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.