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Toilet & Urinal Etiquette

By
Rebecca Senyard
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toilet etiquette are urinals on the decline?

Toilet etiquette shouldn’t need a blog post but unfortunately, misfires, bad aims and not thinking about the next user is practiced by the human race, worldwide.

One of my jobs yesterday was to investigate and fix a leaking toilet.

Imagine my confusion and eventual dismay when what I thought was the smell of someone’s hot lunch was actually coming from the toilet.

Dad and I looked at each other and of course my dad had to say “it smells like fart in here” to which I replied “I thought it was someone’s leftovers for lunch”.

After fixing the toilet, I came across a sign on the wall about toilet ‘etiquette’ and I could not stop laughing.

The “Watermelon” is when a person does a number 2 in the toilet and they hear the ‘plop’ sound as it drops into the water. It advises that if this occurs in a public toilet and someone is waiting to go in after you, act as if it didn’t happen. Everyone has to do a poo eventually.

It made me think about the times I have been fixing a toilet and a person has walked in and done their business in the next cubicle. They’re either busting to go or don’t care or both.

Even worse, I have been in a meeting with other tradesmen to discuss the upgrade of the male and female toilets and one of the tradesmen decided to chuck a leak in the urinal. In front of everyone. In front of me. This happened twice. Both times the builder who organized the meeting shook his head and apologized to me about the behavior of this tradesman.

This is another reason why I don’t like urinals.

Communal whizzing.

While guys point their finger at women who go to the toilet in pairs when in public, something needs to be said about men peeing together into a urinal.

Apparently urinal usage is on the decline because men are becoming more ‘aware’ of peeing around other men and prefer to use a toilet. There was an article about it recently in the Sunday Mail.

Either way, toilets and urinals are there to be used. Keeping them look clean and smell fresh is up to the individual user.

If there’s a brush, use it. If there’s air freshener, spray it. If you lift the lid, close it. If you use it up, replace it. If you miss the toilet, wipe it!

It’s good toilet etiquette and ensures the next person doesn’t have to smell or see what you have left behind from your behind. And it will stop the Plumbette asking “What on earth did you EAT?”

Toilet etiquette is just good manners! Have you ever walked into a poorly used toilet? Share about it in the comments section below!

Top 10 Sayings of a Plumber

By
Rebecca Senyard
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Plumbers can say some pretty funny phrases. I love that I can have a good laugh in this industry. I guess when you are dealing with smelly situations, it pays to have a good sense of humour. I am warning you that the following sayings do have swear words in them.

Here are the top 10 sayings of a plumber

1. Sh*t goes down hill and payday is Friday

2. I’m bogged down at the momment

3. He’s as clear as poop

4. Righty tighty, lefty loosey

5. Rome wasn’t built in a day

6. I do my best work in the dark 😉

7. You want it when?

8. Crooked as a dog’s d*ck

9. It smells like a million arsewh*les in here

10. No wonder it’s blocked, there are sh*ts the size of bricks in there

One of the funniest signs I have seen in a domestic house is

‘If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down, if it’s vomit flush and mop it, if you don’t, you’re going to cop it.’

Funny things I was told when I first started my apprenticeship

1. Payday is Friday

2. Poop doesn’t go uphill

3. Don’t chew your nails or lick your fingers

Do you know of any other funny sayings from a tradesperson?

 

 

 

No Hot Water

By
Rebecca Senyard
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when your tap won't turn off

You don’t realize how much you rely on hot water until you have a luke warm shower on a cold winters day. No one likes to wake up on a cold morning to find there is no hot water!If you have a family, your children are sure to tell you and nag you until it gets fixed.  And I visited one such family this week!

The issue was when both showers were on and the mixer was turned on to hot, it only produced luke warm water. After inspecting the hot water unit, a tempering valve had been installed and it was faulty. By changing the dial settings of the tempering valve, we realized that it didn’t do anything to the temperature of the water.

A tempering valve is a valve that must be installed on all hot water systems to temper the hot water to bathrooms. It is set at a maximum of 50 degrees Celsius. A tempering valve is a safety requirement to ensure that a child does not scald themselves when they turn on a hot water tap.

