How To Easily Solve Common Summer Plumbing Problems

With summer comes humid heat, summer vacations and…plumbing problems? Yes, the summer provides its own set of plumbing related problems.

Here are the 3 most common summer plumbing problems and how to solve them.

Clogged or damaged garbage disposal

Who doesn’t like having a cookout or two when the weather is nice? However, large parties usually leave large amounts of leftovers–leftovers that can clog or even harm your garbage disposal unit.

Solution: Watch what you put down your garbage disposal and how much you put down at once. Common summer foods you want to avoid putting down your disposal unit include:

• Corn cobs
• Watermelon and other hard fruits
• Celery and other fibrous vegetables
• Potatoes and other starchy foods (these can expand in water and block your pipes)
• Grease

If you use your disposal unit, make sure you run cold water for about 15 seconds after rinsing away any food. Otherwise, you’ll leave food to rot and stink up your home.

Clogged toilet

If you’ve got kids, they’re going to be spending more of their time at home for summer vacation. That means your toilets are going to be used more often and the chances of a clog happening are much higher... especially if they use too much toilet paper.

Solution: Teach your kids the appropriate amount of toilet paper to use. If your toilet gets clogged, use a flange plunger not a cup plunger. A flange plunger is designed to fit snugly into the opening at the bottom of the toilet bowl in order to create the suction you need to loosen the clog.

If you’re unable to unclog the toilet and need help, call a professional plumber for help.

Sewer line backups

Sewer line backups are common in summer for 2 reasons:

• Excessive rainwater from summer rain showers and thunderstorms gets into the sewer pipes via cracks and back up the sewer line.
• Tree roots, which grow in the summer after spring rains, creep into your pipes, causing the pipes to crack. Tree roots are drawn toward the sewer line because it’s a source of nutrition.

Solution: Have a plumber inspect your sewer line pipes. The plumber can let you know if you are susceptible to a sewer line backup problem or if damage has already occurred. This visit can be non-invasive since plumbers can now use fiber optic sewer line cameras to look inside your lines and quickly and accurately assess their condition.