After living in your home for a few years, you may experience something similar to the “seven-year itch,” especially when it comes to your plumbing. You still love your neighborhood and your house, but there are some amazing upgrades available that have you itching to make improvements. But you want to make useful upgrades, not just add the latest gadgets. If you’re going to take the time and make the effort to upgrade your plumbing, you’ll want to make sure your plumbing updates improve your family’s health, add convenience, and save you money. Fortunately, there are many kinds of plumbing upgrades that will fulfill your practical needs—and look cool too!
Improving Family Health
Residential water safety has become a hot button issue over the last few years. Damaged sewage pipes in older neighborhoods, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and even seasonal flooding can affect water quality. As a result, it’s more important than ever to make sure water treatment and purification are part of your plumbing system. Installing a state-of-the-art purification and filtration system in your home will reduce chlorine and eliminate chemicals and other pollutants from your household water. However, if your water quality is good but there’s still a sewage odor from your toilet or drain, it may be time to update your plumbing vents.
The plumbing in your home needs vents or a fresh-air intake to exhaust air and equalize pressure. Clogged plumbing vents can cause minor issues like bubbling toilets and slow drains, or more serious health problems by allowing dangerous gases to enter your home. Updating the plumbing vents isn’t the most glamorous upgrade you can do, but it’s one of the most important ones when you’re trying to improve how your home affects your family’s health.
Upgrades for Convenience
While upgrading your plumbing to improve your health is at the top of your list, installing new plumbing appliances to improve convenience is probably a close second. Two of the most inconvenient problems with most home plumbing is low water pressure and not enough hot water. Nothing is more frustrating than expecting a strong, hot shower and ending up with a weak, lukewarm trickle of water instead. Fortunately, there are plumbing upgrades that will solve these problems and make showering more convenient and enjoyable for everyone.
If you notice a decrease in water pressure when several family members or appliances are using water simultaneously, try upgrading your plumbing system with a water pressure booster. A booster uses an electric pump and pressure tank to increase water pressure throughout your home. If your water pressure is fine but you’re consistently running out of hot water, an option is a whole house tankless system than can replace your current water heater tank. When the water starts flowing, the system heats the water quickly and sends it to the faucet, ensuring the hot water flows continuously.
Related Topic: Plumbing Appliance Installation
Upgrades for Cost Savings
While upgrading your plumbing for health and convenience are important, saving money is a good motivation too! Certain plumbing upgrades can improve your life by how much money they save you every year on your energy and maintenance costs. Several upgrades fall into this category, but two really standout: water softeners and tankless water heaters.
If you live in an area with high level of magnesium or calcium in the water, your water is considered “hard” and it can cause a multitude of issues with your plumbing. Not only will it leave spots on your clean dishes and dull the color of your clothes, hard water can also cause damage to your pipes and fixtures due to deposit buildup. Installing a water softener removes these minerals from your water and saves you money by reducing the amount of detergent and soap required to clean dishes and clothes. This will also increase the longevity of water-using appliances by preventing mineral buildup.
Even though installing a water softener can extend the life of your traditional 50+ gallon water heater, switching to a tankless water heater in your home will save you even more money. Instead of filling and refilling a bulky water storage container and using power to keep it heated, a tankless water heater draws in cold water, circulates it around a heat exchanger, and sends hot water back out into your home’s piping. Besides saving money by having an energy-efficient operation and low operating costs, a tankless water heater also has a longer lifespan than a storage water heater and can increase the value of your home.
Professional Plumbing Services
Once you’ve decided which plumbing upgrades will improve your quality of life the most, be sure you find quality professional plumbing services to help you implement them. The plumbers at Mr. Rooter can help ensure all your upgrades are installed correctly and working perfectly. They’re experts in their field, provide exceptional customer service, and deliver unmatched quality in a friendly, courteous manner.