Fall is just around the corner, and there is a lot to love about this time of year. After all, it means we are edging closer to Christmas, right? Plus, the scenery that is on offer during these months is a true delight, with the vibrant autumn colors adding plenty of beauty to our local landscape. However, one thing you do need to do is keep on top of plumbing maintenance throughout this period. With that being said, read on to discover some basic fall plumbing maintenance tips to follow this year.

Top Fall Plumbing Tips

– Begin with the outside – You need to start by preparing the outside area of your home. This should involve getting rid of all of the outdoor hoses from their spigots. If you do not do this, water within the hose could freeze, which will then expand, causing burst pipes within your property. When removing the hoses, you should also look to make sure there are not any leaks in the faucets. If there are, act quickly to make the necessary repairs so that they do not turn into any bigger issues.

– Insulate your pipes – Most properties do not have insulation around the pipes in areas that are unheated. Good examples include garages and crawl spaces. However, they will be prone to freezing if you leave them exposed. To combat this issue, it is worth using thermostat-controlled heat cables, heat tape, or insulation to keep them warm. This is going to stop pipes from bursting, which can result in a costly repair.

– Make sure your water heater is prepared – You’re going to be using your water heater increasingly as we move into winter, so make sure that you have it serviced so that it is prepared for this.

– Clean the gutters – A lot fo your fall maintenance routine is going to be in preparation for the colder, winter months that lie ahead. During the winter months, we’re obviously used to getting much more rain than we do throughout other parts of the year. As a consequence of this rainfall, it is imperative to ensure that your gutters are free of debris, including the likes of twigs and leaves. This helps to make certain that you have efficient draining in place, and it prevents water from falling around the foundation of your property. When water lands near the foundation of your home, it can seep into the crawl spaces, which can cause a number of different issues in the process. 

Call All State Plumbing & Heating

If you are worried about plumbing maintenance or you have spotted any issues, you will need to look for the best plumber for the job. Take the time to choose a professional that has plenty of experience in the industry. You should also read reviews that have been left by people who have used the services of the plumber in question before so you can be sure that they offer great levels of quality. By aligning with the best plumber in your local area, you know that you always have someone to rely on if you have any queries or something goes wrong.

At All State Plumbing and Heating, we take our customer’s safety seriously. During these unprecedented times, we have put in place some new protocols to ensure that our customers are comfortable when our plumbers are needed! Don’t put your plumbing needs on hold. If you have any plumbing issues that need to be addressed you can rest assured that we are equipped to complete any job safely and efficiently.

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As we approach warmer temperatures it becomes easier to take on home projects. You have plenty of daylight hours to look over any parts of your plumbing system that are located outside of your home! It’s critical that you keep your plumbing well maintained year-round, but even more so during summer months while your kids and family may be home more often! Using lots of water and flushing your toilet too often increases your risk for plumbing issues. Here are five tips to make sure your home plumbing system is prepared for summer.

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The Plumbing Basics Everyone Should Know

A plumbing system can look and sound complicated, however, you’d be surprised that the basics of a plumbing system are pretty simple. Something so crucial to your home shouldn’t be so difficult to understand. At All State Plumbing & Heating, we want to help homeowners better understand their plumbing so that when it’s time for a fix or a renovation, you’re more aware of what actually goes on. As they say, knowledge is power!

Here are some plumbing basics for you to know as a homeowner.

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As a premier plumber in Danbury, Ridgefield, Brookfield, and New Milford, CT, we are aware of a ton of plumbing myths. So, our plumbers decided to create a list of the most common plumbing myths that shouldn’t be ignored.

Plumbing is one of the most crucial elements of your home. You use some form of your plumbing system every day. We all hear of myths that we’re not sure if we should believe. However, there are some that can certainly have a real impact on your home. We want to help educate homeowners on specific myths that can be true to you! Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to preventative measures you can take to ensure your plumbing system runs smoothly day in and day out.

Check out some of the most common plumbing myths in the Greater Danbury area.

Hot Grease in Your Sink

Myth: “It’s okay to pour hot grease down your sink”. The thing about hot liquid grease is, it never stays as a liquid. When the grease cools, it solidifies into a goopy and solid mess. So, when you pour grease down your drain, it cools and gets stuck to the walls of your pipes. In the end, it creates the perfect magnet for food, hair and other remains. 

Keep in mind that the more grease you pour down the drain, the more of this sticky mess build up in your pipes. So, our best advice is to dispose of the grease another way. You can let it cool and then scrape it away. 

