How to turn off the garden hose for the winter properly.

1. Turn on the garden hose from the outside
2. Turn off the water for the garden hose from the inside of the house while leaving the garden hose outside on
3. If there is a bleeder on the shut off valve inside the house, open the bleeder to get out whatever water is still remaining in the pipes.

If your toilet is constantly running:

1. This could make your water bill expensive
2. One of the easiest ways to stop a leek is to clean the flapper on the inside of the tank.
3. Mildew grows on the flapper and causes it not to seal properly.
4. If the toilet is not flushing properly – you may want to try pouring a full bucket of water down the toilet. If the toilet flushes easier that way you may have a problem with too much calcium build up in the toilet.  Turning off the toilet, lifting up the flapper in the tank and pouring CLR into the empty tank may alleviate this problem.

How to plunge a toilet correctly:

1. A plunger actually works in the sucking motion instead of the pushing motion (some of the gimmicks sold on television may actually cause more problems than relief)
2. The proper way to plunge your toilet is to push the plunger as hard and far down as possible creating a seal between the toilet and the rubber part of the plunger.
3. Then pulling the plunger out hard and fast creating a suction motion is the proper way to plunge your toilet.

Can be reduce dramatically if your plumbing does not have any leeks. This section will help analyze your home yourself to see if you have any leeks in your plumbing system.

1. First make sure there is not water running anywhere in the house.
2. Then go to your water meter and make sure that it is not moving at all. There should be absolute no movement in your water meter.  If there is absolutely no movement in the water meter, that is a good indication that they are no leeks in the plumbing system.

If there is movement in the water meter while everything is off then follow the steps below to find the leak:

1. Inspect toilets – most leeks are in the toilet systems. You would need to turn off the toilet by the shut off valve located beside or beside the toilet. Once you have shut the toilet off, check the water meter again if the water meter has now stopped moving there is a good indication that that toilet is causing the leek.  While the toilet is still off, add a few drops of food colouring into the tank full of water an then wait a few minutes, if the water in the bowl turns colour then it is obvious that the toilet had a leek and that it may need to be serviced.  A few drops of water per hour can equal a lot of drops of water throughout the year.  That could save you up to $100.00 a year on your water bill just by making sure that you do not have a leek in your plumbing system.

To detect future floods in your basement you can run a water test to see if the drain can handle the volume of water.  You must fill your bathtub to the top and all the kitchen, laundry & bath sinks.  When everything is full drain everything at the same time and flush every toilet in the house.  If this causes a sewage smell or gurgling of basement drains or if the basement floods then this is an indication of a drain problem that requires professional diagnosis.

Sewage Smell in your basement?

1. Although a bad smell in the basement is an early indication of a drain problem, usually accompanied with gurgling noises is a good indication that you have a problem and that you have to call in a professional, but 80% of the houses build in Toronto were built without a primer line used to constantly add small amounts of water to floor drains.  When a floor drain dries out it will allow sewage gases to enter the home which causes a bad small. This is very easily fixed by just pouring a bucket of water in the floor drain to cause a seal and stop the gas.  To top up the level in the floor drain to the proper amount.
2. You should be able to put a garden hose in the floor drain and the water in the floor drain should not change, even while the water is running.  If the water level does rise, this is an indication that the drain is clogged up and that you will need to call in a professional.

If these tips were not useful enough please feel free to contact us.

Food Disposal Units (Garb Orator) – we recommend that do food disposal unit be used as it is a guaranteed visit by a plumber on a regular basis. However, should you insist on having one please use the following steps to use the visits by your plumber are minimal:

1. Only use cold water to wash down food
2. Do not put corn on a cob, onions skins, coffee grinds, oil, fat and celery – these items will clog the unit very easily.
3. You should make sure the garbage disposal unit is completely off or completely unplugged then trying to unclog the disposal unit.

How to remove a P-trap under a sink:

1. There is a screwable fitting just beyond the trap.
2. If you unscrew these two fittings the trap should fall out of its place
3. Make sure you have a bowl underneath, to catch any water that is stored in the trap.

Preventive Kitchen Maintenance:

1. If you insist on putting food and fat down your drain, every 6-8 months a year it’s a good idea to put vinegar down your drain and chase it with boiling water after a couple of minutes when the vinegar has settled in the pipes.