First, you have to gather some information on the leak.  Is it a small hole or has the pipe split?  Then, you can try some temporary fixes that will let you turn the water back on until a more permanent fix can be put in place.  You can stick a pencil point into the hole and break it off.  Wrap that in electrical tape or duct tape, whichever and smear some plumber’s putty on the tape.  Let it sit for about a half hour before you turn the water back on.  You could also try wrapping a piece of rubber around the pipe.  You could use an old inner tube or a length of garden hose.  Use a c-clamp and some small blocks of wood  to clamp the rubber in place.

There are some more permanent steps you can take to fix the leak and these you can do yourself so you won’t have to find a plumber in Atlanta.  You can use a pipe clamp specifically designed to fix a pipe leak.  They have a rubber gasket inside the clamp and are designed to fit around a pipe.  All you have to do is place the clamp around the pipe and tighten the screws.  This will form a permanent seal.  You can get them at someplace like Lowes or Home Depot.  Another thing you could try is  to use a braided/flexible metal tube with compression couples on each end.  This can fix not only a small hole leak but also it can fix it if the pipe is split or even if the leak is in an elbow pipe.  The tubes are avaialble in many sizes.

The way to install the metal tube is to first cut out the section of pipe where the leak is.  Do this by placing the repair coupling against the broken section of pipe and mark the water pipe one  inch from each end of the coupling.  ONce you’ve cut out the pipe, slide the compression couplings into each end of the pipe and attach the repair coupling.  Tighten the compression fittings.  Now you turn the water back on to check for leaks.

One really great way to fix leaks is to have had copper pipes to begin with as these rarely have any leaks.  However, galvanized pipes it is much more common to leak.  And, since the pipe rusts from the inside out, you have no idea what kind of condition the pipe is in but you can be sure that if one starts to leak the others will soon.

Roughly 25 million homes in the United States have a septic tank.  Every one of them requires regular maintenance to keep performing in peak condition.  Luckily, this upkeep can be pretty simple, the only hard part is remembering to do it.  First and foremost is to make sure there is enough bacteria in the system.  Many people forget this very simple fact.  When there is not enough bacteria, the system cannot break down waste matter which will lead to sludge building up faster.  This in turn means the system’s outlet pipe will get blocked and the drain will be clogged and then you have a backup.

All you have to do is once a month, use the first sunday of each month so it’s easy to remember, is remember to pour a septic tank additive down the toilet.  If you are using a good additive, one that is all natural, then it will add billions of bacteria and enzymes to your septic system that will be perfectly happy to break down anything you send its way.

The reason it is important to add more bacteria each month is because the water that flows to the sepctic tank whenever you flush the toilet or run water in the sink will gradually wash away the bacteria.  So it’s important to put that addtive in your tank every single month.  Occasionally you might also need to pump the tank.

Pumping is another essential maintence step to take.  You should have your sepctic tank pumped out about every other year.  This will get the insoluble waste out of the tanke which will provide the space inside the tank needed for the system to do its job.  I don’t think this is exactly a DIY job so you will probably have to get a plumber in Atlanta to do it for you.  While he is getting the sludge out, ask him to take a look inside the tank to look for cracks or other damage inside.

There are also a few things you shouldn’t do in order to keep your septic system in good working order.  Don’t do all your laundry in one day, the system can handle one or two loads a day better than five or six all at once.  Also, use liquid detergent instead of powder, powder contains fillers that can clog your septic system.  Don’t hook the drain from your garbage disposal to the septic system, food waste doesn’t break down the same way as human waste and they system could become clogged.  Don’t pour grease down the drain for the same reason.  Diapers and tampons may be flushable but they will clog your tank.  Don’t plant anything other than grass and flowers near your tank because the roots on trees and shrubs can damage it.  Finally, don’t drive over the tank because the weight will damage it even when it is underground.

There is hope though.  There are a few ways that you can keep your water heating expenses down.  The most obvious is to use less hot water (again with the long showers in the morning).  Another is to turn down the thermostat on your water heater. A lot of water heaters come from the factory with a high temperature setting but 115 degrees fahrenheit is warm enough. You could also increase the efficiancy of your water heater by buying a new water heater.  If you invest a little money now it could pay off big in the long run.  Finally, if you can’t afford a newer model put some insulation around the one you have.  When doing this however, make sure you don’t cover the floor, top, thermostat, or burner compartment of the water heater.  If you aren’t sure what you’re doing get the help of someone who knows what they’re doing like a plumber in Atlanta.

