When you’ve decided to have your plumbing system repiped, either because the pipes are aging or you want to upgrade your plumbing system, water shutoffs are inevitable. This means you need to plan ahead, with the help of the plumbing team, to get you through those times when there’s no water coming into your home. The following are some considerations.
Coordinate With the Plumbers
Your plumbing team will probably be at work on your pipes during working hours, and they’ll at least try to turn your water back on at night. This can help you schedule your water usage.
Store Water Everywhere
Your first priority is to store enough drinking water for yourself and all the members of your household, including pets and maybe even plants. Everyone should have access to at least a gallon of water a day. Before the work begins, you should stock up on enough gallon jugs of water to get through a couple of days. If work runs past that, you can fill them up at night or go to the store to buy more. Use more jugs, pots, pans, buckets, and bowls to store water for cooking and washing the dishes. If you have a dishwasher, wash dishes at night after the water has been turned back on.
Plan for Personal Hygiene
Personal hygiene simply won’t be what it is when you have running water. For one thing, you can’t flush the toilet bowl again after the tank has been emptied. Fill some buckets with water, and keep them in the bathroom to flush the toilet. Fortunately, plastic buckets that hold three or so gallons of water are inexpensive and can be bought at supermarkets, hardware stores, garden stores, big-box stores, and many other places. When it comes to washing your hands, use hand sanitizer or a few of those very large water jugs with spigots.
Baths or showers can be enjoyed when the water is turned on at night. As for laundry, you should do as much as you can before the project begins, and put off doing any more until the repiping project is finished.
A Word of Caution
When the repiping is completed, turn the water on very slowly. Turning the water on too quickly after repiping can create sudden pressure changes in the plumbing system. Start in the basement or the first floor and work upward, slowly turning on the cold water faucets as you go. Let them run for about five minutes to clear the pipes.
Repiping your plumbing system and dealing with the attendant water shutoffs can be a bit of an ordeal, but if you plan ahead, you and your household will do well. When you need repiping services in Tampa Bay, FL, contact Integrity Home Solutions.