Plumbing Tips

Bathroom Mold – Where It Tends To Reside

There is no limit to the places where mold contamination can be found in your bathroom. Whenever bathrooms are wallpapered, for example, mold can often be found on the back side of the wallpaper.

Stchybotrys chartarum mold, an airborne black bath mold, as well as Aspergillus and Penicillium, two additional airborne species of mold, are the main molds present behind wallpaper.

Mold can also be found behind the floor trim in places where the floor often gets wet, such as near the shower or the sink. Mold can also be hiding within the wall cavities near the shower. A way to look for this mold is to remove the access panel of your shower if it has one and check for water stains.

Mold also likes to hang out in bathroom ceilings, particularly near the shower and around vents and light fixtures. Another area it is often found is under the back side of the vanity cabinet above the sink. Since the vanity cabinets are often not coated with a protective covering, these surfaces invite mold to grow and hang on to moisture.

Mold can be found hidden under the bath floor tiles or behind solid marble bath walls as well, if a bathroom floor has ever flooded or had serious exposure. Los Angeles plumbing services like Mr. Speedy Plumbing are well equipped to fight (and win) any damage that serious mold issues may have caused in your home.

By the time our customers call us, their plumbing issue or problem is a large one that should be handled by a professional plumbing service like ourselves as they require a plumbing snake or other professional plumbing tool. Even so, our customers often ask if we have any green tips and suggestions for them on how to avoid problems like theirs in the future.

Here are some green and evironmentally conscious suggestions that we’ve heard about:

Baking Soda As A Method Of Preventing A Backed Up Drain

Add one cup of baking soda into with three cups of boiling water. If you pour this mixture down your drain, this combination can help prevent clogging issues in the future.

Washing Soda As A Method Of Preventing A Clogged Drain

Sometimes, washing soda will work down a drain if the aforementioned baking soda mixture does not work for clogged drain repair. However, you do not want to pour washing soda down your drain if you have recently used a commercial drain cleaner, since there can be an unwanted and dangerous chemical reaction between the two. In addition, if you have PVC pipes, use this method very scarcely as the plastic on the pipes can erode from frequent use.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

If you have an existing clog in your drain, sometimes adding one cup of vinegar to the baking soda mixture mentioned above can help clear the clog, since the fizzing sometimes helps dissolve clogs.

Enzyme Drain Cleaners

Enzyme drain cleaners, like Bacout from BiOKleen for example, help to disinegrate matter in backed up drains. The living enzyme cultures actually eat some of the matter and aid in clearing the drains. Enzyme drain cleaners help to clean septic tanks as well. In addition, they drastically cut down on smells from garbage disposals.

In showers and bathtubs, however, enzymes are much less effective. They don’t break down hair, often the root cause of clogs in the bathroom. Therefore, one suggestion we have read about is to pour a cup of washing soda down the shower drain followed by hot water for a minute or two.

We receive countless questions from our customers in our practice asking about the difference between hard and soft water. While hard water is not considered hazardous to one’s health, hard water can often be a root cause in plumbing problems and issues with water heaters, dishwashers and washing machines, for example.

The determining difference between the two is calculated by the extent of minerals such as calcium and magnesium found in the water. Though they do not factor into the determination of whether water is hard or soft, other minerals such as iron, manganese and aluminum are found in the water as well in certain areas of the country.

Water with the highest mineral content of calcium and magnesium is seen as hard water. The calculation is made by measuring how many grains per gallon (gpg) are present in the water. Soft water contains 0-3.5 gpg, Moderately Hard water contains 3.5-7.0 gpg, Hard Water c 10.5-ontains 7.0-10.5, and Very Hard water contains at least 10.5 gpg.

When rain water first hits the ground, it is always soft. But as it comes into contact with the underground water pipes and the limestone on them, it becomes harder.

An easy way to figure out how hard the water is in your home is to do a little experiment the next time you are in the shower or brushing your teeth: If the soap or toothpaste lathers easily and provides a lot of froth, the chances are great that you have soft water.

If you’ve ever turned off the water faucets in your bathroom and heard loud, vibrating noises, you’ve seen ‘water hammering’ in action. The cause of water hammering is when a quick stream of water moves down a small, thin pipe and hits a closed valve where it has to come to an abrupt halt.

