7 Common Home Plumbing Mistakes to Avoid

A clogged sink, a dripping faucet, or an improperly working toilet—these are common plumbing problems that families experience. It's one thing to phone a plumber because something's wrong with the plumbing, and it's another thing to cause the problem yourself.

Sometimes homeowners don't realize they're doing the wrong thing until it's too late. If you're looking for trouble, these common plumbing mistakes are a good start. However, if you want to save a few phone calls and a pricey professional intervention, steer clear of these classic, easy errors.

1. Too Many Fixtures

The first issue that many people overlook is using too many plumbing fixtures. If you're dealing with low water pressure around your home, using too many fixtures may make the problem worse. Crowded residential areas usually experience low water pressure. If that's the case for your home, restrict the amount of places water can flow—unless you're sure the mains can tackle all of them.

2. Hard to Reach Clean Outs

Many homeowners don't provide adequate room around clean outs, which may keep them from clearing blocked pipes. If a sink has no clean out, or there's not enough free space around it, you will have to tumble down the whole plumbing system if a pipe gets clogged. For this reason, allowing enough space for a clean out is a must.

3. Not Enough Space

Many homeowners don't plan their plumbing system ahead of time. As a result, they often forget to provide enough space between plumbing fixtures and appliances. The end result may be very bad. For example, you don't want the bathtub too close to the toilet or it will be uncomfortable for you to use both.

4. Throwing Inappropriate Materials Down the Drain

Another plumbing mistake people often make is dumping inappropriate items down the drain, thinking they will just get absorbed by water. What happens next is they have to call a plumber because the sink gets blocked. Construction materials are hard and they may clog the drains. Unfortunately, a drain cleaner cannot get these out. If you don't want to hire a qualified technician to unblock your sink, find a better way to dispose of your building materials and waste.

5. Flushing Inappropriate Things Down the Toilet

While it's common sense to keep toys and other bizarre things out of the toilet, still many plumbers are summoned to properties to deal with this kind of situation. It's more common for families with kids to experience this problem because children tend to throw stuff in the toilet all the time. If you accidentally flush an inappropriate item down the toilet, it may get stuck, making it impossible to retrieve without removing the toilet.

6. Pushing a Faucet Handle With a Leak

Another common mistake is breaking a faucet while trying to turn it off. If your faucet is dripping, applying too much pressure on the handle will not stop the drip. It's not about strength; it's about relevant knowledge and appropriate skills. If there is a leak, you need to call in a qualified technician to fix it. Cranking on the faucet handle can break it, causing further problems.

7. Taking Apart Items And Forgetting How To Piece Them Back Together

While it seems like real fun to take things apart, putting them back together may be a struggle. If you aren't experienced with plumbing components, don't ever take them apart. Or please, for your own sake, just take a before shot so you know which piece goes where.