It’s always a good idea to be on the lookout for HVAC problems when the weather turns warm, but many people overlook their plumbing. However, summer weather is something that can be hard on your entire home. Here are a few of the most common causes of plumbing issues during the summer months, so you can be on the lookout for further problems.
At the end of a long, hot summer day, it can feel great to take a cool shower before bed. Being able to wash away that sand and sunscreen may be refreshing for your body, but it can wreak havoc on your drain lines. Pipe Blockages can cause your shower or bathtub basin to drain slowly or become hopelessly clogged.
During the summer, many people host parties and get-togethers at their homes. When more people than just your family are using your bathrooms, toilets can get clogged more frequently than they do during other parts of the year. Mistakes like using too much toilet paper or flushing improper objects may cause clogs, so make sure your guests have access to a waste bin and sewer-safe products.
From potato salad to chicken wings, summer foods can turn any event into a real party. Many families find themselves cooking all kinds of seasonal goodies during the warmer summer months, including sweet corn, slow-cooked barbecue, and cookies for the kids to enjoy when they are on summer break. However, cooking more frequently can be hard on your garbage disposal, especially if your family doesn’t always follow the kitchen rules about what to keep out of the sink.
Your dishwasher relies on a tight rubber door seal to keep soapy water from leaking out of your appliance and onto the floor. During the summer months, many families are in a hurry to get chores done and move on to other activities, which can result in dishwasher problems.
Anytime dishwashers are overfilled, they can prop open the door enough to interfere with a tight seal, allowing water to leak onto the floor. Overfilled dishwashers can also cause items to interfere with your system’s float assembly, which can cause water to overfill. Your system can also leak when users add the wrong dishwasher detergent since some soaps are designed to create more suds than others. If your system uses a filter, washing dishes more frequently could fill the filter, making it difficult for your system to drain, which can also contribute to leaks.
During the summer, you may find yourself washing your hands quite a bit. Gardening, playing with children, and cleaning your home can also prompt more frequent visits to the sink, which can put a lot of strain on your plumbing fixtures. When faucets are used frequently, the gaskets inside the system can develop damage, causing leaks and wasted water.
Every parent knows how much time they spend in their laundry room, especially during the summer. When you aren’t washing play clothes or baseball uniforms, you may be sanitizing towels and deep-cleaning pillow covers dirtied by an uptick in houseguests.
Washing machines can develop problems like damaged drains and supply hoses, especially when family members aren’t always careful about what they put into the machine. An off-balance washing machine could shake your appliance away from the wall, which could put strain on hoses. If you use rubber washing machine hoses, the material could become brittle, crack, and break, which can create flooding indoors. On average, rubber washing machine hoses last between 3 and 5 years. Washing machines can also develop clogs if pockets aren’t emptied before washing.
Few things are as comforting as a summer rainstorm, but when the weather turns from bad to worse, indoor flooding is always a possibility. If indoor sump pumps in basements or crawlspaces fail, your home could fill with water fast, and you could experience a great deal of damage.
These days, droughts are increasingly more common, sending plant roots deeper into the ground to search for nourishment and moisture. Unfortunately, if those powerful roots come across a rich source of nutrients like a sewer, they might just stay awhile—and wreak havoc on your plumbing system. Tree roots can begin to grow within a pipe, where they can form serious clogs that interrupt the flow of outgoing wastewater from your home.
Anytime landscaping equipment or vehicles are driven over a part of land that has a buried pipe, you could be faced with a clog, since soil and rocks around your device can enter the pipe through the damage and clog the area. When these deep clogs form, the drains in your home may seem slow, or water pushed into the sewer system by flushing toilets could cause backups in other parts of your home.
Hose bibbs are designed to give homeowners a way to tap into their culinary or secondary water to use for outdoor cleaning and irrigation. Hose bibs should be winterized every fall to keep water from freezing, expanding, and damaging the hose bibb. If this wasn’t done, you may notice leaks around the bibb itself, or cracks within the bibb assembly.
If you rely on irrigation to keep your yard lush and green, you should double-check your sprinkler system before you start using it in the summertime. Sprinkler issues are very common, especially since most homeowner use machinery like lawnmowers, trimmers, and aerators that can harm sprinkler heads. When sprinklers become damaged, they could expel much more water or spray in patterns that don’t do much to help your garden.
Large irrigation leaks can occur whenever your sprinkler lines are unintentionally cut or damaged. This type of damage can occur during gardening since the thrust of a shovel or the use of heavy machinery can snap a sprinkler line quickly. If you turn on your irrigation system in the spring and notice marshy landscaping or puddles of unexplained water, look for a damaged sprinkler line and work with a plumber to have it repaired right away.
Irrigation lines can also become damaged if your sprinklers aren’t properly winterized in the fall. Sprinklers should be drained and blown out to keep water from freezing, swelling, and damaging underground pipes.
During the summer, you may bathe or shower more frequently than during other times of the year. This uptick in hot water use may also put a strain on your hot water heater. If you have a tank water heater, your system may have to refill and reheat the water multiple times throughout the day. If your system isn’t large enough, there may not be enough hot water for everyone, which can be very inconvenient. Tankless hot water heaters work well for larger families, but there are limits for how much water they can heat simultaneously. If you have multiple people who need to shower at once, you may need to invest in a more powerful tankless water heater to supply your home with enough hot water.
When your water bill goes up, you may need to evaluate the way your family is using water around the house. High water costs can often be tied to people staying with you, newly installed appliances, more frequent showering, irrigation, and water leaks.
While you can’t do much about how much water your houseguests use, you can make water-friendly decisions at home that can lower your water bill. You should also be on the lookout constantly for leaks that could burn through extra water. Main water line fractures could waste thousands of gallons worth of water a day, significantly increasing your costs.
If your summer starts out with plumbing problems, remember that Mr. Plumber is always available to help. Whether you are faced with a serious water line leak or a toilet that tends to clog easily, their team of professional plumbers can help you to spot problems and resolve them proactively 24 hours a day.
With a commitment to professionalism, our team is always ready to lend a helping hand. We can help you to reduce your water consumption, create a more comfortable, sanitary home, and resolve emergency issues, so you can kick back and enjoy your summer. Give us a call if we can help you today.