Forewarned is forearmed, particularly when it comes to plumbing. Repairs can be quite costly so it is important for you and everyone in your home to know a few plumbing basics which can save you time and money down the road.

Even children as young as five can learn a few plumbing tips! Here are the top ten plumbing checks every homeowner needs to know:

1. Plumbing emergencies may require quick thinking and movement on your part or that of a family member. Everyone in your home should know where the main cutoff for the water is, just in case.

2.

Learn how to read your water meter. When no one else is home and you know there is no water running, check your meter to ensure none of the dials are moving. If they are, then you may likely have a water leak somewhere.

Toilets and faucets are the most likely culprits and can add a few hundreds dollars a year to your water bill.

3. Check for toilet leaks by inserting a few drops of food coloring in the tank. About 20 minutes later, check the toilet bowl for any presence of color.

If you do see something, there may be seepage around the flapper valve. It is an easy fix as long as you know there is a problem.

4. Try to drain a few gallons of water from your hot water heater tank twice a year.

This ensures the valve works and also allows sediment accumulating at the bottom of the tank to clear out, maximizing heating efficiency. Better yet, if you have the funds invest in a tankless water heater and watch your utility bills lower because no energy is spent keeping gallons and gallons of water hot in a storage tank. A tankless water heater heats water on demand, when you need it.

5.

When you toilet looks like it might overflow, remove the tank lid and press down on the flush valve, effectively plugging the hole at the bottom of the tank. This prevents the toilet from overflowing while you determine the source of the clog causing the problem.

6. Keep all water and drain valves operational by opening and closing them at least twice a year.

If you do not do this, a valve may freeze up over time. So if you are caught in a plumbing dilemma and cannot turn the valve off, you could be facing serious problems and expense.

7. Learn where the stop valves are for the faucets and toilets in your home. This allows you to turn off water at the problem source rather than inconvenience an entire household by turning off the main valve to the house.

8. Keep a plunger around for clogged sinks and toilets as they are effective tools for plumbing issues.

9. Invest in a few replacement parts such as a toilet kit and rubber gaskets for those simple plumbing fixes around the home.

10. Avoid chemical drain cleaners for removing clogs. Instead use a plunger or invest in a roto rooter tool called an auger, nickname “snake,” for those tough obstructions in plumbing pipes.

A plumbing disaster has a way of coming at you on all fronts. Not only is it annoying and disruptive to your household, it often damages your property.

Then, to top it all off, you have to call out a plumber. Plumbers are expensive anyway, but of course, no plumbing emergency ever happens during regular business hours. You can rest assured your plumbing nightmare will begin whenever the emergency surcharges are the highest.

Wouldn’t it be nice to avoid all of the hassle and the expensive? Well, you can. By learning a few simply plumbing do it yourself repairs, you can save time, money and headache. You can intervene in the plumbing problem before your walls are destroyed or your carpets flooded, and of course, you’ll never have to call a plumber out in the middle of the night again.

Here are a few simple tricks you can use to fix your plumbing headaches yourself.

Draining your whole plumbing system: it definitely sounds like a job for a professional, right? Well, you can easily do this yourself, should you need to drain your system because of a water hammer problem or to make other repairs. First, you need to shut off the water at the central water meter in your home.

Locate the meter – you’ll see a one valve on the side of the meter attached to the pipes that lead into your home and one on the side that leads outside. Shut off the valve leading to the outside. Now, go into your home, and starting at the highest level of the house, turn on all of the sink faucets.

After you have worked your way to the bottom of the house, go to the top and repeat the process with the showers. Last but not least, repeat again, this time flushing the toilets from top to bottom. By the time you finish the process, all the water should have drained from the system and there should be no water running from the taps.

Now you’re ready to make other repairs.

What about that most common of plumbing problems – a clogged toilet or drain? First, give chemical treatments a try, as long as you don’t have a septic system. Many of these treatments are identical to what a plumber would use to fix the problem and they will work for you, too – at a fraction of the price.

If that doesn’t work, a drain snake inserted down the toilet/drain will dislodge the blockage and you will be good to go.

One word of warning – always err on the side of caution. Don’t take on a repair that is over your head to try and save a few dollars. Chances are that you’ll end up digging yourself in deeper and paying a lot more than you would have had you called the plumber out in the first place.