Plumbing Maintenance Tips Every Homeowner Should Know

The last thing you want as a homeowner is to wake up one morning and find your flooring and furniture covered in water from a leak that sprung overnight. While such scenarios are considered rare, they do happen all the time, and they happen to homeowners like you. You might not know it, but neglected maintenance is to blame for most home plumbing disasters and emergencies. From clogged sink drains to dripping faucets, blocked toilets, burst pipes, homeowners experience a wide range of plumbing problems from time to time. Some of them end up costing the homeowner hundreds or thousands in repair, replacement, water bills, or damaged property.

Additionally, your plumbing system is prone to normal wear and tear, just like any other part of your home. This includes the concealed parts that you don’t get to see every day. To keep your plumbing system in good working condition and help it last through its lifetime while avoiding inconveniences and minimizing costs, it’s important to arm yourself with some basic knowledge of plumbing maintenance. Here are a few plumbing maintenance tips every homeowner should know.

Keep Your Plumber On Speed Dial

If you’re reading this, higher chances are that you’re not a professional plumber. In this case, Manny L and the folks at https://allserviceplumbers.com/ say that it’s highly important to have the contacts of a plumbing specialist on speed-dial, just in case you have a plumbing emergency or you need to have some plumbing system repairs done in your home. The thing is, delaying a plumbing repair after detecting or suspecting an issue only postpones or worsens the problem. On the other hand, having the issue fixed right away can prevent costlier problems from developing, thus making it part of proper maintenance. Additionally, you may want to schedule a regular plumbing inspection service so you’re not caught unawares by plumbing emergencies. This is part of preventive maintenance, which can see you save a great chunk of time and money while possibly protecting your plumbing, yourself, and your loved ones.

Pipe Insulation

This can also be called weatherproofing your plumbing. When the temperatures fluctuate or change drastically, your pipes become more prone to bursts, cracks, and leaks. It’s perfectly normal according to the Laws of Physics, but it doesn’t mean it should happen. To avoid the huge losses that come from burst pipes and water leaks, insulating your plumbing can be a great move. Doing so will also prevent water from freezing in the pipes, ensuring that your water supply isn’t interrupted by the freezing temperatures of the colder months. In addition to this, you may also want to disconnect your garden hose in the colder months so your hose bib doesn’t sustain frozen-pipe damage.

Mind What You Send Down Your Drains

Toile, bathroom, and kitchen sink drains do an amazing job. They help get rid of the dirty water we consume every day, releasing it into the sewer system. However, this awesomeness sizes when the plumbing channel down the drain gets clogged with debris. To keep your drains properly functioning, avoid sending solid objects and garbage down this channel. If they get clogged up, sink and toilet bowls could easily turn into a breeding ground for harmful microbes, which could put you and your family at risk of catching diseases. This is not to forget how uncomfortable your home can be when the standing water starts to decompose. Only substances that can easily be broken down should go down your drains and toilets if at all they have to.

Monitor Your Water Pressure

When the pressure of water flowing through your plumbing is too high, it can be hurtful to your pipes. It’s a common cause of leaks and it increases the chances of pipes bursting. Water pressure that is too high may also cause damage to appliances such as washers, water heaters, and the like. This is not to forget the possibility of increasing your water and energy bills. You can tell high water pressure by listening to your pipes, checking your faucets for leaks, and paying closer attention to your appliances. You can also talk to your plumber about water pressure control tools like pressure reduction valves and pressure gauges to keep the situation in control.

Clean Gutters Out Regularly as Needed

Technically, gutters are not part of your home’s plumbing system. However, they play a huge role in keeping run-off water out of your home. When clogged, gutters can lead to pooling of water on your roof during the rainy season, which may eventually lead to roof damage and flooding. Gutters should, therefore, be cleaned out as often as needed.

And there you have it. Keeping your plumbing system well-maintained can give you peace of mind, reduce water wastage, minimize appliance damage, and keep your plumbing repair costs on the low. The above are just a few ways to take proper care of your home’s plumbing.

Flying Back to the Boat

We have a really long way to go but we snagged a really good deal. The flights for Maddie and I were $562 for both of us including all our luggage. Our new dodger was categorized as camping equipment and no additional charge was enforced. The electric motor we are taking to replace one of the two that is not functioning weighs 30 lbs and is smaller than a suitcase, so that is checked bag #1. Bag#2 is clothes. Cameras are in a “personal bag”, and all our clothes and junk is in our carry on. Now we wait for our connecting flight to depart. 

Perspectives on Cruising

Before I had a boat, my dream was to go cruising.

When I bought Wisdom and moved aboard, my dream was still to go cruising.

