|
Heffner Plumbing Newsletter
|
|
Greetings!
It's that time of year sports fans... April showers bring May flowers and also bring flooded basements! Mother Nature isn't pulling any punches right now with the severe weather that we've been having as of late and tonight's weather forecast does not sound good.
The average life of a sump pump is 3-5 years relative to use. Many last longer than that, but I have seen pumps fail after 2 years. If your sump pump is more than 5 years old, you may want to consider replacing it to be proactive. A way to get the most bang for your buck with the primary pump however and not replace it before it's necessary is to have a battery back-up system. This allows you to run the primary pump until it dies if that's what you want to do.
A battery back-up system can also give you peace of mind in knowing that you are protected when the primary pump fails or if you ever lose power to the house. If you don't have one of these, then it may only be a matter of time before you flood. I say this not be be an alarmist/ambulance chaser, but based on over 20 years of experience as a service plumber. With a finished basement that has furniture and valuables, the cost of a flooded basement can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. As the saying goes, you can pay now or pay later.
|
| Does anyone want to guess where this came from? |
|
I had to replace a water heater the other day that was located in a basement. There was a floor drain right next to the leaking water heater, but because R... Homes put this screen over the end of the drain pipe going into the sump pit, the water could not drain properly and flooded the basement. Had this screen not been there, the basement more than likely would not have flooded or at least not as bad as it did.
I'm not a big fan of maintenance agreements, but I've gotten to the point with sump pumps and back-up systems now that this may not be a bad idea for the consumer. Having the system check annually could help to prevent the basement from flooding because of a situation like this or a dead/dying battery for a back-up system.
|
|
The Gordon Wrench. A very handy tool for those stubborn shut-off valves.
|
Have you ever tried to shut the water off to your sink or toilet, but the handle wouldn't budge on the shut-off valve? Here's a handy tool for those DIY types. I had something like this years ago , but it broke and I never replaced it. On a recent service call, the customer had one of these tools(thanks for the idea Mr. & Mrs. F!). I ordered one and it works great!
Here's the info for those that may be interested in buying one of these handy dandy tools: Gordon Wrench
|
|
Plumbing 101. Are you interested?
|
|
I had my second meeting with IUPUI this week and am now officially an instructor with the Division of Continuing Studies. I just have to write a course description for their on-line catalog and then finish out the PowerPoint presentation that I will be using. The course, Plumbing 101, will cover some very basic things like the water comes into the house here and the main drain line takes it all away over there. This will be one class per semester that will take approximately 2 hours for the presentation and questions. The first class will be scheduled for June and as soon as I find out the date, I will get this information posted. Not sure of the cost yet, but rest assured that I will NOT be retiring from the money that I'm paid to do this gig. :-)
|
