Gary's Plumbing Tips

Q.

What's the latest on fixing leaking taps?

A.

Over the years there's been many tap washer alternatives and we've certainly tried them all.

Unfortunately they don't all live up to the manufacturer's claims as the part of the tap that a tapwasher seals onto can often be worn or cracked, so it doesn't matter how good the tapwasher is, the tap will still leak.

Typically we use a re-seating tool to grind down the seat and make it like new . Sometimes this is not possible so we cut a thread into the seat of the tap and screw in a new stainless steel seat. This is only possible if there is enough brass in the seat that we screw into otherwise we need to replace the tap.

If the taps are warn, we tyically replace them with taps like these pictured here, commonly known as "easy clean" taps.

Can a unit or apartment be made water efficient if there isn't a separate water meter.

The dwelling must be individually metered and all cold taps to deliver no more than 9 litres per minute .

The toilets are to be 6.5 litres maximum full flush and 3.5 litres maximum half flush if you want to charge a tenant for water usage.

A property may be deemed "water efficient" to suit other purposes such as a council requirement as the water usage at a property may have been considered too high

and it's OK to deem an older cistern to be compliant for this purpose as long as an existing toilet cistern does not exceed 9 litres full flush and 4.5 litres half flush.

This is not to be confused with the regulation that requires the cistern to be the maximum 6 litre full and 3 litre half flush if you want to to charge for water usage.

Question.

What are the new rules surrounding the new hot water service regulations?

Answer.

From 1 January 2010, homeowners of existing houses and townhouses (class 1 buildings) located in a natural gas reticulated area may have to install a greenhouse efficient hot water system (i.e. gas, solar or heat pump) when the existing electric hot water service needs replacing.

PLEASE NOTE: They only have to do this if the gas company will bring gas up to their house boundary for free. Otherwise they can replace with the same electric hot water service.

If we are called to a job and the electric hot water service is beyond repair, we will install a 50 litre electric plug in hot water service to provide immediate hot water and will we will allow a maximum of 7 days use of the temporary hot water service.

We will be offering a quote for a gas hot water service in place of the electric hot water service.

If the owner wants to go for a gas unit there and there is a time lag for the gas company to get gas up to the house or unit, regrettably we would charge $30 a week for the use of the hot water service as we would need to fund the purchase of extra hot water services to keep people.

Our cost for the first visit and to set up a temporary hot water service, contact the gas company and find out if they would provide gas line up to the house for free would be around $250 and includes one weeks hire of the hot water service.

I will keep you updated if I gain any further information regards this matter.

Otherwise you can call the Natural Gas Hotline on 1800 007 427 to check if the property is bound to the new legislation.

Or click on https://www.smartservice.qld.gov.au/services/property/natural-gas-reticulation/search/postcode for more info.

The flow restricting shower head you installed hasn't made any difference to the water pressure. Why?

This is due to the way the new shower roses are designed. There is more water directed to the outside of the shower rose giving the effect that a lot of water comes out of the shower.

If you're not sure of the water rating of your shower head, hold up a small bucket under your shower head (majority are 10 litres) to see how long it takes to fill the bucket. If it is full within one minute, the shower head is not water efficient.

Q. How Can I stop the water hammer sound?

A. First we see if we can install extra clips on your pipes. Also you need to check that the washing machine taps are turned off.

We can install water hammer devices which work quite well except sometimes the water hammer then moves to another area of your house and you need to add more water hammer devices. The devices cost around $50 and take between 30 minutes to an hour to install.

Question.

Why is it the cold water is sometimes brown in colour?

Answer.

This is usually the result of recent work on the water mains in the street. Or it could be that the water pipes at the property are still in galvanised iron.

The rust will be present in the water especially if the tap hasn't been used for a while, or the water has recently been turned off.

My advice is to replace the pipes in either copper or plastic. Expect an approximate cost of between $1500 to $2000 to replace these pipes on the average house, depending on access. The average job would take about a day and a half.

Question.

How come the toilet sounds like its always running but I can't see the water running into the bowl?

Answer.

It may be that the toilet takes a long time to fill. The best way to check if the toilet is leaking would be wait a few minutes after flushing the toilet. Hold some dry toilet paper against the back centre of the toilet bowl where the water would be seen if it was obviously still running.

If the paper continues to get wet, there's a problem with the toilet cistern.

It will either be in inlet valve or the outlet valve and you need to call a plumber. (From clearline of course)

Question.

How come the shower keeps dripping and yet you just replaced the washers?

Quite often it takes a few minutes for the water to completely drain from the shower rose, especially if the rose is on an angle.

Answer.

The best way to know if there is a problem with the shower is to turn off the tap and have the shower rose so that the base of the shower rose (where the water comes out) is flat or horizontal to the shower base. If it keeps leaking, there is still a problem with the tap.

Question.

How do I top up the hot water service?

Answer.

While most of us don't top up the hot water service, it IS very important to top up the SAXON brand hot water services about every 4 to 6 weeks.

These units are just like a bucket of water with a copper hose inside. The water in the hose gets heated by the water in the bucket.

If the bucket aint full, the water in the hose doesn't heat up. To fill the hot water service you need to pull on the lever on the valve near the top of the hot water service until water comes out.

The longer it takes for the water to come out, means that it's been a while since the unit has been topped up.

For your other brands of hot water service about every 6 months is enough.

You need to pull the silver lever which is about 2 cm long that is atached to a brass fitting near the top of the hot water service. Pull this lever until water comes out.

Question

What can I do about a noisy insinkerator?

You could try re-setting the insinkerator by finding the small red re-set button underneath the unit and push it in.

If that doesn't work you could try and rotate the motor manually (turn off the power first) with a suitable Allen key and insert it into the bottom of the unit. Try and turn it to free it up.

Answer

We recommend that aonce an insinkerator starts playing up that you remove it all together.

It costs around $180- $200 to re-plumb the sink back to normal or around $400 to replace the insinkerator.

Question.

Why am I running out of hot water so soon?

Answer.

As it is gets cooler, the water coming in off the street is around 10 degrees cooler than in warmer months.

Therefore a greater volume of water from the storage unit is required to provide the same temperature in the shower.

The hot water runs out quicker than warmer months.