog. This preventative plumbing care is can save you big time.

Do: Get a Yearly Water Heater Flush

Your water looks crystal clear, but it’s full of minerals. Just like stalactites and stalagmites in a cave, those waterborne minerals can build up in your hot water heater.  When minerals or sediment gather there, you get less hot water for showers and a heater way more likely to break.

Having a plumber flush all of the junk out of your water heater prevents those issues. Included as part of a yearly plumbing maintenance program, you won’t need to worry about forgetting this crucial maintenance.

Warning: If you neglect a flush for five or six years, it may be too late. We have seen water heaters in which the mineral damage is too extensive to be repaired. At that point, replacement is the only option.

Do: Call a Plumber

For anything more than a clogged toilet, call a professional.

Unless you went to school for it, you stand a good chance of doing more harm than good. Every year, we respond to numerous calls in which a homeowner got in over his head, turning a simple issue into a full-blown disaster.

Call us.

DON’TS

These bad habits can put you in the crosshairs of some serious trouble. How many of these have you done? Read on but be prepared to cringe.

Don’t: Use Liquid Drain Cleaner

Chemical drain cleaners might be sold in every grocery store on the planet, but that doesn’t mean you should buy. These corrosive chemicals often fail to reach deep clogs but instead erodes your pipes or toilet bowl.

Imagine the irony of trying to clear a clogged pipe, and instead, cutting a massive hole in it.

Instead call a professional to clear a pipe clogs safely. We use professional quality machinery to destroy clogs and keep them from coming back.

If you want a non-toxic home product, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing offers that as well.

BioBen®: BioBen® is Benjamin Franklin Plumbing’s 100% safe pipe cleaning home solution. Instead of harsh chemicals, BioBen® employs sludge-eating microorganisms to eliminate clogs without putting your pipes or health at risk.

Don’t: Pour Grease Down the Garbage Disposal.

You know that scenario in which raw sewage floods your house? Pouring grease in the garbage disposal makes that happen. When you dump the fatty liquid down the drain, it solidifies, forming blockades in your sewer pipe.

If sewage has nowhere left to go, what happens?

It heads right back where it came from. That’s what.

Don’t: Treat Your Toilet like a Trash Can.

This one makes a nasty tag team with grease. Even if the packaging says “flushable”, unless its toilet paper, it isn’t really flushable.

Just like grease blocks your all-important sewage pipe, garbage does the same thing.

When the sewage has nowhere to go, it overflows back into your home. Imagine it pouring out of every drain and coating every clean surface in your bathroom and kitchen.

DO YOU DO THE DO’S AND DON’TS?

How did you end up doing?

Are you a plumbing care champ?

Or are you putting yourself at risk for a disaster?

If you haven’t treated your plumbing as well as you should have, you can schedule a general whole-house plumbing check-up.

If you’ve been flushing trash and dumping grease, you need to schedule a sewer line inspection—before you come home to a house full of sewage.

Schedule one here.

WRAP-UP

Have you learned a bit about plumbing care?

We hope so.

Following these simple Do’s and Don’ts can keep more money in your wallet and prevent a stomach turning disaster.

We keep you informed because we want you to have the best plumbing experience possible. Contact us to discuss any issue or schedule any service mentioned above.