A tempering valve is only usually applied to the hot water connected to the bathrooms and this was why hot water was reaching the kitchen mixer downstairs but not the bathrooms upstairs.

The reason tempered water is not connected to kitchens is because hot water is needed for washing up and to kill bacteria. Often, though, tempered water can be piped to the kitchen as most people generally use dishwashers to wash their dishes.

Replacing a tempering valve is an easy installation. Most older households don’t have one installed because they weren’t around back then, but newer houses must have one installed in order to get a plumbing clearance certificate for their property.

Most instantaneous gas hot water systems don’t require a tempering valve as they are already set to 50 degrees Celsius at manufacture.

Have you ever experienced no hot water in your household? What did you do?

Plumbing Fittings With Sexual References

By
Rebecca Senyard
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It had to have been a male that named plumbing fittings because men are visual and women are…thoughtful.

 

When I started my apprenticeship, one of the first things my dad taught me was if I thought about sex, I would start to understand why fittings were called what they were. I remember laughing at him incredulously and to my astonishment he was serious. Plumbing fittings with sexual references? No wonder it was a male dominated trade!!

 

My dad had his head buried in a cupboard, disconnecting a sink, when he started to rattle off fittings that I would need to know… half inch female union, half inch male line union, tit of a trap, hex nipple, stopcock… plumbers crack. The last one was a joke.

 

Funnily enough, thinking about sex helped me discern the difference between fittings when a plumber would ask me to go and get a particular fitting off the back of the truck.

 

A male line meant the fitting would insert into another fitting. A female union would be a fitting that could have something inserted into or screwed into it, no pun intended. (Now you know why my dad hid his head in a cupboard when he explained this to me!)

 

The tit of a trap is a small ‘nib’ opening in a sink trap. It’s sole purpose is for a dishwasher waste hose connection. The end of the tit on a trap is rounded like a boob.

 

A hex nipple is a fitting with male pipe thread on either side of a hex shaped middle (so a spanner or shifter can easily grasp it) and it connects two other fittings together.

 

A stopcock is a ball vale or a water tap that turns water off or on, on a main water line.  In the UK there is an all female plumbing firm called “Stopcocks”. It’s a common plumbing term and a rather interesting name for an all female plumbing company.

 

Of course, having been in the industry for over 6 years, I now can immediately tell the difference between fittings. There are also some fittings that are male line on one end and female on the other.

 

As you can see plumbing is an interesting trade and is definitely not all about water and sewerage.

Have you ever come across any funny terms for fittings or products? Do share.

 

 

Plumbers Make Mistakes!

By
Rebecca Senyard
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On Monday, dad and I fixed a leak under a sink in a house at Shailer Park. Unfortunately the client had got a water filter tap installed into her kitchen sink and the tradesman who connected the tap didn’t install it as per plumbing standards. She had seen him advertising his product at the Chandler markets. The tradesman advised that the leak was not his fault and must have been there before he installed the water filter system. But if he was a plumber, he would have been able to fix the leak straight away. But he wasn’t a plumber so he couldn’t.

 

If the price of installing a water filter or any fixture in your house sounds too good to be true, then it is. If you get this person to install anything in your house, there is no warranty on the installation and should anything go wrong you won’t be covered by insurance because it’s deemed as an illegal installation. All plumbing works must be installed by a licensed plumber. Also, you will always have to pay more money to get a licensed plumber to fix up the problem so you end up spending more money on something than if you had engaged with the right licensed trade in the first place.

 

We re-plumbed the water filter in properly with a pressure limiting valve so that the pressure entering the water filters would be reduced so that the water line wouldn’t blow out of the filter causing a major flood in the house.

 

We left the client happy that the leak had been fixed and water filter tap connection was installed correctly.

 

Then I got a call today to say that the dishwasher had a fault because there was no water connected to it. In the process of fixing the leak and reinstalling the dodgy water filter installation I had forgot to reconnect the water feed to the dishwasher hose. Doh!

 

The problem meant I had to proactively think on my toes on who to get to hook the water up because my dad had just stepped on a plane to go to New Zealand for the Easter break. I had a sick 20 month old and it was too last minute to find someone to look after her plus I couldn’t put her car seat in the ute, so I rang through my list of reliable plumber contacts and by the fourth call, I was able to get a plumber to fix up my stuff up.

