When you're dealing with your home's plumbing at midnight, the last thing you need to realize is that the tool or supply you need is at the store. By keeping a basic kit on hand of essential supplies and tools, you can avoid those frustrating midnight runs or make do until morning when the store opens. Though these won't cover more advanced plumbing repair problems, they will help keep those minor emergencies down to a minimum:
The Plumbing Checklist
- Gloves. Plumbing can be a messy job, so make sure you've got something to protect your hands. Rubber or nitrile gloves will provide the best protection, but make sure they'll go up onto your forearms.
- Pipe Wrench. Make sure it will get big enough to get around your largest sink drains. Usually steel, some wrenches have aluminum grips to lighten the load.
- Adjustable Crescent Wrenches. Because the fittings under your sink or in the basement can be different sizes, a pair of adjustable wrenches takes the place of an entire toolbox of wrenches.
- Locking Pliers. Water is slippery, so having a pair of locking pliers makes it easier to keep a grip on a stubborn fitting or when you have a fitting too stripped out to work with an adjustable wrench.
- Screwdriver and Allen Wrenches. These tools to help you with removing valve handles for sinks and for taking care of other small plumbing-related tasks.
- Plungers. There are a couple different types of plungers on the market, and often when one won't work, the other will.
- Bucket or Dish Pan. When you're taking a drain apart or have a leaky pipe, these keep the water from going everywhere.
- Teflon Tape. If you need to take apart and reassemble something with threads, Teflon tape will keep it from leaking and makes it easier to take apart again for future work.
- A Square of Plywood. Working under a sink is hard on the back, so keep a piece of plywood handy to create a ramp under the sink to ease the process.
With these items on hand, those late-night emergencies can be handled until you can get plumber services out to take care of a larger problem. If you need help with more serious emergencies, please feel free to contact us. At Stahl Plumbing, we've been serving the area for over 63 years and are happy to help your family through their plumbing problems.