A family of four uses over 700 gallons of water a week if each of them only shower for five minutes a day.  I know I don’t shower for just five minutes a day.  In comparison, 700 gallons is roughly a three year supply of drinking water for just one person.  You can cut the amount of water used in half by installing low pressure flow faucets and showerheads.

Other things you can do to improve your utility bills is to repair leaky faucets as soon as you notice them.  You’d be surprised at how much water can leak out of a fucet in just one night.  You can also regularly drain about a quart of water from your water heater.  This will remove sediments that build up and make your water heater less efficient.  This is another one of those things that you may want to consult a plumber in atlanta about.  Also, if you live in the climate for it, such as Atlanta, you could install a solar heating panel on your roof to heat your water.  It’s environmentally friendly and these days the solar panels are designed to blend in with your roof when installed.

One final tip is to take more showers than baths.  Bathing uses more hot water than taking a shower.  A bath will use 25 – 30 gallons of water while a five minute shower uses about 10 gallons.  I don’t know about you but I’d always heard the opposite but I guess you learn something new all the time.

The first thing is to know your material.  Make sure the material you are using is up to the standards of the codes of your locality and your mortgage.  An important material to know is piping material.  It comes in several varieties including: rigid copper, flexible copper, rigid plastic PVC, acrylonitile butadiene styrene (ABS), Crosslink Polyethylene (PEX) and galvanized steel.  Rigid copper is used for main water lines.  Not everyone has a soldering iron so this may be beyond the scope of your abilities.  However, if you do have one, one good trick is: if there is a drip from water already in the line you need to solder, use a slice of bread, crust removed, rolled into a tight ball.  Plug the drain with the bread.  It’s that simple.  When you run the water through again the bread will be washed through the drain system.

In order to repair a leak in a copper pipe, first let the water drain down.  Then, using a tubing cutter, cut the pipe at the leak.  You can use a union or coupling to repair the pipe.  A union is a lenght of copper pipe that has the same interior diamter as the exterior diameter of the pipe you are repairing.  It has a ridge inside that keeps the pipe from slipping completely through.

Today, there are many types of quick connect fasteners that make DIY plumbing easy.  You won’t have to use torches or soldering irons to do quick leak repairs which will save you lots of time and money.  They work well with almost any type of pipe.  There are several different types of these connectors avaialble.  Some can even themselves be repaired.

Learning some basic techniques about plumbing can save you from having to find a plumber in Atlanta.  This can save you time and money.  And it can add a small measure of sanity to your life, espeically if you can finish a plumbing fix on a saturday afternoon rather than go without water until Tuesday night waiting for an expert to show up.

Compression faucets are the kind of faucets with two handles, one for hot and one for cold.  Inside of each handle is a valve.  When you turn the hanlde the valve opens and water flows through wheras when you turn the handle the other way the valve closes blocking the flow of water.  There is a rubber washer at the base of each valve that is “compressed” to block water from flowing out and causing the faucet to drip and leak.

Cartridge faucets come in both single and double handled varietys.  There is a stem cartridge inside of the faucet that moves up and down to control the flow of water.  Single handled faucets move left to right to control water temperature and move up and down to control water flow.  The kind with to handles resemble compression faucets but have a different feel to them since you don’t have to compress a washer to turn them off.

Ball faucets have a single handle that is attached to the faucet base with a round base.  This makes them easy to spot.  The ball shaped control has chambers in it that control the flow of water and mixes hot and cold water.

The most recent type of faucet created is the disc faucet.  It is similar to the ball faucet, a single, cylyndrical shaped by however, the insides cosist of ceramic disc that slide over each other to control water volume and water temperature.

There are a few simple rules to follow when doing any kind of repair to your faucet.  First, make sure you turn off the water either at the shutoff for the sink or at the main shutoff for the house.  Second, drain the faucet by opening up the tap.  Third, make sure you put down a towel or pull the stopper in case you drop something small.  Finally, whatever you are trying to replace make sure you take it with you to Lowes or Home Depot so that you can make sure you buy the right replacement part.