Pipe Gripes - HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric

DIY: Insulating Your Water Pipes

If you live in a place with cold winters, insulating the water pipes in your house can help prevent pipes from freezing and save you money by cutting down your water heater usage during the cold months. Moreover, it’s something you can do yourself. Consider the following when insulating your water pipes.

Make sure you measure your pipes before you get the insulation material so you know how much to purchase. Note the size of each individual pipe (if not all pipes are the same length) and also add up the total length. You’ll want to measure both hot and cold water lines. While many people only worry about covering their hot water lines, cold water lines can also freeze, and they can cause condensation issues if they’re not insulated.

You should be able to find most of the materials you need in the plumbing section of the hardware store. However, if you’re insulating pipes for the first time, it’s a good idea to get assistance from a sales person to make sure you’re getting the right stuff. To ensure that you have enough insulation, you may want to purchasea few extra feet of material, and later return whatever you don’t use.

Although the project isn’t a particularly dangerous one, for safety’s sake, graba friend to help you with the insulation part. Take the material – an insultube, which is usually split sideways and has a protective plastic cover protecting the adhesive side – and spread it over the pipe, then cutting the length to fit. Once the wrap is on the pipe, pull off the plastic strips from the adhesive and push the wrap together to make a bond.

Use foam insulation tape wherever the pipe curves or turns. Also tape wherevertwo pieces of the wrap meet up. This helps keep it sealed and from coming apart. As you cover the pipes, check for any signs of leaks at the pipe connections and also check the water lines for any unsealed holes through your home’s floors or walls.

Tada! Now you’re ready to take on the upcoming winter without having to worry about frozen pipes or sky-high water heater costs.

* * *

Pipe Gripes is written by published by Thompson Plumbing Heating & Cooling.  Visit our website at http://www.333Help.com.

(Flickr Photo by iyoupapa)

Do I Have to Insulate the Pipes in My Crawl Space?

The simple answer to this question is: yes, you do. But we’ll also give you a more detailed explanation and some advice on how to do it.

The pipes in your crawl space are in an unheated portion of your home and, therefore, they could freeze without proper insulation (provided, of course, that you live in a climate with cold winters and that your pipes are not buried far below the frost line). Fortunately, crawl space pipes can be insulated relatively cheaply and easily, just like the pipes in your basement or attic.

Begin by using an insulating material, such as an electrical wire heating wrap

, to wrap the exposed pipes. Alternatively, there are also spray foams that can be used to surround and insulate your pipes. However, these are usually used in basements or in walls where there is already some form of insulation from the cold. Because a

crawl space is essentially outdoors, the foam may not work as well for this applicatio

n if you live in a brutally cold climate.

Regardless of what type of insulating material you use, be sure to insulate all

of the cold and hot water pipes in your crawlspace. It is a myth that cold water pipes don’t freeze as much as hot water pipes do – insulate everything.

Depending on your climate, you may also want to insulate your entire crawlspace as well as the individual pipes.

In addition to insulation, you can also prevent pipes from freezing during the coldest months by keeping the water running at a constant trickle. For best results, run both cold and hot water taps. This might result in slightly higher water and electricity bills, but overall, it will be cheaper than the cost to fix a burst pipe. 

(Flickr Photo by numberstumper)

Why Drains Are Only For Water

Often, people rinse more than water down their drains, not thinking about where the chemicals or other liquids could lead. However, rinsing things down the sink aren’t good for the environment or your pipes.

For starters, it’s never a good idea to rinse household or automotive chemicals down any drain in your home. These cleaning products and chemicals will make their way into lakes and oceans, causing serious damage.

Do not put any pesticides down the drain, along with any cleaning products, germicides, or antiseptics that contain mercury.

Several common items people rinse down the sink are from the kitchen, but they still don’t belong in the drain. Throw away items including sauces, dairy products, meat fats, lard, cooking oil, butter, margarine, shortening, baking goods, and food scraps, coffee grinds, egg shells, and produce stickers.  Grease, in all of its forms, will harden along the sides of the pipes and eventually block them after a period of time.

Many of the other items, such as food scraps and egg shells, just don’t dissolve over time, so eventually they will clog the pipe, or need a professional cleaning.

Check the labels on the cleaning products in your home. Any product containing quaternary ammonia sanitizers (often found in fabric softeners, commercial cleaners, and pine oil cleaners) should be avoided.

Other items that you should not rinse down the drain include grease from cars and lawnmowers, motor oil, transmission fluids, anti-freeze, pieces of garbage, flushable cat litter, paper towels, solvents, nail polish and nail polish remover, or medication of any kind. Products of this sort can corrode the entire plumbing system, which means you’d need an entire plumbing remodel to fix it.

If the pipes in your home do become clogged, only use drain cleaners as a last resort.

Pipe Gripes is written and published by Thompson Plumbing Heating & Cooling .

(Flickr Photo by vanz)

What To Do About A Stinky Garbage Disposal

Even after you rinse everything down the garbage disposal, you might still detect a funky smell emanating from the drain. Over time, small food particles build up in and around your garbage disposal, stinking up an otherwise fresh-smelling kitchen. Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to clean out your garbage disposal and eliminate that unpleasant odor.

First, try flushing out the disposal with some soap and hot water. The best way to do this is by putting a stopper over the drain, then filling the sink with several inches of hot water and a squeeze of dish detergent. Then, remove the plug and turn on the disposal, letting the sudsy water flush through.

You can also try turning on the disposal and keeping it running while you toss in several ice cubes and a handful of kosher rock salt. The friction provided by these items will help scrub away rotting food particles clinging to the disposal and the sides around it. This will also help keep your disposal’s blades sharp. To add a pleasant scent, throw some lemon peels into the running disposal after the salt and ice have gone through.  

If the smell persists after trying the above methods, pour a half-cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by a cup of vinegar. Wait about ten minutes for the fizzy mixture to do its work and then flush with boiling water.

Want to prevent future stink-ups? Make sure you always run your garbage disposal long enough so that all the larger chunks are washed completely down the drain. You can also make a habit of running ice cubes, rock salt and lemon peels through the disposal from time to time so that particles don’t get a chance to build up in the first place and your sink stays smelling fresh year-round.

(Flickr Photo by Chris Winters)