Water & Basic Plumbing

Part 1

Find your shutoffs today — before anything is wrong

This is the single most valuable thing in this guide. Do it now, while nothing is leaking, and show everyone in the house. In an emergency you want muscle memory, not a search.

1. 1

   The main shutoff

   Turns off water to the whole house. Look where the supply pipe enters — often a garage wall, a utility closet, or near the water heater. In much of Texas it is outside near the meter box at the curb, under a metal or plastic lid. Open it, and you will see a valve you turn with a meter key or a wrench. Turn clockwise to close.

2. 2

   Fixture shutoffs

   Every toilet and sink has its own small valve on the wall beneath it, usually an oval or football-shaped handle. Turning that one off lets you work on that fixture while the rest of the house keeps running. Check each one turns — old valves seize, and you want to discover that today rather than mid-flood.

3. 3

   The water heater

   Has its own shutoff on the cold inlet pipe at the top. Label it. If the heater ever leaks, this is the valve you want.

4. 4

   Label everything

   A luggage tag or a strip of tape with 'MAIN WATER — TURN RIGHT TO CLOSE' costs nothing and will one day be read by someone panicking. Take a photo of each and keep it in your phone.

Part 2

The running toilet — the most expensive drip in the house

A toilet that runs constantly can waste hundreds of gallons a day and adds up quietly on the bill. It is almost always one of two rubber parts, both under $15, both replaceable without tools.

1. 1

   Work out which part failed

   Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank (the back part, not the bowl). Wait twenty minutes without flushing. If color appears in the bowl, the flapper at the bottom is leaking. If not, the fill valve is overfilling and running into the overflow tube.

2. 2

   Replace a flapper

   Turn off the fixture shutoff, flush to empty the tank. Unclip the old flapper from the two pegs, unhook the chain, take it to the shop and buy the one that matches. Clip the new one on. Set the chain with about half an inch of slack — too tight and it never seals, too loose and it will not lift.

3. 3

   Adjust or replace the fill valve

   The water should stop about an inch below the top of the overflow tube. Most modern fill valves adjust by turning a screw or sliding a clip on the float. If adjusting does not stop it, the valve itself is worn — they cost about $12 and swap out with the tank empty and one nut underneath.

Part 3

Clearing a clog properly

The order matters here. Start with the least destructive method and only escalate if it fails.

1. 1

   Plunger, done properly

   Most people plunge wrong. There must be enough water to cover the rubber cup, or you are just pushing air. Seat it, push down slowly to expel air, then pull up sharply — the pull does the work, not the push. Fifteen to twenty strokes, then check.

2. 2

   Toilet auger

   For a toilet the plunger will not shift. Feed the tip in, crank the handle clockwise while pushing gently, and stop when you feel it break through. Withdraw slowly, still cranking clockwise, so whatever it hooked comes with it.

3. 3

   Sink traps

   The U-bend under a sink is designed to come apart. Put a bucket underneath, unscrew the two slip nuts by hand or with channel-locks, and the trap comes off. This is where rings, earrings, and years of hair collect. Clean it, refit, hand-tighten plus a quarter turn, then run water and watch for drips.

Part 4

Dripping taps and leaking joints

1. 1

   Find the drip's actual source

   Dry everything thoroughly, put a paper towel underneath, and come back in an hour. Water travels along pipes before it falls, so the drip you see is often not where the leak is. The paper towel tells you the truth.

2. 2

   Tighten before you dismantle

   Many joint leaks stop with a quarter turn. Do not go further — over-tightening cracks fittings and turns a drip into a spray.

3. 3

   Thread tape on threaded joints

   For threaded metal joints, wrap PTFE tape clockwise around the male threads three or four turns, in the direction the fitting will screw on so it does not unwrap. Compression joints and rubber-washer joints do not need tape.

4. 4

   Cartridge taps

   A dripping mixer tap is usually one cartridge. Turn off the fixture shutoff, take the handle off, note exactly how the cartridge sits before removing it, and take it to the shop to match. Photograph each stage on your phone as you go — this is the single best habit in all home repair.

Part 5

Winter, Texas, and frozen pipes

North Texas gets hard freezes that the plumbing here is not built for, and burst pipes after an ice storm are a regional speciality. A little preparation avoids most of it.

• Before the first freeze, disconnect and drain garden hoses. A connected hose holds water against the outside tap and splits it.
• Cover outside taps with an insulating cap — a few dollars each.
• In a hard freeze, let one tap furthest from the main drip slowly overnight. Moving water is far harder to freeze, and the drip costs pennies.
• Open the cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls so household heat reaches the pipes.
• If a tap gives no water in a freeze, that pipe is likely frozen but may not yet have split. Turn the tap on, and warm the pipe with a hairdryer working from the tap back toward the frozen section. Never a blowtorch.
• Know where the main shutoff is. If a pipe has already burst, that is the first move — before anything else.