What does “spring cleaning” mean to you? It covers a lot of parts of a home, from cleaning up porches, organizing the garage, or purging old files off the hard drive of a computer. You can make your plumbing system a part of your spring cleaning as well. If you’re already looking around your home for places to make improvements or check up on things like the AC and the ventilation system, then we recommend you take care of doing some check-up work on the plumbing. It’s much easier to do than you might think—especially when you have the assistance of our expert plumbers.

Check for toilet bowl leaks

Toilets use more water than any other plumbing appliance in a house; they can account for 40% of indoor water use per year. You want to ensure that any toilet in your house is in watertight condition with no leaks. The easiest way to do this is to put a few drops of food coloring, or a food color tab, into the tank. If the color starts to appear in the bowl within half an hour, you’ve got a leak. Our plumbers can find out where and fix it.

Check water temperature on the water heater

Scalding from a water heater that’s set too high is a serious danger many people are unaware of. Check your home’s water heater to see that it isn’t set higher than 120°F. Water heaters are often set to 140°F, and this presents a scalding danger. Keeping the temperature down lower will also help you save energy during the year.

Check all fixtures for leaking and breaks

Even a small leak from a faucet can add up to large amounts of water waste over the summer. Look over all the faucets, and pay careful attention to ones that don’t receive frequent use (such as a guest bathroom). If you see leaks, have them repaired. We also recommend putting in low-flow faucets for older fixtures. Our bathroom plumbing experts can assist you with this.

Clean strainers and drain covers

We strongly recommend using drain covers and strainers for bathroom drains in the sinks, showers, and bathtubs. These help prevent significant clogging from occurring. But these traps can become clogged themselves, and it’s a wise idea to clean them off. (And if you don’t have them—now is the time to get thick checked off your to-do list.)

Look over exposed pipes

Hidden water leaks are a major problem for homes and require professionals to do leak detection to find them. But you can easily check on the exposed pipes in your house, such as the drainpipes under sinks. See if there are any signs of leaks so you can have them prepared. They may have suffered from damage during the winter. Don’t attempt to fix leaks on your own; call our plumbers to take care of it.

Arrange for professional drain cleaning

If you haven’t arranged for drain cleaning during the last year, spring is as good a time as any. Routine drain cleaning helps your plumbing work with minimal chances of clogging. You can arrange for professional drain cleaning in Durham, NC with our licensed plumbers.

Call on Bud Matthews Services for all you home service needs in the Durham area! We offer 24-hour emergency service.