4 Shower Habits That Damage Your Plumbing

When we shower, we tend to do a number of things that we never think of as “wrong”. Rest assured! Your shower and its plumbing will thank you if we fix these four bad habits.
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1. LONG SHOWERS! A lot of us love to take long showers. Whether we stand there daydreaming or are putting a one man, or one woman, show for ourselves, one thing is certain. Long showers help some of us to function. Let’s leave aside the fact that it is a ridiculous waste of water and concentrate on the following. Are you familiar with mold, the stuff that we try to avoid at all costs? Long showers produce a lot of steam in bathrooms with limited ventilation. This means mold can thrive where we sometimes will not expect it. Most bathrooms nowadays come with an exhaust fan and that certainly helps. If you do not have one, make sure to increase ventilation by opening a window. Try not to shower as long and mold, which is detrimental to your family’s health, will cease to exist. The temperature of the water will also help with this. The cooler the shower, the less steam there is to worry about. Less steam = less possibility for mold to grow.
2. ADDRESS THE WARNING SIGNS. Have you noticed a steady drip from your shower head? How about a weird noise coming from within the walls when you turn the water on? Or maybe the hot water is not lasting as long as it once did? All these signs are just your plumbing system telling you to investigate. We get it; you are in a rush. You will address it tomorrow or when you have the time. Heed the signs. If your hot water is not lasting as long as it once did, it may mean your water heater needs much needed maintenance or replacement. Dripping of any kind usually means a worn gasket or that your water pressure is not working as intended. Addressing the little problems today certainly guarantees that you will avoid the big problems tomorrow. If the problem does persist, call us at 214-328-7371 for a plumbing inspection from one of our certified plumbing technicians. We will come out and get everything in working order.
3. LEAVING WATER ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR. This is easily fixable. Simply lay a towel down or have a floor mat placed next to your shower for you when you get out. This isn’t directly linked to your shower but your post-shower negligence. A lot of people do the same thing and we definitely have been part of that group from time to time. This is for all the people that do not dry themselves while they are still in the shower and come out dripping wet. Bathroom floors, whether wood or tile, can be damaged if water is left on the ground. Wood floors will warp and the grout in tile floors can become damaged over time. It is easy to address as we stated above, so why not do it? The number one reason to take care of your bathroom floors post-shower? Mold. Mold is harmful to us and leaving wet floors is inviting mold to thrive and take over.
4. HAIR. It is natural to lose some hair while we wash ourselves day in and day out. Anyone with long hair can be the culprit with this particular problem. Invest in a good drain cover and catch all that pesky hair before it goes down your drain. Clumps of hair can accumulate in your pipes and cause serious blockages. This will prevent the water from draining properly and cause gross water backups. Leaving this problem unchecked will lead to big blockages that professional help, such as our certified technicians at Metro-Flow Plumbing, will be needed. The shower drain is an easy target for hair and for soap residue to turn into gunk inside the pipes. It is easy to address with the shower drain cover, a very cheap solution.