Simple Bathroom Plumbing Tips

Home DIY is a touchy subject for most homeowners. Taking a hammer to your beloved bedroom could result in a lovely scenic picture being hung, complimenting your carefully choses colour scheme; alternatively it could leave you with an unwanted serving hatch and a lawsuit-worthy view of the neighbours bathroom. It is important to gauge whether or not a DIY task or project is beyond your capabilities; employing tradesmen isn’t cheap, but rebuilding your house after removing a supporting wall to make way for your home gym could be somewhat more expensive.

With that in mind, let’s look at some simple ways to deal with some common bathroom problems that you could repair yourself with little time and effort.

Drain Blockage

A blocked drain is a common problem that can cause all kinds of unneeded hassle, filling your baths with an ungodly smell, spilling water out and delaying drainage times massively. Interconnected drainage systems can often affect each other, for example a blocked bath drain can pump water and gunk out into the tub when you pull the plug out in a sink full of water. To overcome this problem most people will turn to the trusty plunger to try and cause some movement around the area of the blockage, but when the plunger just won’t cut it, it’s time to pull out the big guns.

Your first port of call should be a dissolvent, a liquid you can pour down the drain and leave to dissolve built up matter around bends in your pipes. After a few hours the liquid could completely dissolve any blockages and leave your pipes unscathed. If you are looking or something a little more hands-on, look for a pipe blasting device; working by shooting a compressed jet of air down blocked drains this can be a handy way of removing built up waste in your drainage system.

Chilly Nights with Frozen Pipes

Living with frozen pipes is a risky business, if they happen to burst then a significant amount of freezing water can quickly turn your kitchen into a water feature and causing costly damage to your home. Your first task is to identify the frozen pipe, a tell-tale sign of a frozen pipe is frost, condensation or hard ice around the exterior of the pipe; if you are unsuccessful in visually locating the frozen section then feel the length of pipe, any frozen pipes will be bulging and significantly colder than the rest. A simple solution is to increase the heating in your home; this may thaw out the pipe over time and help to restore water flow, directing a heater towards the area of wall which covers your frozen pipe will speed up the thawing process. Consider buying a pipe heating cable; containing electrical wiring the heating cable warps around the pipe when plugged in, and helps to quickly thaw an area of pipe.

Whichever method you use to thaw out your pipes, do so slowly. Heating the frozen pipes to quickly can cause permanent damage and will have to be replaced.

So there we are; some simple advice to help you keep plumbers on the bench until absolutely necessary.

Written by Stephanie Staszko on behalf of Branded Bathrooms and Designo Radiators. You can follow Steph on Twitter @StephStaz for more interior design and home decor posts.