Ken's Plumbing | Blog

When we seem to have issues with our drains, we always reach for the Drano. We think it's the perfect, most affordable solution and will easily reduce any drain clogging. It might be harsh to read, especially if you just finished screwing the cap back on your bottle, but throw the container out! You heard us — throw it out, and let us discuss a few problems caused by the popular product that you may not have known about:

No matter what animal is your favorite, we can all agree there’s a certain level of happiness only a pet can give us when we can cuddle up to our Burmese cat or our Boykin Spaniel. While pets are those perfect companions that find their way into our hearts...they usually find their way into our plumbing, too. If you are a pet owner, we want to walk you through four precautions you might want to take in order to keep your plumbing up to par and your furry friend out of trouble!

Many households end up putting plumbing problems on the back burner when it comes to calling in a professional to help. Either other expenses come up and eat away at money saved to help take care of that plumbing bill or they just can't afford to take time off work to let the plumber in the house.

By getting caught up in every day responsibilities, it's easy to believe other chores take precedence over a leaky faucet. However, if you continue to neglect "small" repairs, you may find yourself looking at a much larger and costlier repair in the future.

We bet you didn't know that the plants you choose to landscape your yard with could have an affect on your plumbing, but they definitely can! Now, we aren't saying planting marigolds around your mailbox is going to cause your water heater to quit on you, but some larger plants like trees and bushes can actually affect how your toilets, sinks, and showers drain.

To help you avoid problems down the road, here's a list of trees, bushes, and plants that you should keep out of your yard (no matter how pretty they'd look):

You've finally found your dream home! Not only is it beautiful inside and out and the perfect size for your family, it's also close to your work, it's in a great school district, and there are plenty of children in the neighborhood for your kids to play with!

But before you finalize the sale, do yourself a favor and check the plumbing throughout the house to know for sure whether this great house is too good to be true. To help you out, we created this plumbing checklist so you'll know exactly what to look for:

You learn a lot in the course of your lifetime, and, of course, some of the facts and information you pick up along the way are more important than others. For example, we're sure you learned the Pythagorean Theorem at some point, which was useful only to pass the test you had on it. Meanwhile, you likely never learned about maintaining your pumbing, which is useful from the very moment you move out on your own through the rest of your life.

We're here to help you close the knowledge gap and learn some useful plumbing information that can help you identify small problems before they become huge disasters, and maybe even help you stop an occurring disaster before it can go from bad to worse!

If your home was built before the 1990s and you're still using the plumbing that was built into the house, it's safe to say you're wasting both time and money. You need to install WaterSense labeled products which will allow you to save dozens of gallons of water per year, which means you can save hundreds of dollars, too!

If you've made a conscious effort to turn off lights in rooms you're not in, set your thermostat to more efficient temperatures, and do larger loads of laundry, it's time for you to make high-efficiency plumbing a part of your eco-friendly lifestyle as well. Discover the difference it can make:

Seasonal plumbing issues reach far beyond clogged toilets at Thanksgiving and frozen pipes during an ice storm. Just as many things can go wrong in the summer, but with the added stress of some of them occuring while you're out on the beach and won't be home to discover them for another 3 days.

To help keep your Summer as carefree as it should be, we've made you a quick plumbing checklist to help you and your family prevent disasters before they strike:

There are two types of people: those that just throw all their clothes in the washing machine, toss in some soap, and hope for the best, and those who separate everything, try to decipher the heiroglyphics on the tag, and match up what they say with all of the washing machine cycles.

While the second way is absolutely the right way to do laundry, we totally see why it's easier to just ignore what the tag says. Washing your clothes shouldn't be an exercise in mental ability, so allow us to explain just how washing machines work and what all those different cycles mean:

Running toilets are nothing but trouble! Not only is the sound annoying, but all that extra running water means higher water bills, which is another kind of annoying. 

Fortunately, a running toilet is a fairly common plumbing problem that is pretty easy to identify. In this article, we've laid out the four most common causes of running toilets so you can finally eliminate one of life's little annoyances.

So, before you go out and replace your toilet unnecessarily, let's get started!