Whenever someone asks you about your plumbing, what do you think of? Your faucets? Toilets? Showers? These are what most homeowners think of because they’re the parts of your plumbing system that you visit and work with each and every day.
However, there’s far more to your plumbing than just the knobs and handles that cause water to come out your faucet: there’s drains, vents, supply lines, and sewage lines, and so much more, most of it located inside your walls and ceilings.
These are perhaps the most important parts of your plumbing system so that they make all in your house work properly; both a $20 budget faucet and a $2,000 imported tap are completely useless without a water source and drain line that carry water in and drain it away.
What’s Happening In Your Walls?
A lot of things all have to function right in order for the plumbing to operate smoothly each and every day. The diagram above shows a simplistic view of what is happening behind the walls to give you an idea of how things operate.
Here are a few of the most important features of your plumbing system that you probably don’t think about all that often.
Provide lines are the plumbing lines that feed warm and cold water in the various faucets and fixtures located throughout your home. There are more cold water lines than warm, but both essentially function the same function.
Drain lines are what carry all the waste and water away from the fixtures and eventually feed them in the sewer or your own septic tank.
Vent lines allow air to circulate throughout your drain lines, allowing them to flow easily. Vent lines have a 2nd beneficial function as well, allowing sewer gas to escape outside your home and not back up or flood in your living space.
Think About More Than What You See
Home design and remodeling TV displays are all the rage these days. Turn on a home improvement channel and we see all sorts of shows about flipping or designing houses etc. and they all focus on the”pretty” stuff like sinks, faucets, showers, tubs, etc..
However, they often discount the arrangement behind that faucet simply because it doesn’t make for great TV. This is a huge mistake: hooking a brand new beautiful faucet to old plumbing is simply likely to lead to larger problems down the road.
In fact, we have had several customers that have purchased these”flipped” houses and immediately discovered that their drains are slow, water pressure is low, or they run out of hot water halfway through a shower.
The stuff on the outside of the walls may seem great, but it is nothing more than a façade over what might be an internal plumbing system that’s in woefully poor shape.
If you are thinking about remodeling your bathroom, kitchen, or even your whole home, be sure to call a Long Beach Plumber to conduct a comprehensive inspection of your entire system so that you can enjoy your beautiful new fixtures with the confidence that they’ll get the job done right.
A professional licensed plumber in Long Beach, CA understands where all the plumbing run and what they are there to do. If you run into issues, a certified plumber in Long Beach, CA can provide you with the important understanding about what is happening behind your walls and under your floors so that you can be confident you’re getting an optimal solution.