The last three months of the year pack in the holidays close to each other, and parties and feasts are a big part of all of them. You’ll probably do a good share of entertaining at your home during the end of the year, and we want to remind you about how to best treat your garbage disposal during the festive season. One tough Thanksgiving dinner can wipe out a sink disposal that’s already has a few years behind it. But if you’re careful, there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a disposal that keeps pace with you through to the New Year—and beyond.
A Reminder about Your Garbage Disposal and the Holidays
October 24th, 2017The Benefits of Trenchless Technology for Your Commercial Plumbing
October 16th, 2017
Here’s what trenchless technology can help you avoid.
You may have heard of trenchless technology before, but weren’t certain exactly what the term meant, or if it had any particular application for your business. Trenchless technology is a type of lateral boring technique that was originally developed in the 1930s to help with coal mining.
Soon after, the technology was put to use in the fields of civic plumbing and engineering, allowing for the laying of new pipeline, telephone wires, and electric conduits without the disruption of streets, sidewalks, and other infrastructure. Eventually, trenchless technology became available for both commercial and residential plumbing, making it easier to repair and replace buried pipelines as a substitute for conventional digging techniques.
Advantages of Professional Plumbers When It Comes to Drain Cleaning
October 9th, 2017
Clogged drains, slow drains… dirty drains. They’re the most common plumbing trouble people encounter in their homes. Although you can take steps to reduce the chance of clogs and slow drains (using drain covers, never pouring fats, oils, and grease down the drains, etc.), there is no sure-fire way to prevent them all. You’ll eventually need drain cleaning from professional plumbers.
Drain cleaning is both a reactive measure—getting a drain unclogged—and a proactive measure. In the latter case, scheduling drain cleaning annually means you can help prevent future clogging by eliminating the build-up inside the drains. We recommend you call us for drain cleaning each year.
But why rely on professionals for this job? There are a few reasons:
Hard Water vs. Your Laundry
September 25th, 2017
On our blog, we’ve addressed the problem with hard water in your home and the many different troubles it can cause: high water pressure from a drop of the volume in pipes, damage to water heaters and other water-using appliance, ugly film left on surfaces, and trouble with developing soap lather.
Do Tankless Water Heaters Need to Be Sized?
September 18th, 2017
How do you determine how large a storage tank water heater you need for a home? The sizing job is something you’ll need to have an expert plumber handle, but the basics of sizing this type of water heater is something anybody can understand: the more hot water demand there is in the house (usually because of the number of people in the household), the larger the storage tank itself needs to be.
But what if you’re planning to install a tankless water heater for your house? As the name indicates, a tankless water heater doesn’t have a storage tank at all. Instead, it applies heat to water as it moves through the unit via a heat exchanger. The water is heated as it is needed (or “on-demand,” which is another name for this type of water heater). So, does this mean there isn’t any need to size a tankless water heater because one size fits all?
Some Considerations about Tankless Water Heaters
September 4th, 2017
The fall is the best time of the year to replace a water heater that’s showing signs it’s coming to the end of its service life. Fall is generally a slower time of year for plumbers and heating experts, making it easier to schedule the service, and you can spend some extra time making the choice.
“Wait, what choice?” you might ask. The choice of what type of water heater you want to have installed. There are more options today than the standard storage tank water heater, including the heat pump water heater and the increasingly popular tankless water heater. The tankless models are the subject of a lot of scrutiny because they offer many potential advantages, but they also make people a bit nervous because they’re unsure if a system that heats up water “on demand” (i.e. only when there’s a call for hot water at one of the taps or appliances) will end up meeting their needs.
Drain Care: Keep Hair out of Bathroom Drains
August 28th, 2017
Nobody likes drain clogs in their home. They’re a nuisance. Sometimes a plunger or a hand-cranked drain snake can fix them. At other times, they’ll need a professional plumber for drain cleaning services to eliminate.
You can prevent the majority of drain clogs in your house with some prevention techniques. In this post, we’re going to look at ways to keep out hair from the drains in your bathroom. Hair clogs are among the most common and insidious, since it’s easy for clumps to collect in the p-trap (the curved pipe section) under the drain. However, a bit of caution goes a long way toward fixing this.
Other Sewer Line Problems to Watch For
August 21st, 2017
Last week we wrote about backups in sewer lines, which are potentially a huge problem in a home. We looks at trouble from aging sewer line material, issues that can occur in the municipal sewage system that can end up creating a backup, and the common tree-root infiltration trouble.
This week we’d like to take another look at the sewer line and some of the other problems it can experience at the end of the summer. We hope you don’t have any emergency issues with your sewer line in Cincinnati, OH at this time of year, but you can always depend on our professionals for the help you need should trouble arise. We have 24-hour service for these emergency periods.
Why Sewer Line Backups Might Affect Your Home
August 7th, 2017
No problem in a home’s plumbing is “pleasant.” But it’s not an exaggeration to say that a backed-up sewer line is among the most “unpleasant” problems for a household. We sincerely hope you never have to deal with a plumbing issue this severe—but we’re also glad to be the ones to help you out with drain and sewer service in Cleves, OH should it ever happen to you.
There is no single reason why a sewer line will start to backup. Leave it to our plumbers to locate the source of the problem and then find out what we can do to remedy it. This may involve sewer cleaning or it might require using trenchless technology to replace the sewer line. Below are a few of the more common causes of residential sewer line backups:
Make the Switch to a Low-Flow Toilet
August 1st, 2017
What appliance in your home uses the most water per year? You’d likely guess “the shower,” but that’s not correct. (Unless you take ridiculously long showers—which you should stop doing right away!) No, the correct answer is “the bathroom toilet.” The toilet accounts for 40% of all indoor water use. This means that a toilet that uses too much water is the biggest source of household water waste. If you have an older toilet (more than 20 years), we recommend looking into having it replaced with a special low-flow model, also known as a low-flush toilet. But a low-flow toilet is also a good idea as a replacement for newer standard toilets. The difference in water use is still significant.