Welcome to adulthood, where you realize that paying your bills one time is the most important expense you need to account for, and that money doesn’t come easily. Gone are the days where you count on your mother to do the laundry, or your dad to fix what’s broken around the house. Even if you’re pretty handy and can handle most repairs on your own, many people hesitate to do their own plumbing. However, there’s no reason to call a plumber and premium rates for some simple plumbing problems that you can fix on your own. Here are a few basics that everyone should know how to handle by themselves.
Replacing Basic Fixtures
Everything is bound to break or wear out, and you will inevitably find that there are fixtures in your bathrooms and kitchen that need replacing. Faucets, shower heads, and other pipes are commonly replaceable items. Probably the most difficult procedure you would need to look up is how to remove a tub spout that’s stuck, but that’s still something that most DIYers can handle if they are careful.
Unclogging: Drains, Sinks, Tubs, And Toilets
Clogged pipes are all too familiar, and we all know what it means when water is flowing too slowly into a drain. Even worse, sometimes you’ll find water coming out where it should be going in. Most unclogging is simple enough and there are many commercial products that you can buy to help you unclog drains, sinks, tubs, or even toilets. Calling a plumber to unclog something should only be the last resort. It’s worth noting that most things get clogged due to bad practices, such as flushing toilet paper or not removing hair from the drain when you take a shower. Overtime, these things cause a serious blockage in your plumbing, that requires unclogging.
Caulking
If you leave silicone caulk around your bathtub untouched for too long, it will inevitably get grimy and stained. While there are many home remedies to try and clean caulk, it’s stilla advisable to scrape it off and replace it every once in a while. The stained caulk is a sign of microbial growth, which can have very harmful adverse effects on your health. Removing existing caulk and recaulking is generally a simple enough process that anyone can do, and paying a plumber to do it is just absurd – unless you’ve got a money tree hidden somewhere.
The Bottom Line
Learning a few basic plumbing practices to do on your own can certainly save you a lot of money. If you don’t learn how, then your only other choice is either to pay a plumber or ignore the repairs altogether. Generally speaking, plumbing repairs cause more damage over time if you do not repair them. So, the only financially sensible thing to do is to learn how to do it yourself.
If you’re worried that you won’t be able to do things right, make sure to do enough research beforehand. In the end, if you find that you’re unable to repair something – you can resort to finally calling the plumber, after all other measures have been taken.