 

Sadly, this job has now cost me money because of a simple mistake, but this client has used us before and the fact that I was able to get a plumber to her within the hour to get it fixed means that next time she needs a plumber, I will hopefully be the first one she calls.

A Most Unlikely Shower

By
Rebecca Senyard
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I hosted a baby shower for my best friend on Saturday and her and her mum told me a funny story. I had to share it with you!

We’ll call my best friend Kate and her mum Jane. Jane and her husband are living in a caravan on Main Beach. They sold their house so that they could live the ‘grey nomad’ dream and travel around Australia. At the moment, due to Jane’s husband’s work contract, they are parked at Main Beach. Kate lives in Sydney and only moved there a year ago. Since her mum lives in a caravan and her husband’s family live in Sydney, I offered to host a baby shower in my home. (I know, how awesome am I?)

So Jane and Kate are getting food prepped in their caravan. They have a relaxed breakfast at McDonalds and a leisurely chat back at the Caravan Park. They look at the time and realize it’s time to have a shower to get ready for the party. (my house is atleast 1 hour from Main Beach)

They head to the showers and…. they are closed for an hour for cleaning! Had they known this, they would have had their showers earlier! They think of their options of what to do. They could just drive up to my house and have a shower there, or… they could use the beach showers!

So off they went in their togs, shampooing their hair, lathering themselves in soap and washing themselves off under a COLD BEACH SHOWER.

Kate admits, she did it all the time when her family would camp over Christmas holidays.

It would have been a funny sight to see, a mother and daughter having their morning shower in broad daylight.

This is why I don’t go camping and hearing this story adds further confirmation to my dislike!

Have you ever had a most unlikely shower?

Worst Smell Ever

By
Rebecca Senyard
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how to fix smelly drains

 

I love asking nitty gritty questions about jobs that have ‘out there’ roles. Every person that I ask about their job involving something embarrassing or gross say ‘it’s part of the job and after a while you don’t think much about it when you do it.’

I wish I could say this about the smells I come into contact with but unfortunately I can’t. Bad smells that are associated with plumbing can never be gotten used to unless you are unable to taste or smell of which I have heard of such a person – and he chose to be a painter.

Everyone’s poo smells different and the longer it festers, the worse the smell gets. Cutting into a main sewer line can release the reek of a week’s worth of a family’s number twos and then there are times when I have disconnected a sink and the smell from the waste can fill a whole room. Gross.

The worst smells I have come into contact aren’t with the poo and wee kind, although, their odour can make your nose hairs curl. The worst smell is trade waste  from grease traps and grey water pump wastes. Trade waste is the oils and fats and quite often food scraps that restaurants and take-away shops wash down their sink. The sink waste in every restaurant and take-away shop is connected into a trade waste line (the pipes are black plastic) which connect into a grease trap. The grease trap separates the fats from the water so the water can be released through to the main sewer line and the fats can be pumped out. Lifting the lid on a grease trap is like opening an atomic fart bomb. It’s worse than poo and wee mixed together. Much worse than dead egg.

If your hands get in touch with the trade waste, the smell will seep into your skin. The only way to get rid of the smell is to bathe your hands in tomato juice. Not sure why it works, but it does and when you smell worse than fart, who cares what works as long as it gets rid of the smell!

Grey water pumps used in kitchens under sinks are also known to harbour a stench that can make an area unworkable to work in. I remember disconnecting a grey water pump from a sink in a building in the city and the smell went through the air conditioning vents through out the entire floor. The poor demolishers who had to work through the night to demolish the floor had to wear masks so they could get their work done!

Grey water pumps that are designed for use under one fixture (1 sink, 1 basin etc) are now illegal to install in Brisbane by the Brisbane City Council unless there are extreme conditions for use of one. They are more trouble than what they’re worth and I have never dealt with a pump company that has produced a grey water pump that doesn’t fail within 12 months. It’s a good call by the Brisbane City Council because the aftermath of dealing with a client with a failed pump is stressful and the smell from disconnecting a failed one will stay in your memory forever. It would have to be the worst smell ever.

What to do When a Push Up Plug and Waste Gets Stuck!

By
Rebecca Senyard
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the problem with push up plug and wastes

The push up plug and wastes (aka pop up wastes) are a popular style for basins. But one common problem is the plug can get stuck when pushed down. So what do you do when a push up plug and waste gets stuck?

chrome pop up basin waste

What to do When a Push Up Plug and Waste Gets Stuck?

If you push the inner plug down and it won’t budge, you will need to get a screwdriver.

Disconnect the PVC S trap.

Use a screwdriver to push up the plug.

Unscrew the plug and give it a thorough clean. Insert back in and hopefully it won’t get stuck again.

Pros and Cons for a Push Up Plug and Waste

  1. There is no need to hide or lose a plug because the waste has a push down plug in it.
  2. Minimalist design.
  3. Modernizes your bathroom.
  4. Can be matched to your tapware.

The cons are:

  1. Require regular cleaning.
  2. Are a menace for collecting wastewater products including toothpaste, hair and soap.
  3. Can get stuck if not regularly cleaned.

It was a year ago that we installed 3 new basins with the push up style plug and wastes and the client has asked each basin waste to be replaced.

We’re replaced them with standard chrome plug and wastes due to the continual maintenance of cleaning the push up waste and the smell from the accumulated debris in the basin drain.

Unfortunately, this client didn’t clean the plug and waste regularly.

They had difficulty pushing the plug in and getting it back out due to the grime.

Sometimes the plug gets stuck altogether due to the amount of grime that has accumulated under the plug and in the waste.

The plug can easily be popped out of the waste when they are new, but vigorous cleaning with an old toothbrush is needed to remove the grey matter the waste collects over time. This can be a breeding ground for bacteria.

These style of plug and wastes are very stylish and modern, but before installing them, be prepared to clean them regularly to ensure they don’t get stuck when pushing them in.

Do you like push up plug and wastes or do you prefer the standard plug and waste style?

 

When do You Replace Tap Washers?

By
Rebecca Senyard
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when do you replace tap washers?

One of the questions I get asked often is “When do you replace tap washers?”

The reason I get asked this question a lot, when attending maintenance jobs, is to prevent the inconvenience of having no water flow through your tap or having water flow at full capacity through the spout.

when do you replace tap washers

When do you replace tap washers?

My general answer is ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Tap washers can last a long time, but sometimes they can only last 12 months or less. You know your tap washers need replacing when the taps are turned off and the faucet still drips. Or if the water won’t turn off – which is a sign that the tap washer has been completely stripped and no longer seals on the tap seat.

Which tap washer should I replace first?

To determine which tap washer to replace first, is to work out which tap is leaking. Put your hand under the faucet to feel the temperature of the drip. If it’s hot, the washer in the hot tap needs replacing, but if you go to the trouble of replacing the hot one, you may as well do the cold one too.

How do I get to the tap washer?

There are SO many different taps on the market that they all have different ways of demanteling when retrieving out the washer. Some taps require an allen key, and others require a Stanley knife to pop out the button, and others still require multi-grips or a spanner to turn the buttons around to loosen the handle.

What can I get installed instead of tap washers?

To save the hassle of changing washers every 12 months, install ceramic disc spindles which are known to last up to 10 years – providing dirt or grit in the water line doesn’t shatter the ceramic disc. Ceramic disc spindles are more expensive than washers, but the spindles seem to last a lot longer and can save you money by calling a plumber out every couple of years to replace the washers.

When do you replace your tap washers? Do you wait for the dreaded drip? Or do you have a regular maintenance schedule that you follow?

If you liked this post, check out these posts:

When Your Tap Won’t Turn Off

Why do I have no water coming through my shower head?

 

 

When Toilets Don’t Flush Properly

By
Rebecca Senyard
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0

Plumbing solutions to problems can often be diagnosed over the phone when speaking to a client, but it always pays to have a look at the problem to ensure no other underlying issues could be causing the problem.

 

In this instance, a new client rang me to tell me that both of his toilets weren’t working properly. Both the cisterns weren’t supplying enough water to flush the effluent away and it would take 2-3 flushes to clear the toilet bowl. I asked what the water did when it entered the bowl and he described it running around the pan. My next question was how old were the toilets, to which he advised the toilet pans were as old as his house but he had a plumber replace the cisterns to the pans 3 years ago. This information gave me the answer to his problem.

