Hey guys Roger Wakefield the expert plumber coming to you today asking you and answering to you
What are the top 10 plumbing mistakes?
Mistake number one, and this is one that I think every family should learn
Mistake number one is not knowing how to turn off the water
If you're working on anything at your house or even if you're not you need to know how to turn that water off
turning the water off is a big deal because
Whether you're working on something or not if you have a leak in your house
You and believe it or not every family member you have needs to know how to turn the water off in your house
Why is that a big deal so you've got a water heater either in the garage in the?
Attic or in a closet on the interior of the house
If one of your kids comes home after school one day
Water is everywhere if they know how to turn that water off that can save you tens of thousands of dollars
You think that's not a big deal
I've seen water heaters rupture in the Attic and families have to be out of their house
For six to eight months while all the repairs are being made done
We're on the insurance company paid for it
But still do you want to go through the inconvenience of being out of your house for that long?
It's not a good thing to happen
Mistake number two treating the toilet like a trash can guys treating the toilet like a trash can
Is crazy you would not believe the things plumbers pull out of toilets. It's not for
Feminine products. It's not for you know trash or a paper towel
It's not for anything like that be very careful as to what you put in the toilet
because you can either stop it up inside the toilet or whatever it is can go further down the sewer line and
Actually cause a clog that can lead to bigger problems so number two treating the toilet like a trash can is not a good thing
number three placing too much weight on fixtures
I'm bad about this myself. I've got the shower caddy hanging up that has my shampoo and conditioner. I know y'all can see that
That's something that I use a lot of and definitely high-end product. I did used to be a hair stylist so
Guys hanging too much things on that those arms can break
Plumbers charged a lot of money to come in with the specialized tools to reach up in there take that nipple out
and replace that and
Really, you can avoid that problem by not hanging too many things up on that even something heavy and hard
Just setting that setting it down on a toilet
The tank lids are porcelain just like the bowl itself
Just like the tank you play something too hard or too heavy on there
You can crack it some of those can be replaced some of them came either way. It's not a good thing
number four joining dissimilar metals now
this is something that is a handyman you may not even realize if you join copper to
Galvanized to black iron any other metal that is dissimilar
without using a dielectric Union or dielectric isolation
Those dissimilar metals will cause electrolysis and cause it to rot
Believe it or not guys. It starts as soon as you put it together
Dissimilar metals don't like each other when water flows through them
They create the electrolysis, and it slowly starts sieving the way the inside of it
Not a good thing to happen so if you are joining dissimilar metals think about going down to the box store or someplace
Getting a dielectric Union
Getting something like that anything that you can use to separate the metals to keep them from touching while water is flowing through it
That will keep you from having a problem
number five treating your garbage disposal like a trash can
Guys we're gonna do some videos to show you all the kind of things that people put down garbage disposals all the time
But guys are not a trash can it's not made to just throw junk in anything
You don't want to throw in a trash?
Can you toss in there and hit the button turn it off?
Those two different things number one it clogs up the disposal number two it wears out the disposal
Number three you throw something in there big enough that it can get that thing spinning around too bad and cause too much vibration
You can cause your sink to leak you can cause the disposal to leak you can cause a lot of problems that you don't want
What I tell people is look scrape your plates off in your trash can then rinse them off
Then use the disposal to clean up any food particles that go down
Number six I know I can count number six
Pouring Paynter concrete down the drain, and I know that sounds funny guys
But we've actually had to go in with sizzle before
Where the mason the tile guy sorry not the Mason the tile guy had taken grout poured it down the toilet
There were no why there's no water running at the time. This is a new construction job
It all hardened up. We couldn't ship it out. We were afraid we were gonna break the toilet
We end up having to pour chemicals down there to slowly eat it up guys don't pour anything down the toilet
It's made for bodily waste. It's made for toilet tissue
It's not even made for baby wipes it's not made for feminine napkins. It's not made for condoms. Yeah
They say all that will flush guys
Don't flush it it can cause your toilet to stop up or your main sewer line to stop up
Another problem so anything down the drain. That's not just a sink drain or not just a toilet drain floor drains
You don't want to pour it down any drain because you will cause that drain to stop up
number two over tightening a faucet handle if
Your solution to a drippy faucet is by over tightening the handle. That's the wrong solution
Take the faucet apart so again go back to number one know where to turn the water off
Okay, take the faucet apart look at the washer if you catch it when it first starts dripping
Normally a rebuild on it is an easy thing to do
You can just change washers or washers and Springs if you've got bigger problems than that you may have to
Take it apart you may have to change your seat
There may be things where you end up wanting to call a plumber
But over tightening the faucet handle especially with these new cartridges. We have these days
Fattening it or pushing it further doesn't really help. There are either
ceramic disks that are real smooth that move inside, which those normally don't leak or
There's a rubber in there with a spring behind it and either the spring doesn't have any strength anymore the rubbers worn out
Or the surface that it runs on is not smooth anymore, so it's not sealing off
number eight over-tightening threads
eight
Over-tightening threads, I know this sounds funny
But guys over tightening something doesn't always make the leak stop and when you're putting it together
You don't want to over tighten it anyway
Because then if it is a leak you want to have a little play in it where if you tighten it up a little bit
More it can actually tighten it up one thing is to when it comes to plumbing
Put teflon tape on put pipe dope on I actually use both
I use the white teflon tape and then the white t plus two pipe dope put that on make my threads
Probably turn it four or five times to get good penetration on my threads
I don't over tighten it you want to still
See threads sticking out
So don't think that you just tighten it down to all the threads are gone and then it's good
So over tighten it is not always good. You can cause more problems than you can fix by trying to tighten it
Number nine turning on the water heater before it's ready, and it sounds funny
But if you've changed out an electric water heater, or if you've changed out the elements in it
And you hook back up the power on and the first thing you want to do is turn it on to start making water
Hold up. Just a minute fill it up with water first
Whether you shut the water off at the ball valve on top the yard
Box right outside your door or at the meter make sure you fill up and get all the air out of your
Electric water heater before you turn the power on if you don't what's gonna happen is you're gonna
End up blowing your elements and all that work that you've done. You're gonna get to redo it blown elements
They're not gonna heat the water, so do not turn the water on
Before your water heater is ready for it
Number 10, this is the big one
Remember how things go back together, and I know that sounds funny, but what I like to do is one or two things either
Print up an exploded diagram of it that way you can see part by part
How it goes back together a lot of the installation manuals have these with them
That's great because that shows you the exact order everything goes in
Believe it or not
All different brands have different ways that they want certain things somewhat washers on top someone on the bottom someone on both
Toilets are the same way if you're putting a tank and a bowl together. It could be different as to how it goes together
Make sure you look at the directions
If you don't have the directions look it up on the computer
Pull up your part number pull up your model number. See if there's an exploded view of it
See what that can do to teach you how it goes together
The last thing I like to do is when I take it apart lay the parts out in order to take a picture
that way I know how they go back the only problem with that is if
Somebody took it apart before you and didn't put it back together right you're not putting it back right either
But guys these are the top ten mistakes that we find in the plumbing industry these are things that
Hopefully you won't make now my name is Roger Wakefield. With Texas Green Plumbing saving you money one drop at a time
Subscribe guys click the button come on. I know you can do it. Thanks, and have a great day