Our homes’ plumbing and heating system is something that doesn’t really cross our minds. It’s just there working in the background and doing its job. That is until a problem occurs.
Whilst larger problems require professional assistance, there are smaller ones that you can attend to by yourself such as unclogging the toilet or tightening a loose pipe fitting. However, no matter how manageable the problem is, it’ll be much less tiresome to prevent these issues from occurring to begin with.
These tips can help you save the hassle and time of having to tend to any potential problems that could arise. Plus some are just good-to-know to help save some pennies.
1. Know where to locate your home’s main water valve/stop tap
It’s incredibly useful to know where your home’s main water valve/stop tap is in case of those extremities such as a burst pipe. There are two types of stop taps, internal and external.
An inside stop tap will typically be situated under a kitchen sink or in an airing cupboard, but if not you can also find it underneath your stairs, floorboards, near your front door, or within a utility room such as a bathroom or garage. The valve itself looks just like a tap without a spout.
In order to turn off your mains water supply from the stop tap, turn the valve itself clockwise. If you can begin to feel resistance when turning the valve, do not exceed this and stop turning.
2. Try to avoid using chemical drain cleaners – they can do more harm than good
A lot of the chemical drain cleaner products on the shelves are pretty convincing but don’t be easily fooled. Most of the time they’re not too effective and can sometimes even cause more harm than good. Because of the harsh chemicals that are used within these products, they can damage pipes and can even cause erosion.
3. Don’t pour grease, oils, or food down the drains
Pouring grease, oils, and food down your drains can cause pretty severe blockages within your waste pipework. The blockage isn’t usually immediate and will build up over time. Greases will solidify and large chunks of food can get stuck, ultimately creating stubborn blockages in your pipes.
If you want to dispose of any fats used for cooking, try using a material such as tinfoil to capture the waste. Place it on top of the drain and slightly push in to mold the drain shape and pour the oils in here (once cooled down, not whilst they are scorching hot!). Then scrunch up the material to capture the greases/oils and dispose of it with normal household waste.
For food items, particularly those that are a combination of liquids and food chunks (such as soups and canned items), use a strainer/sieve to separate the two so the liquids can go down the drain as normal but the food chunks can be binned.
4. Prevent pipes from freezing over with insulation
Insulating pipes (especially in unheated areas like lofts and garages) will help prevent any frost buildup and allow the water to flow easily. There are plenty of affordable pipe lagging and tank jackets available online and in most DIY/hardware retailers that you can use to insulate your home’s pipes yourself.
5. Minimise draughts by insulating your windows, doors, and more
Older UK homes that have poor insulation suffer from draughts more so than newbuilds, so applying some preventative measures to help tackle these will keep your home warmer at lower costs. You can purchase plenty of different types of insulation for windows, doors, and floors to help draught-proof your home without breaking the bank.
However, if you do want to be more sparing with your money, you can makeshift a few draught excluders that can be used at the bottom of your doors to stop the cold air from creeping in. Just simply take some old materials such as blankets, shirts, jackets, or anything that you’d be ok with having on the floor and roll them up and place them at the bottom of your doors to obscure the gap where the draughts enter.
6. Turn individual radiators off in lesser-used rooms
One thing to save money on your heating is to manually turn off the dials of radiators in rooms that are not used. Whether it’s the spare bedroom that only has guests 3 times a year or the bathroom that you only visit a handful of times throughout the day, turning the radiators off at the valves means heat won’t be distributed to a room that there’s no point in heating.
If you need help identifying the valve for each room’s radiator, it will be the manual lever at the bottom of your radiators, usually labeled with marks from 1-6, with a 0 to turn it completely off.
And that concludes our tips to take with you this year. If you want to prevent any of the larger, more severe problems from occurring within your home, you’ll want to look at getting a boiler service completed.
And if those problems have already begun to appear, it’s high time to get them sorted. Get in touch with one of the expert and friendly GreenSmart Services engineers so that those emergencies can be dealt with promptly.
