Making your house more environmentally friendly is certainly a noble impulse. Problems can arise, however, if this isn’t done right. The plumbing in a house cannot be broken down into just one fixture or one appliance. The plumbing in your house constitutes an entire system and every part of that system has to be compatible with every other part of that system. This is something that a professional needs to be consulted with to ascertain properly.
Potential Disasters
Consider one of the most popular plumbing fixtures out there at the moment: low flow toilets. These toilets are designed to use less water every time they flush. There are even waterless or nearly waterless urinals available that have been used in some facilities.
If the plumbing fixture that you install does not put out enough water to adequately clear the lines, you can end up with a real problem. Sure, installing a low flow toilet may feel good, but once you figure out that you’re not adequately clearing the drain lines in your home, you might regret it a great deal. When waste builds up in pipes, it can corrode them, leading to very serious problems. It would take you many years of using a low flow toilet to pay for the costs of fixing such a problem.
A properly trained and experienced plumber can identify these problems before they manifest. If you want to install efficient plumbing fixtures in your home, they can look at the rest of your plumbing and make certain that it will be able to function adequately with those systems installed. This will include everything involved in your system, such as determining what types of pipes you have, how much water you need to flush your lines and so forth.
Going green can be a great idea. Any great idea, however, can go wrong if it’s not properly planned out. You should always consult with a plumber before you make any changes – environmentally friendly or not – to the plumbing in your home.
Bill Fenwick Sr. has been working since 1969 with all types of plumbing systems. Fenwick Home Services in Jacksonville can provide you with information on environmentally friendly options for your home, but will also make certain that you don’t end up doing something to your plumbing system that creates a bigger problem than you want to deal with. Going green is great; just make sure that you are doing it right.