Santa Ana Plumbing Tips
Cost-Saving Tips & Information
Pacific Plumbing of Southern California has compiled some money-saving tips and articles that will help you adjust to the new laws and restrictions on water usage in California. Check back for updates and changes as these items continue to be reassessed by state and local governments.
Ways to Save Water Indoors
California has been suffering from drought for the longest time. And because the state is originally a desert, even with plenty of precipitation in a particular year, we would still need more than that to get us out of the drought. That is why new laws require each California resident to do their part in conserving water.
Below are some steps you can take to conserve water indoors:
- Have all your faucets, pipes and toilets thoroughly examined for leaks.
- Install water-saving showerheads and ultra-low-flush toilets.
- Take shorter showers; start your water flow when you are ready for your shower not sooner.
- Never use your toilet as a wastebasket. Throw away items that although may be safe to flush, do not contain any bacteria or pose immediate health dangers. Even dog droppings should be bagged sealed and deposited in the green waste dispenser outside of your dwelling.
- Turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving.
- Defrost frozen food in the refrigerator instead of in a sink full of soon to be discarded pure water.
- Adhere to the “When it is yellow” poetic justification for reducing the total amount of flushing your family accumulates. Be reasonable about this but please remember flushing is a huge consumer of water.
- Rinse vegetables in a full sink or pan of water.
- Fully load your dishwasher and when you have a plate that you just ate chips from, you can refill the same plate.
- Rinse dishes in a full sink or pan of water.
- Wash full loads of clothes; an average load of clothes takes 40 gallons of water to complete the wash and rinse cycle.
Ways to Save Water Outdoors
Whether you use water to clean the exterior of your facilities or to water your plants, outdoor plumbing can waste so much precious water.
To conserve water outdoors, here are some helpful tips:
- Don't over-water landscaping; your side yard is not a golf course.
- You don’t have to concern yourself with a bad bounce.
- Water your lawn or garden early in the morning or late in the evening; the hotter the air, the faster the rate of evaporation leaving the roots without the full benefit of the watering.
- Adjust sprinklers so they don't water the sidewalk or street.
- Equip all hoses with shut-off nozzles, your thumb could really use a break not to mention the consistency a nozzle brings to your watering skills.
- Use drip irrigation systems, this may be the best way to make sure your garden is getting the most bang for your buck as the roots will be the beneficiary of a much greater percentage of the water allocated for them.
- Plant drought-tolerant or low-water-use plants and grasses. Southern California is a desert climate. This is not the tropics, so we have to remember that natural rainfall is rare in our area and indigenous vegetation will thrive on low water availability.
- Use shrubs and ground cover to reduce the amount of grass. Good old green plush green grass is for the golf courses, again, if your short game needs work, install synthetic turf.
- Place mulch around plants to reduce evaporation and discourage weeds. This is a natural way to deal with a natural problem.
- Set your mower blades one notch higher, since longer grass means less evaporation. Or tell your gardener to do so.
- Use a pool cover to cut down on water evaporation. Not only will you conserve water, but you will also create a solar heating and heat-conserving system with a nice cover. It’s a win-win!
- Use a bucket instead of a hose to wash your car.
- Use a broom rather than a hose to clean sidewalks, driveways, loading docks, and parking lots.
How to Prevent a Clogged Toilet
Do not discard anything into the toilet other than items that are made to be flushed. Pacific Plumbing Co recently provided a service call to clear a clog. After the job was completed, we discovered that the cause was due to the residential customer’s habit of tossing dental floss in the toilet to dispose of it and then flushing it down into the sewer. The floss got hung up on the gunk that coats the inside of the pipes and over time, formed the clog that resulted in our service call.
Many service calls for clogged toilets are the result of flushed items that should not be. If you aren’t sure if an item is flushable, it probably isn’t! Pacific Plumbing of Southern California is here to help you prevent plumbing issues, as well as when you need to call an honest and reliable plumbing company. We’re here for your emergencies around the clock.
To get you started, here is a short list of things that you should now put down the toilet or other drains:
- Baby wipes (even if it is labeled flushable)
- Paper towels and facial tissues
- Q-tips and cotton pads
- Diapers
- Dental floss
- Cigarette butts
- Hair
- Gum
- Cooking grease
- Food
- Bleach
If you have any tips of your own, please share them with us and we will add helpful information to this page.
To request plumbing inspection in Santa Ana to get you started on water conservation, call us at (714) 699-9936!