There is no Clog if Water Goes Down a Drain

Myth: “If water goes down a drain, then there is no clog at all”. The truth is that this doesn’t necessarily mean there’s not a clog to be dealt with. Out of sight, out of mind doesn’t really apply to the plumbing world. There are a couple of different things you can look for to tell if your drain is clogged.

• Bad odor coming from the drain
• Water is slow to drain
• Bathtub or basement drains are backed up

The best thing you can do to avoid clogs is to use your sinks, toilets, and showers correctly. One of the best measures you can take is to place devices that catch loose hair in all of your drains.

Ignore Small Leaks

Myth: “A small leak isn’t worth fixing” The thing about small leaks is that they can be indicators of larger problems to come. If you don’t repair a small leak when it happens, it’ll start to worsen as time goes on. Not to mention, the water leaking our may damage other parts of your home such as drywall, cabinets, and floors. So, no matter how small they seem, repairing a leak early and quickly is always the right call.

I Can Handle My Own Plumbing Repairs

The reality is most plumbing repairs are not DIY friendly. It’s important to call the best plumber in your area to ensure that a plumbing problem is fixed quickly, efficiently and according to code. A licensed plumber is always the best option when trying to decide what to do when an issue comes up in your homes plumbing.

The next time you have a plumbing problem, call All-State Plumbing & Heating. We offer a variety of plumbing services such as Commercial Plumbing, Residential Plumbing, Emergency Plumbing, Well Pump Service, Drain Cleaning & Repairs and Heating Services. 

Plumbing disasters can happen at any time of the year, however, the winter months bring a new set of challenges to your plumbing in Danbury, New Milford and Ridgefield, CT. Our plumbers created an easy to follow complete plumbing guide for proactive homeowners and others who want to ensure they experience winter without plumbing issues in CT. Now, we’re going to discuss the most common plumbing problems for January 2020 in Danbury, New Milford, and Ridgefield, CT. 

Water Heater Failure

We can’t imagine starting our day without a hot shower. No one wants to take a cold shower in the Winter! However, water heater problems are very common in January. Although a standard water heater will typically perform for about ten years, during colder months, your water heater is working a bit harder to provide you the comfort you want. Therefore, if you have an older system, it’s more likely to fail. If you believe your water heater is working fine, a quick inspection will make sure your water heater doesn’t stop working in optimal conditions when you need it most!

Frozen Pipes

Frozen pipes are a common plumbing problem in Danbury, New Milford, and Ridgefield. It’s known that any area of your plumbing system can freeze if the pipes are unprotected, especially in January. The best way to avoid frozen pipes is to make sure that you have proper pipe insulation throughout your system. It’s especially important to have pipes in an unheated basement insulated. However, if it’s too late, make sure to turn off your main shutoff valve and call the best plumber near you.

Leaks

Finding a leak in your water line can be a real annoyance. Usually, a leak in the winter is a sign of a pipe on the brink of bursting or a pipe that has already burst. If your pipe is about to burst that means it probably froze. Dealing with leaks in cold months can really increase the price of the repair since the entire pipe usually needs to be replaced. Therefore, it’s important to take steps to ensure your water line is in good shape. Call the best plumber for a quick inspection or if your water line is already leaking. 

Clogged Drains

The holidays are an exciting time of year but they also put more stress on your home’s drain system. Keep in mind that with more foods being prepared, more use of the toilets and sinks with your guests, and the overwhelmingly cold weather, you have the perfect scenario for a plumbing disaster. So, if you had an eventful holiday season in your home, it may be time to double-check that everything is running smoothly.

The Solution To Your Plumbing Problems

January brings cold weather to the northeast and cold weather brings the ability for plumbing problems to occur all over your home. Our best recommendation is to prepare and repair your plumbing in advance to avoid a costly disaster. Give us a call at 223-994-5202 or click here for more information about our plumbing services in Danbury, Ridgefield, and New Milford, CT.

The Most Common Reasons Why Your Toilet Won’t Flush

Over the years, we have learned many things as the best plumber in New Milford, Danbury, Ridgefield and Brookfield, CT. We have learned that one of the most common residential plumbing problems is a toilet that will not flush properly. After all, what good is a toilet if it won’t flush? So our crew of plumbers at All State Plumbing & Heating has created this short guide about reasons why your toilet won’t flush. 

Toilet is Clogged

The most obvious answer on the list is that your toilet is clogged. It’s key to remember to never flush anything down your toilet that isn’t waste or toilet paper. For instance, if you treat your toilet like a garbage can, you’ll end up with constant clogs in your toilet. 

