When you go to pick out a card for Father’s Day, you’re met with a broad range of options. Some of them exalt your Dad or Husband for all they do for the family, others are very sentimental, and others poke some light-hearted fun at him. Much like the cards illustrate, dads teach us a variety of lessons and share many emotional times with us.
This Father’s Day, remember all the good times but also remember the important lessons Dad has taught over the years, like the lesson of being self-sufficient. However, while it’s a good lesson, don’t follow in his footsteps and be self-sufficient when it isn’t necessary, especially when it comes to plumbing maintenance!
Risks of DIY Toilet Installation
Installing a new toilet isn’t the simplest of tasks, and doing it yourself has some risks. After taking out an old toilet, there are a lot of steps to remember. For example, it’s necessary to inspect the floor underneath to make sure it’s dry and there isn’t any water damage.
If it turns out the old toilet had had an unknown slow leak, the floor may need to be replaced before installing the new toilet. There’s also the issue of causing damage. If something goes wrong during installation, plumbers have insurance to cover the damage--do you have insurance that would cover the damage you could cause?
Replacing a toilet can result in health hazards. For one, you’re working with a household item that is covered with bacteria. Another health risk can come from accidentally causing water damage or an unknown slow leak during toilet installation. Such damage has the potential of causing mold and mildew, which could cause health problems for you and loved ones.
Finally, if your toilet is made out of ceramic, then you also could injure your back if you forget to lift properly since toilets can be pretty heavy. Consider this: plumbers know all the latest best-practices in the plumbing field, can adapt to any situation, and have the expertise needed for the job to go quickly and smoothly--why watch 10 Youtube tutorials when a plumber could have the job done in a flash?
Duct Tape Doesn’t Solve Leaks
It’s possible you’ve come across a Father’s Day card that talks about duct tape, or perhaps seen articles about how duct tape can fix anything. A lot of DIYers claim that you can fix a water leak with duct tape, with some people bragging their fixes have lasted for years.
Perhaps your dad or husband has tried the same trick, and either succeeded or failed in the process. Theoretically, you can turn off the house’s water supply, dry off the pipe well, and then wrap duct tape around the leak.
However, duct tape doesn’t always give enough pressure to stop a leak. Moreover, even if it does hold the pressure, duct tape isn’t made to withstand moisture full-time and isn’t 100% waterproof.
You’re just setting yourself up for more headaches in the future---imagine the tape holding and then breaking when you’re far away on a family road trip! While duct tape is a possible quick fix, you can’t rely on it to last long term--you need to secure a plumber to repair the pipe properly as soon as possible.
Drain Snaking Mishaps
Another DIY hack Dad might try is fixing a clog with a drain snake. Snakes help to break up a clog in a drain when used correctly, but in the hands of an amateur, plumbing snakes can wreak havoc on your entire system, causing the clog to get worse or causing the clog to get pushed further down the system.
If the clog is pushed further down the pipe, it becomes more difficult to remove! People can also get the wrong sized snake, which can damage the pipes, cause more leaks, or result in the need to replace a pipe unnecessarily. In addition, clogs might not be what you expect--it may be a tree root that grew into a pipe or something else that a professional would recognize.
Remember, your Dad or father figure wanted to help fix everything around the house and may have been the handy guy for years. Being self-sufficient is an important life-skill that potentially saves money in a lot of situations, but when it comes to plumbing, learn from Dad’s past mistakes and call a professional plumber for drain cleaning first, instead of waiting until the problem potentially becomes worse or more expensive.
