Maintaining the house is essential if you want to avoid any mishaps. Every homeowner should do regular checks of their home to detect early signs of leaky pipes or any other plumbing issues.
Every once in a while, you do encounter plumbing issues in the house. Since it involves water, any damage can cause severe consequences to the things around it. Water can also cut rocks as it can seep through anything. Excessive leakage can damage the walls of your house and weaken its foundations. That’s not the end of it. Water flowing through walls for an extended period can create a health hazard. Ever thought why the wall turns green after increased exposure to humidity and water leaks? Well, that’s mold, which is a type of fungus that grows on the walls in humid conditions. Continued exposure to mold in the environment is a health hazard, especially for people who have allergies, and their symptoms increase, causing them an unnecessary nuisance. Apart from that, a wall that has mold on it simply looks ugly, doesn’t it?
Another reason why plumbing issues such as leaks are a problem is that it wastes precious water. Earth is already facing a shortage of water, and international relations experts believe that in the future, wars would be over the possession of water reservoirs. In such circumstances, every drop count that gets wasted in the form of a plumbing leak. So, you wouldn’t want to be adding anything to a global catastrophe as we are already deeply affected by the consequences of global warming. Yet, you have to take into consideration a plumbing job’s cost. Not every plumbing job requires a lot of expertise though if you bring in someone for every mishap, you might have to start digging deeper into your pockets soon. You can fill this gap by fixing the small things yourself. Whether it is a leaking kitchen sink or an overflowing toilet, with proper tools, you can fix them in a jiffy. With adequate knowledge and the right tools, no task is difficult.
Before you can even try anything, you must have a list of necessary tools in your toolbox to deal with various kinds of problems. In this article, you will get to know about the essential tools and their usages in case you want to take up a new challenge to save your cost. But on the other hand, if you face a significant leak in your pipe, then don’t hesitate to call a professional to fix the leak. Sometimes it’s just best to call an expert to do the job. For example, a plumbing company like Mr. Rooter Plumbing in Toronto ON is excellent at fixing complicated plumbing issues and is very reliable.
Basin Wrench
Basin wrench, which is sometimes also called a sink wrench, should be a necessary part of your toolbox. It is not necessarily a repairing tool but can help in initiating a repair process. Whenever there is a leak anywhere in your house, the first thing you must do to deal with it is to stop the water supply entirely. Because while repairing a leak, you might have to open the pipes, and that will create a lot of mess if the water supply is open. Basin wrench help reaching the fasteners in confined spaces that would difficult to reach physically with your hands. So, instead of getting your muscles pulled or hurting your hands, you should always have this wrench to reach the faucets or fasteners.
Adjustable Wrench
Basin wrench is not the only type of wrench available to you. Adjustable wrench, which is also called adjustable spanners in some countries are not only usable in plumbing, but it used for various other purposes. However, in plumbing, they are used for turning the parts that have hexagonal shaped nuts. Many times, the loose pipes cause leaks, and that’s where these spanners can help a great deal. Moreover, since the size of the opening of the wrench is also adjustable, it can save you a lot of money from buying spanners of different sizes. It’s an all-in-one kind of a spanner.
Pipe Wrench
Pipe wrenches are also widely known as Stillson wrenches, and as the name suggests, they are used to turn pipes. They are also adjustable, which means they can be used to turn pipes of varying diameters. Now you must be wondering what makes it different from the adjustable wrench. Well, Stillson wrenches have teeth in its jaw, much like humans. Adjustable wrenches are used to turn hexagonal nuts, which owing to their shape, provide the necessary grip. Pipes, on the other hand, are smooth surfaces, and these teeth help in giving the essential grip. Sometimes, both these types of wrenches can be used in combination.
Tongue-and-groove Pliers
These are a particular type of pliers used in plumbing. Unlike the adjustable wrenches, these pliers are easy to manage and use. Tongue-and-groove pliers give an advantage that you can adjust its width. Unlike the standard pliers, they have an angle of 45 to 60 degrees from the handle. These pliers provide immense versatility in its usage, such as grabbing, tightening, pulling, holding, twisting, and loosening.
Hand Auger
Though it has a kind of a fancy name, its job is straightforward yet crucial. Clogged drains are sometimes an annoyance that can even render the tubs and sinks useless and here where the hand drill can be handy. They help in unclogging the drains though, for porcelain, there is a toilet auger available that does not damage the material.
Hacksaw
As the name suggests, it is kind of a saw that cuts pipers, whether plastic or otherwise. Not only pipes, but they can also trim any other material such as nuts, bolts, or any hardware that needs some cutting. You might also have to make sure to keep some extra blades as they go blunt after some usage. However, it is better to take extra precautions while using sharp tools, and hacksaws are no exception.
Metal files
Wherever there is cutting, there are undoubtedly some sharp edges involved, and they can cut you if you are not very careful. That is where a metal file is very crucial to make these edges even, so nobody gets an injury.
Seal tape
That is a thread-plastic tape that seals the joints for leakages. You apply it to the outer part of the threaded joint connections and then turn nuts on top of that with the help of wrenches. That helps in the increased tightening of the joints, which considerably reduces leaks.
Strap wrench
A strap wrench is a very useful and handy tool. Not only can it be used for a variety of plumbing jobs, but it can comfortably grip the pipes or any other objects to tighten without scratching or damaging. It is a multi-purpose tool made of polymer. The strap or chain provides the grip, and the handle helps in tightening.
Duct tape
Whether you have a plumbing issue or not, duct tape is a mandatory part of a toolbox. It is used to hold together objects and does pretty much everything that tape would do. Though, in contrast with transparent tapes, these are much more robust.
We hope that by now, you would not think of plumbing as something impossible to do. Soon you can quickly fix the leak in your kitchen sink. Moreover, you can just buy all these tools for any future eventuality. Either way, keeping a few extra tools in your toolbox would make your life much more comfortable. With little investment, you can benefit life long. With the help of the tools mentioned above, you will find it easy to fix minor leaks at home in no time.
