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Preparing Plumbing For The Holidays With Your Plumbing Company | Myrtle Beach, SC
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Many people in Myrtle Beach, SC, have been spending more time at home than usual during the last two years. The holiday season is also a time when people spend more time at home with friends and family. More people in a home for longer periods means that plumbing pipes, fixtures, and appliances are being used more often. It’s very important to keep up on plumbing maintenance.
Appliances, such as water heaters, dishwashers, or washing machines, experience increased wear and tear when they operate more frequently. You can safeguard appliances and extend their functional lifetimes by scheduling regular maintenance from your local plumbing company.
Video Pipe Inspections
A professional plumbing company employs licensed plumbers and uses tools that most homeowners don’t have. Video pipe inspections are possible with very small cameras that actually fit inside and travel through your pipes. This type of inspection is especially useful for pipes buried underground or underneath a home’s foundation. No one wants to dig up their yard or break through the basement floor to find a plumbing problem.
Your plumber can use small cameras to see exactly what’s happening inside pipes and locate pinhole leaks, cracks, and blockages and clogs. A video inspection also helps identify the material causing the blockage. The problem may be substances that entered our plumbing through drains, but there’s also the possibility of tree root infiltration. You can request an inspection if you notice a plumbing problem, but your plumber also offers annual service inspections that may prevent or catch problems early.
Drain Cleaning
Drain cleaning is another essential service that should be done before the holidays. Bottles of chemical drain cleaning solutions at the store are not equivalent to professional drain cleaning by a plumbing company. Harsh chemical solutions can sometimes do more harm than good, and they aren’t capable of repairing cracks, removing tree roots, or dissolving clogs deep within water or drainage pipes. Specialized tools, such as drain snakes, can clear existing clogs, while hydrojets scour pipes and remove residue to prevent blockages in the future.
Garbage Disposals and Sink Drains
The holiday season is filled with fun and festivities, but a plumbing problem can derail your plans. A surprising number of emergency calls to a plumbing company in Myrtle Beach, SC, occur over the holidays. Use caution when disposing of food scraps and byproducts to protect your sink and kitchen. Garbage disposals are extremely convenient and generally easy to use, but they can also be a source of problems.
FOG, or fats, oils, and grease is a good acronym to help everyone in your household remember which foods and scraps shouldn’t go into the garbage disposal or down the drain. Although there are other problematic food items to avoid, FOG covers many common offenders. Oils and fats don’t hurt your garbage disposal, but they can cause clogs and other issues in your pipes. Fat hardens as it cools, and its sticky consistency picks up other scraps and debris.
Hardened fat deposits filled with assorted debris can be very hard to remove. Running hot water or soap down the drain is probably not enough to clear large clogs of this nature. The water doesn’t stay hot long enough to turn the fat liquid again, and soap may just build up on the outer surfaces of the deposit. A FOG deposit can even cause backups in your sink and other drains if the clog prevents water from flowing through drainage pipes. Homeowners frequently need the services of a plumbing company to remove such stubborn clogs.
Small amounts of potato skins and eggshells in the garbage disposal may not cause a problem, but many households use more potatoes and eggs while cooking holiday meals. The skins and shells can jam in your garbage disposal and clog pipes. Call a plumbing company to repair and clean a jammed garbage disposal and deal with clogs. Hard things, such as fruit pits or bones, aren’t good for garbage disposal systems either. They can chip the blades or damage other mechanisms. Small, hard items that do make it through the disposal can also damage or block drainpipes.
Fibrous vegetables can wrap around blades and other moving components of your disposal. It may seem like a lot of foods aren’t safe for garbage disposals. However, many foods can be safely processed through a disposal and down the kitchen sink drain. Safe substances include yogurt, applesauce, citrus fruits, mashed potatoes, cooked eggs without shells, and other soft and non-fibrous foods. Consult your local plumbing company to install and maintain your garbage disposal so it functions correctly for years to come.
Toilet Maintenance and Repairs
The bathroom is one of the most frequently used rooms in the house, so it also needs attention and maintenance before the holidays. A running toilet is a very common problem that can waste hundreds of gallons of water per year. This can cause a spike in your water bill, especially when the house is filled with people using the bathroom. Call a plumbing company as soon as you notice a problem in the bathroom to prevent unexpectedly high water bills.
Several things can cause problems with your toilet. The float ball in the toilet tank sinks as the water level decreases after flushing and opens a small inlet valve on the fill tube. This valve closes after the tank refills. A malfunctioning float ball lets the toilet run continuously because the inlet valve isn’t closing properly. Refill tubes can malfunction as well if the top of the tube is submerged underwater. The submerged tube lets the toilet keep running long after it was flushed.
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach is a plumbing company based on respect for customers. A team of licensed professional plumbers can handle all of your plumbing needs in Myrtle Beach, SC. They’re all experienced professionals that appreciate the importance of arriving on time and providing high-quality services.