Then I met other cruisers, and the ones who confused me the most were those that were selling their boat and moving ashore. They were done with boat life and wanted to be a dirt dweller. My dream was to go cruising and I could not comprehend this decision to end happiness.

Then one lucky day in 2015, Maddie and I went cruising for just 1 month. We sailed down the Chesapeake Bay and out into the Atlantic Ocean. We sailed about 1000 nautical miles, experienced many beautiful sights on the water and had a few adventures ashore in distant places.

When we returned to the marina in Baltimore, Maryland, I kept looking at pictures from our trip. That really was the happiest I had ever been in my life and I wanted to return to that state of being so badly! Thankfully, Maddie felt a similar way and gave to OK to a 9 month voyage that would start in 2017.

July 10, 2017, we set sail for a 9 month cruise. Soon, Maddie extended the end date to a full year cruise. At the end of the year, Maddie OK’d another year, making this 9 month cruise a 2 year cruise. Life was good!

We are now 3 years into our voyage and in the Mediterranean Sea! We have sailed about 17,000 nautical miles and are very very far from our starting port.

We are nearing our turn around point, being the point where we stop sailing away from our end point and begin to sail back to it. Turn around point will be Italy, because both of us independently wanted to sail to Italy!

Once we reach Italy, we will begin sailing back to the United States where we will find a new port to settle down in, and eventually buy some dirt to live on.

This turn around point is especially important to me because Maddie and I talked about where we would turn around when we were in Gibraltar. The reason this is special to me is around the same time, I was reading “Mediterranean Adventures” by the Pardey’s and they had a similar discussion in the Mediterranean.

They were cruising in their first boat and had just received the plans to their second boat. They were deciding on how they would sail to California where they would then begin construction on their new boat. Should they sail back out the Strait of Gibraltar and cross the Atlantic or keep going and cross the Pacific? They ended up going the Pacific route and completing their first circumnavigation. We chose to return through the Atlantic.

So far, every mile we have sailed has been a mile towards a new destination. Once we decided on the turn around point, every mile became a futile mile that we will have to sail back again. Once we reach our turn around point, every mile will be a mile closer to the end (even though the end is thousands of miles away).

This feeling that we are sailing towards the end of our voyage is an odd thought as this has been my dream for over a decade and our life for the past several years! To think that we are going to come back and start a new chapter in our lives feels odd and foreign. Fear of the unknown I suppose.

This frustration with perspective also makes me wonder about the perspective of someone who has completed a circumnavigation. In essence, they are done. They went around the world and probably spent close to a decade doing it. Now they are back where they started and the thought of sailing anywhere is either a repeat or a chore. I have met a few circumnaviagators and they seem frustrated that they have sailed it all and there is no where else for them to sail! Yes, you can sail to a new sea that you skipped while circling the globe, but it’s still frustrating in their mind. They can never leave this planet on a sailboat and they are stuck.

The world is a big place, but our minds can make it feel like a cage if we let it.

Finding Motivation

Ever since Sammy died, I seem to go through swings. There are days when everything is fine and I can conquer the world! No task is beyond my determination!

Other days, I hardly have the energy to get out of bed and stand up. I take advantage of my better days to get as much done as I can because I know the other days will be back and I just won’t have the energy to do anything.

I’m currently sitting in bed. I have gotten up a few times to go to the bathroom today and a couple of times to eat, but then I return to bed where I just sit. I have many ideas about videos I would like to film along with everything I need to pack for our trip, but I have no energy to get up and do any of it.

In the past I have forced myself up only to find that there is nothing else to give. I just want to crawl back in bed and ignore the day. Usually I feel better the next day and can return to my usual life goals. In January 2020, I had about a full week where I really didn’t know if it was going to end. Everyday was just as bad as the day before and I wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow.

Like magic, one day I was fine! Everything was back to normal and I was happy again.

I took advantage of this time and worked on the cotter pin experiment, along with making all the soft hanks we need for the staysail. Anything and everything that needed getting done got done in a hurry because I was worried it would come back.

Today, it was back and I just sat here with ideas but no energy.

How to Install a Cotter Pin

Cotter pins, also called Split pins, are a retaining pin used to hold other load bearing pins in place. The goal of a cotter pin is to remain in place. The legs are spread to keep the head in place so that the pin doesn’t fall out.

There are two methods to bend the legs:

1. Bend the legs 15*

2. Bend the legs all the way back up and around

By bending the legs 15*, the pin is held in place with minimal strain on the metal of the pin. If the metal legs are fatigued too much, they can break off and the head of the pin will then fall out.

Bending the legs all the way around looks more secure, but it stresses the metal a lot more than a simple 15* bend.

Watch this video to see the difference in durability between these two methods of bending cotter pin legs.