We all love to carry out a DIY project ourselves. It is fun and exciting until something goes horribly wrong, especially when you have taken up some project like plumbing.
Though there is no issue in trying to fix minor plumbing problems in your house or installing a new tap or other plumbing equipment around your house. But if you are going to fix your entire plumbing system, then you are prone to making mistakes.
If you end up making a critical mistake, chances are it will end up costing you a lot of money to fix that problem. The smart thing to do would be to hire an emergency plumbing service in your area like Schuler Plumbing, LLC.
In this article we will discuss about the common plumbing mistakes do-it-yourselfers tend to commit. Take a look.
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Not turning off the water
Though turning off any running water system seems like the very first logical step to take when fixing a plumbing problem, it is also very easy to overlook it. A simple DIY project can turn into an expensive disaster in minutes due to this, not to mention the mess it will create when water sprays freely after removing a fixture. Every moment that you spend scampering around trying to shut of the valve, can cause increasing damage to the floors and walls of your house.
Wrong fixture placement
This is another common mistake DIY plumbers make especially when replacing the toilet. Even though replacing the toilet might seem like a very easy task. But in some cases, you will come to notice that the new toilet that you bring doesn’t quite fit into the space like your earlier one. This depends on the rough-in (measurement from the wall to the floor nearest to the toilet) a standard modern house has a rough-in of about 12 inches and if you don’t get the measurements correctly, you will end up with a wrong sized toilet and you might even have to move the drain to fix the toilet, which is rather expensive.
Mismatched pipes
Plumbing these days uses a lot of modern piping materials. Deciding on which piping material to choose can be quite confusing. Some piping can be joint together by means of connections, while others should not be mix matched at any costs. Using mix matched pipes can lead to pipe leaks and cause an even bigger issue for you.
Over using the drain cleaner
Even though using chemical drain cleaners fix the problems of minor clogging but if used more than necessary they can cause more harm than good. The strong chemicals used in the cleaners can cause significant damages to your pipeline and fixtures over the time.
Not sloping shower floors
Though many innovations have been made in plumbing over the years, but still the most important thing that any plumbing system relies on is the action of gravity. While installing shower tiles, it needs to be slanted in a precise angle, otherwise the water will pool around the drain for longer period of time giving way to the formation of mold and mildew.
Tightening the connections way too much
It is true that plumbing connections need to be watertight but over tightening the connections can cause a lot of problem and might even damage your fittings and break the washers. As most the connections already come with a water tight seal and over tightening can easily break these seal.
Forgetting the reinstallation process
If you are a DIYer it is not unusual to forget how to put things back together. So when you are taking any plumbing apart, you need to keep a point of reference, from which you can easily reassemble the parts.
Conclusion
These are some of the common mistakes that DIY plumbers tend to make. This article will help you carry out your DIY plumbing project without making errors that DIYers are prone to make.
Here are 3 big No-Nos that people tend to make:
