Tips in Cleaning Your Sump Pump

The sump pump below your lowest level, crawl space, or basement gathers groundwater and safely sidetracks it farther from your property. If you don’t have a sump pump, that accumulated groundwater can easily develop and flood all over your foundation. Flooding is dangerous, costly, and damaging. Hence, having a sump pump is an important element to make your home safe. Guaranteeing that it properly works is one of the maintenance tasks that are essential as well. Also, you should make sure to clean your sump pumps semi-regularly to keep them working properly. To help you do that on your own, we have prepared DIY tips in cleaning your sump pump. 

Take the supplies you will need 

Get a scraping tool, a shop vac, a garden hose, a large bucket, and a piece of plastic sheeting. 

Ensure to turn off your water 

Basically, you do not have to turn off all water lines within your house. Instead, you only need to switch off the water at a particular place where a fixture directly drains into the sump pump, similar to the washing machine, Once you cannot turn the water off, guarantee that nobody uses the fixtures as you work on the pump.  

Disconnect power 

Unplug the power from the basement outlet or you can turn off the circuit that supplies power to the pump directly at the breaker.  

Cover your pump with a plastic sheet 

Attempt to eliminate the pump from the put and make sure to be careful upon doing so to prevent having a mess on your entire floor. Dirt and sludge might be layered onto the pump. Hence, you must carry it outside to thoroughly clean it. 

Clean the pump 

Utilize your garden hose and start rinsing the pump off. Once you remove the grime’s first layer, you can begin to scrape using your tool. It won’t matter what tool you will utilize as long as it can remove and scrape off the accumulated dirt on. Use the hose once again to rinse and clean it. 

Empty the check valve in the sump pit 

Put your large bucket below the current check valve where water will drain into the pump. Then, expose it and allow any current water to drain into your bucket to be disposed of.  

Utilize the shop vac to eliminate standing water 

If you can still observe that there is water inside the sump pit’s bottom, make sure to vacuum it up. This way, it won’t go directly into a messy pit once you reconnect the pump itself.  

Reconnect your pump 

You should connect back the pump again to the check valve and discharge pipe then start plugging it back in. It will be clean, shiny, and good to go. 

To have a sump pump is a fixed part of plumbing in a lot of homeowners. If you own one in your home and you think that it needs to be inspected or you want to install one, just contact the best plumbers Midland TX

Major Reasons Why Your Plumbing Stinks

We cannot prevent it when our plumbing starts to stink. It does not mean that your pipes are leaking or your toilet is not flushing well. It just literally smells weird sometimes. Having issues of stinky plumbing occur due to a lot of possible reasons and some of these are more apparent compared to the others. Regardless of what causes this problem, nobody should encounter stomach-churning and nose-wrinkling plumbing smell. To know more of some of them, here are the most typical issues why stinky plumbing occurs and tips to prevent them, 

A breach problem exists in your sewer line 

All types of things could possibly damage your sewer line. Some of these things include clogs that could develop until the pressure pushes to burst the line or tree roots that can develop over the line. Because of soil conditions, the line itself could split and sink into the ground. Once a sewer line is broken, it turns into leaking sewage.  

Sewage smells 

The sewage smell that comes from your drains outside your property could possibly be the major indicator of a breached sewer line. If you believe that your sewer line is breached, pay attention to continuous clogged toilets, pest problems, and gurgling sounds that come from your drains. Sadly, there is no reliable and easy DIY procedure to fix a breached sewer line. It would be recommended for you to contact the experts from San Angelo Plumbing as soon as possible to help you replace or repair the breached sewer line before it gets even worse. 

Make sure that your garbage disposal is clean 

If you toss all types of things into your garbage disposal, that is not an issue. In fact, it is a basic cleaning tip to dispose of your garbage properly. However, if you did maintain and clean your garbage disposal regularly, debris could develop inside your garbage cans as time passes by. The food wastes that latch inside your disposal might cause an unpleasant smell that you don’t want. If you decide to clean your disposal, guarantee to unplug it first. There are several ways you can clean your garbage disposal. You just need to find out what works for you. 

You have a buildup of biofilm 

If you have a stinky shower drain, it could be due to the buildup of biofilm. Biofilm is a type of residue that exists due to the accumulation of shower products such as creams, soaps, shampoo or oil. Once biofilm builds up in the drain, the bacteria will naturally start to feed on and latch to it. Luckily, it is simple to clear out and remove. All you have to do is to use a natural cleaner to eliminate the accumulated bacteria. 

Clean the pump 

Utilize your garden hose and start rinsing the pump off. Once you remove the grime’s first layer, you can begin to scrape using your tool. It won’t matter what tool you will utilize as long as it can remove and scrape off the accumulated dirt on. Use the hose once again to rinse and clean it.