The problem of water hammering is not insurmountable and can definitely be fixed. It’s important to try and remedy the situation actually, since the noise water hammering creates is not the only issue; it can also be harmful to the connections and joints in the pipes throughout your house.

Water hammering doesn’t occur every single time the faucets are turned off, since the water valves typically don’t rapidly close. They’re designed to slowly close, but with the passing of time a faucet’s gaskets will become brittle and eventually the valves will close quickly every now and then.

One method commonly use to prevent water hammering is to build air chambers into the plumbing system. These air chambers prevent the water from slamming against the pipes by acting as cushions. Air chambers are often added into important plumbing locations in the house, like the dishwasher or washing machine. Areas like these are where water hammering often occurs because the electric valves built into the appliances and close rapidly and cause water hammering.

The best way of fixing the problem of water hammering is to replenish all the air chambers in your piping with air. To do this, you should first turn off the water supply valve to your main water supply. Once you do this, you should then drain all the remaining water from the pipes. If you turn on a couple of faucets in your house and then turn on your home’s faucet closest to the ground (usually located outside the house), the remaining water will drain.

You are removing all the water from the pipes because you want to replace it with air. So once the water is completely gone, you then turn the main valve back on. The air being pushed out of the water lines will exit the inside faucets. Air will remain in the air chambers, however, which should help rectify the water hammering problem.

One final piece of advice: check all the pipes to make sure they are properly connected prior to refilling your air chambers with air. Sometimes, a loose pipe mounting strap can cause water pipes to make loud noises when the pipes are perfectly functional.

You can always call your trusted Mr. Speedy for additional assistance too. That’s what we’re here for!

Mr. Speedy Plumbing wants to save you money when you need plumbing services. That’s why, we always evaluate whether a particular fix will be less expensive if a part or fixture is repaired or replaced. For an inexpensive part, it is often cheaper to simply replace it rather than try to repair it. In other cases, a repair can save hundreds of dollars that you won’t have to spend on a replacement unit.

Items like a drippy faucet are usually easy to fix, requiring perhaps a new washer or filter trap. If however the problem is more serious, like inner corrosion, we will professionally remove the damaged part and replace it with one of equal or superior quality. If you have a broken sewer pipe, we will consider whether repair through relining is more cost efficient than simply using trenchless technology to replace the pipe with a new one. We can unclog a toilet for you, but if the toilet always seems to be clogging up, we may recommend a more powerful replacement unit for the flushing mechanism. There are power-flush units that can solve a chronic-clog problem without having to replace the entire toilet bowl. Our trucks carry an extensive inventory of replacement parts so that often there is no need for a return visit. You can rely on Mr. Speedy Plumbing to save you money by repairing your plumbing equipment when possible and cost-effective, and replacing your plumbing equipment when it is necessary.

The City’s wastewater system serves over four million people in Los Angeles and 27 cities that contract for this public works service. The system is comprised of more than 6,500 miles of sewer pipelines and four wastewater treatment and water reclamation plants that can process over 550 million gallons of flow each day citywide.

LAs’ sewer system is completely separate from its storm drain system.

The following is a summary of the wastewater collection and treatment facilities currently operated by the Department of Public Works.

Wastewater Collection System; the Sewer System

• Over 6,500 miles of sewers ranging from eight inches to 12 feet in diameter
• 48 pumping plants lift wastewater from low-lying communities into larger sewers

Wastewater Treatment Plants

Hyperion Treatment Plant, the City’s largest facility, serves more than two-thirds of Los Angeles and has a capacity to process 450 million gallons per day (MGD); 100% secondary treatment.

Terminal Island Treatment Plant in San Pedro, serves Los Angeles Harbor area communities and has a capacity of 30 MGD; soon to be a water reclamation plant; 100% tertiary treatment with reverse osmosis treatment scheduled for late 2000.

Water Reclamation Plants

Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, serving San Fernando Valley communities, has the capacity to process 80 MGD, 100% tertiary treatment.

LA/Glendale Water Reclamation Plant serves eastern San Fernando Valley communities; it has the capacity to process 20 MGD, 100% tertiary treatment.

All wastewater treatment and water reclamation plants operate year-round.

Source: Wikipedia