When you have to make the rounds in your house as you clean, the one room we often try to leave toward the end is the bathroom, and this is simply because we know what types of things go on in there. The truth is that as much as we think we know (and avoid) about our bathrooms, it is our bathroom plumbing that we should be paying more attention.
Have you ever thought it might be fun and exciting to sit in on a lecture about the human body’s circulatory system? Could you see yourself taking the time to understand thermodynamics? Not really. While these may be somewhat extreme examples, your bathroom’s plumbing is really quite a complex thing. It’s for this reason alone that professional plumbers are invaluable resources for your average homeowner.
Even if you don’t know exactly how it all works, it is important for you to really grasp what goes into making your bathroom do what it does. The first thing to understand that your bathroom’s plumbing is a fairly sophisticated network of pipes and venting. Waste water and sewage gases are kept at bay while clean water are allowed back into the system. Moreover, gravity also plays a role in how well things move around in your pipes. Have you ever heard the sound of pipes making sounds as someone uses the shower? That’s you hearing the network of plumbing in action.
Perhaps the biggest misconception about plumbing that people have in general is that it is all pipes and fittings on those pipes. This, of course, is simply not the case. Much the same way your veins aren’t all that’s involved in moving blood in your body, your bathroom plumbing also consists of fixtures, supply lines, and the ability to control the movement of water by way of various valves located at the fixture or to the house as a whole. As a homeowner, you may not actually see your pipes in action, but you are always privy to seeing the fixtures in your bathroom. It’s important for you to make sure everything is working well. As part of a regular routine, take the time to check your fixtures, faucets, and supply lines just to make sure it’s all operating the right way. You’d hate to find out things aren’t OK when something really big happens with your plumbing.
Finally, it’s important to take time to understand the role of the homeowner when it comes to their bathroom plumbing. All too often, we take for granted what our bathrooms do for us until something goes wrong. Even more problematic is that we tend to also ignore the warning signs our plumbing provides for us. This is perhaps the greatest proof of its complex nature but also its saving grace. When we see water draining a little slower down a drain, we don’t think much about it. When we see it in multiple drains, we wonder what’s happening, but again, we just think that as long as the water still drains, we’re OK. You could very well be ignoring a major issue in the drainage part of your bathroom’s plumbing. Sure, it’s not quite sentient thinking, but there is something to be said about how your plumbing can give you a “head’s up” when things might go south.
Bathroom plumbing is something we’d rather not deal with. However, ignoring this complex system can have severe consequences.