 

I explained that 3 years ago, Brisbane and most of Australia had a water crisis because we were in drought and there was a push to make fixtures and taps water efficient. All dual flush cisterns became 3 Litre half flush/6 Litre full flush and new toilet pans had to be manufactured to accommodate less water to wash the waste away.

 

Unfortunately, to save money, this client only replaced the cisterns to the old toilet pans and the pan was not suited to the water efficient cistern.  This pan was suited to the old 9 Litre full flush/ 4.5 Litre half flush. The new toilet bowls/pan have been re-moulded to suit a 3L/6L flush.

I thought that maybe I could alter the filler valve in the toilet cistern to fill it with more water but after lifting the lid, the water level was at it’s maximum so a new toilet suite would have to be installed to fix the problem.

When toilets don’t flush properly there is either a blockage or not enough water is being flushed into the pan.

Have you ever had this problem in your home?

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is an Overflow Relief Gully?

By
Rebecca Senyard
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0
how to fix smelly drains

Today dad and I installed an overflow relief gully (ORG) to a house that had one installed in the wrong place.

What is an Overflow Relief Gully?

It’s a drain like fitting with a grate on top and has a bend at the bottom.

It is installed 150mm lower than the lowest drain point in the house.

We fixed the ORG on a house where it was originally installed higher than the floor grate inside the bathroom.

This meant meant when the council sewer backed up, the sewerage overflowed through the floor waste in the ground bathroom. Had an ORG been installed, it would have overflowed outside.

The floor waste was the deepest opening to the sewer main and it was unfortunately inside the house! It’s not the nicest sight (or smell!) to wake up to on an early Saturday morning.

Where should an ORG be installed?

An ORG is to be installed at the deepest part of the sewer drain OUTSIDE so that if the the sewer line backs up or blocks, the effluent will overflow outside.

It’s a plumbing by-law and council requirement that all houses and new dwellings have one to avoid this problem. It would pay to ensure if your house doesn’t have one that you call you local licensed plumber to install one.

The plumber will require a copy of the drainage plan to your house. You can purchase one from your local council.

It can be a relatively easy job to install providing the main sewer line into the house isn’t plumbed straight through the house.

In our case today, the sewer line ran alongside the house and we were able to locate it via the drainage plan and install the ORG.

Unfortunately some new houses have been built without an ORG. The home may have been built prior to the law coming into place. Or certification may have been missed.

If the house has been inspected by council, be assured an ORG has been installed onto your property.

How to maintain an ORG

To maintain an ORG, ensure that the trap bottom has a water seal to stop sewer smells. Also keep the grate clear from debris. Covering the ORG may force the overflow of sewerage back down to spill out elsewhere.

When Your Tap Won’t Turn Off

By
Rebecca Senyard
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0
when your tap won't turn off

It’s happened to me before. You turn on a tap (often for some reason it ends up being your hot water tap) and you keep turning and turning and it WON’T TURN OFF! You panic because you have a hell of a lot of water running down the drain… but what to do when the handle won’t turn any further? What do you do when your tap won’t turn off?

When Your Tap Won’t Turn Off

When in this situation, don’t panic. Turn off the hot water from your hot water unit and this will stop the water from running. Alternatively if it’s the cold water tap, you will have to turn off your water meter at the front of your property.

Once this has been done, if you have the tap washers or jumper valves as they are correctly termed. You can replace these yourself. You will need to reseat the tap before changing the washers.

Alternatively ring a plumber and they will do the job for you. They will replace with a high quality jumper valve. They may need to replace the tap spindles  or sometimes a complete new set of taps if the seat is damaged and the jumper valves will no longer seal.

I have found that generally, it’s usually the washer which has split and only requires to be replaced. You may need to use fine tweezers to remove the broken bits of washer. Use a torch as you won’t be able to replace your washers if there is debris from the last washers in the way.

Generally these types of situations happen when the washers haven’t been changed on the taps and/or the taps are really old and have worn out meaning the spindles won’t turn to stop the water flow. Either situation will need the service of a plumber to fix the issue.

It is a relatively easy problem to fix.

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