Everybody has bad habits. Some people blow their noses on their t-shirts when they have a cold. Others eat fast food for every meal. A lot of people stay up or sleep in way too late every day. Bad habits are part of being human. Luckily, some bad habits can be broken with just a little bit of knowledge and effort. Here’s how to break your bad bathroom plumbing habits.
Flushing feminine hygiene products.
Feminine hygiene products were made to absorb water, so don’t break down easily. When you flush them down your toilet, there’s a good chance they’ll expand and catch in your pipes.
Feminine hygiene products cause bad plumbing clogs all the time. Instead of flushing them, wrap them in paper towels or toilet paper and throw them away. Your pipes will thank you.
Not protecting your shower drain.
Hair is unavoidable. It grows constantly, and most people have quite a lot of it. Do you know where most of it ends up? In your shower drain. Hair in your drains creates clogs, slows down pipes, and causes all kinds of other plumbing issues.
Keep hair from getting into your drain by installing a simple drain catcher in your shower. Drain catchers keep hair and other potential clog-starters from sliding into your pipes.
Using chemical drain cleaners.
Chemical drain cleaners should be a no-go no matter what. Yes, they eat through clogs, but they also eat through your pipes. Over time, the damage chemical drain cleaners inflict can lead to leaks and even completely burst pipes.
Not using your ventilation system.
Mold is the bane of any homeowner. It’s most likely to occur inside a bathroom – especially when the homeowners aren’t using their ventilation properly. We don’t blame you; it’s hard to remember to turn on the fan… but you should anyway!
You also should remember to squeegee the inside of your shower after every use. Make sure not to leave wet, bundled up linens on the floor while you’re at it. Controlling the moisture in your bathroom will help you prevent mold growth.
You don’t use the right plunger for the job.
There are two main varieties of plungers you should have in your home: a cup plunger and a flange plunger. Cup plungers are what you typically picture when you think of a plunger. They usually have a wooden handle and red or black plastic cup plunger head with no flange. Flange plungers have with an extra rubber flap inside the cup to help them create seals on curved surfaces like toilet bowls.
If you need help recovering from the damage any of these bad habits have incurred on your home plumbing without judgment, don’t hesitate to call the pros at Ben Franklin Plumbing today. Whatever you’ve done, we’ve seen it before. We fixed it then, and we’ll fix it now, too.
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