The first thing you have to do is trying plunging it. We recommend using a flange plunger. The cup will help you create a better seal in the toilet bowl so it will be easy for you to fix your clogged toilet. The other option is to use a toilet auger but we’ve found that most homeowners don’t have one of these tools to execute the repair. 

So, if plunging doesn’t fix the problem and you are experiencing frequent clogs in your toilet, then consider calling All State Plumbing & Heating for our drain cleaning services. Our professional drain cleaning services can clear out what a simple plunger couldn’t. 

It’s easy to realize when your toilet is clogged. However, some problems are less obvious. 

Low Water Level

Another common cause of toilets not flushing completely is insufficient water in the tank. When you flush your toilet, you’re letting water from the tank into the bowl. So, when you release a lot of water into the bowl quickly generates the suction required to flush the toilet. However, a lack of water will result in too little force for the toilet to flush completely. 

So, it’s important to check the water level in the tank of your toilet. Most of them have a manufacturer’s mark denoting where the water level should be. However, if your toilet does not have a mark, the best level is about an inch below the overflow pipe. If the water in your tank doesn’t rise to the mark, you will have to quickly adjust it.

Most toilets use floats to set the tank’s water level. Those are the round balls you see connected directly to the fill valve. The mechanism is very simple. The fill valve shuts off when the water touches the float. So, if you want to raise the water level, all you have to do is manually bend the float arm up. Look for the metal clip on the assembly. Then, move the clip to adjust the water level.

On the other hand, you might need to buy a new fill valve and have it installed. The best course of action is to call our plumbers to do the job for you. At All State Plumbing & Heating, we have many years of experience solving common plumbing problems in Danbury, New Milford, Ridgefield and Brookfield, CT. 

Loose Chain

Lift the top of the toilet tank and inspect the toilet chain that’s connected to the flush handle and the flapper. When you depress the handle, the chain yanks the flapper up and initiates the toilet’s flush. If the toilet chain is too long, it won’t be able to yank up the flapper. Then the toilet won’t flush.

If the chain is too short, then the flapper won’t close properly. So, the toilet never stops running because the flapper isn’t closed. Problems related to the chain of your toilet are easy to fix in general by just adjusting the chain’s length. 

The Flapper is Warped

As mentioned before, the toilet’s flapper opens and closes whenever you flush, allowing water to run from the tank into the bowl. Your toilet’s flapper is in contact with moving water all the time. Therefore, all that moving water can bend or warp the flapper.

To check your toilet’s flapper, you have to open your toilet tank. The flapper is the rubber, cup-like fixture located at the bottom of the toilet tank. So, if the flapper is damaged or loose, water could leak into the bowl constantly. The positive thing is that you can fix this right away. The flapper and the chain mechanism aren’t expensive and it’s easy to replace. However, you have to do it once you notice the problem to avoid any other inconveniences. 

First, you have to remove the detached flapper. So, turn off the water to the toilet and flush to remove all the water from the tank. Then, you’ll simply unhook the flapper’s chain from the metal arm and remove the flapper. We recommend you to take your old flapper with you when you buy a new one. That way, you can use it as a reference for its size.

After you install your new flapper, test it several times before turning the water back on. Remember that the chain shouldn’t be too tight or too loose. 

Contact Your Favorite Plumber For Toilet Repair in Brookfield, New Milford, Ridgefield or Danbury, CT.

If your toilet is having issues, the plumbers at All-State Plumbing & Heating are here to help. Our comprehensive plumbing services are the perfect service for homeowners and business owners in Danbury, Ridgefield, New Milford, and Brookfield, CT. So, whatever the reason why your toilet won’t flush, All-State Plumbing & Heating can fix it.

Just give us a call today and we’ll get things flowing as fast as possible!

We hope you enjoy this article and until the next one!

Everything You Have To Know About Pet-Proofing Your Plumbing

We love our pets and we love when our plumbing is working in the best conditions. It’s not often that one stops to think about or even associates pets and plumbing, right? At All State Plumbing & Heating, we want pet owners to beware that some pet-related plumbing problems that can arise. So, we created this plumbing tips list with everything you have to know about pre-proofing your plumbing!

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Fall Plumbing Tips and Tricks

It’s that beautiful time of the year and as temperatures begin to drop, homeowners must begin to prepare their home for plumbing problems associated with the fall weather. Remember that a new season can bring some new plumbing problems. Therefore, with the help of our plumbing experts at All State Plumbing and Heating, we created this complete fall plumbing guide that will help you understand the common plumbing problems in fall and some tips to avoid them.

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Top 5 Plumbing Tips For Fall