As any homeowner knows, every room in a house plays an important role. But of all the rooms in the house, there might not be a more popular room than the kitchen.
Think about that for a minute. The kitchen is the place where meals are prepared. If you’ve got an island in the middle of your kitchen, it may be the spot where meals are also eaten. It can be a place for family members to congregate during holidays. It can a spot where you grab a snack and take a few minutes to clear your head.
There’s a lot a person or a family can do in the kitchen, but nothing can halt it’s functionally faster than a clogged drain or a leaky drain. Believe it or not, the average household leaks account for more than 10,000 gallons of wasted water every year and a leaky faucet that drips at a rate of one drip per second can account for more than 3,000 gallons of wasted water a year.
When it comes to kitchen sink plumbing and household plumbing in general, here are some helpful tips to keep your drains clean and your kitchen functioning at tip-top form:
- Know where the shut-off valves are: Whether you’re just moving into a new home or you’ve lived in your home for years, you need to know where the main shut-off valve is.
- Be careful around pipes: If you’re planning on doing any drilling or putting in any nails in your house, you need to first be aware of where your supply and drainage pipes are because you absolutely don’t want to accidentally puncture them. You can actually use a stud finder to locate some pipes or you could use special cameras, which are made to be snaked into walls.
- Be careful what you flush: It seems more and more these days you see news stories about “flushable” baby wipes causing severe drain backups. When it comes to flushing things down your toilet, the only things that should be going down are waste and toilet paper.
- Don’t dump garbage: Nothing can screw up your kitchen sink plumbing faster than good being dumped down the drain. It may not seem like a lot, but grease and bits of meat and vegetables and other debris will clog your pipes faster than you think. When it comes to using your garbage disposal (if you have one), look at the manual for it to find out what it’s equipped to handle.
- Get a good plunger: One tool that can come in handy when dealing with clogged drains is a high-quality plunger. Plungers can be used to unclog kitchen sink plumbing, bathroom sinks, toilets and other drains where there is slow drainage. This can make drain cleaning faster and much less messy.
- Pay attention to leaks: As noted by the numbers above, leaks are no laughing matter whether you’re talking about kitchen sink plumbing, toilets or leaks in another part of your home. Not only do leaks waste a ton of water, but ignoring leaks can lead to some major and costly plumbing issues, which may require a professional plumbing service.
- Check for leaks: It’s one thing to take care of leaks once they are found, but it’s also important to pay attention to areas where leaks are common. If you’re doing any kind of plumbing project at home, always check for leaks by running water through your plumbing and also opening and closing all your values and drains.
- Be careful with fittings: If you’re doing some DIY work on your kitchen sink plumbing, it can be tempting to over-tighten fittings. This is a common mistake and it can lead to issues such as stripped screws and broken bolts. The best course of action is to keep things hand tight.
- Don’t be afraid of Plumber’s Tape: This special type of tape can help further seal pipe fittings and aid in preventing leaks around fittings and joints. Three turns of tape around threads is typically enough to do help prevent leaks before things are sealed.
By following the steps noted above, you’ll be doing your home a great service by being vigilant in checking for leaks and preventing them.
