Tag Archives: Toilets and Plumbing

Emergency Plumbing: Do You Need to Pay Through the Nose?

Emergency plumbing can be expensive, and can put you into a difficult situation.  In today’s economy, everyone is pinching pennies and watching their checkbooks.  Nobody loves a last minute emergency, especially when it equals shelling out the big bucks.  Calling a plumber at the last minute, at any hour of the day, can be expensive.  Some plumbers are available twenty-four hours a day, and for that, their services often come at a premium.  It makes sense that your last minute emergency means that a plumber has to be called off of another job, which in turns means your job may cost a bit more to make up for the lost wages from that job, or the discount they may need to give the other customer (whose plumbing situation was not such an emergency).

Even if your plumbing situation is an emergency, you often have enough time to call around to several different plumbers and get quotes for the service.  They are, of course, just estimates, but often the prices will differ from one to another.  If you can wait, the prices may decrease, and be more negotiable, but at the last minute, you are often at the mercy of the plumber.

The best thing to do is to ask yourself if the situation is really an emergency.  If not, you will have more options, and will save money.  However, sometimes emergencies happen.  If the situation is putting your health or the health of your family at risk, then by all means, schedule the plumber as soon as possible!  If the house is flooding, or if you have only one bathroom and it is now inoperable, you definitely have an emergency, and you need a plumber right away.

If it’s the second bathroom, where the bathroom plumbing is the problem, maybe you can put the work off for a while, until a plumber can schedule you and save you money.  If the problem is in the kitchen, you may need to decide how important it is to have this situation fixed right away.  If it is something that does not keep you from using your kitchen fully, it may not be an emergency.  Eating out for a few nights may be worth putting the work off, if it saves you enough money.  These questions are definitely important to ask before you open your checkbook!

Bathroom Plumbing Advice You Need to Hear

Everyone will eventually have to do something in their bath that involves bathroom plumbing. No matter if you are installing plumbing yourself or have to fix something that was already there, you need to know how all of it works in order to tackle the problem yourself without paying someone tons of money or letting the problem get completely out of hand. If a toilet is clogged up you don’t want to pay someone a lot of money to come in and do what you could have done for free.

Knowing what is going on with your bathroom plumbing is the only way to know how to fix and accessorize it if you want. If you are one of those people who are on a municipal water supply, there is a water line connecting the water to a meter and then to your home. You have one water line that enters your house and then splits into two with one side going to the hot water heater for when you need heated water for bathing, washing dishes, and other things, and the other line is a cold water line that goes to all the other things that use cold water.

When a residence has standard plumbing, a drainage waste valve is present along with the other lines. All these lines are what makes plumbing work. A septic system or drainage system is where the drainage valve runs. All the water that has been used and is dirty is emptied into these systems. If you are looking at a bathroom remodeling project or just adding new accessories, you want to keep these things in mind so you are able to attach the plumbing correctly so it works right.

Simple updates to a bathroom’s fixtures (sinks, cabinets, faucets, bathroom vanity unit, walk in shower, towel racks, etc) can make a once boring bathroom become a beautiful part of a home. There will be no problem finding these extras for your bathroom, as you can shop online or at any home goods store around. There are many bathroom supply stores to choose from, as well. You can find many accessories for your bathroom that can easily make it aesthetically appealing for under a hundred dollars. If you want to get the best deal on bathroom fixtures and fittings, you need to shop around both online and in retail stores to find the cheapest prices.

Do a simple search online for bathroom fix up ideas and you will see immediately how many ideas you have to choose from, as well as which items will cost you the most.

No one can live in a home without plumbing. If you know how this plumbing works, then you will be better off when shopping for various accessories to make it aesthetically appealing for yourself and your family, and you will also save money by doing it yourself.