Five Must-Have Plumbing Tools Every Homeowner Needs

As a homeowner, you know just how much work taking care of your home can be. Just when you think one thing was fixed correctly, the next thing breaks and you’ve got a brand new project. However, some things are more urgent than others, and plumbing problems are often of this emergency nature. Fixing things right or at least getting them to a point where the problem isn’t getting worse or doing further damage to your home can be a real chore. However, having the right tools can make quick work of it and even let you fix some minor issues entirely on your own.

Here are five must-have tools that every homeowner should have in their toolbox to take care of minor plumbing issues and even major emergencies.

Hair Clog Remover

A hair clog removal tool is a small piece of plastic lined with tiny teeth that are designed to grab on to hair clogs in your shower or bathtub drain and pull them out without having to disassemble your drain or risk using chemical drain removers that could damage your plumbing. You can find these tools at your local home improvement warehouse for just a few dollars, but hair clog removers work spectacularly well for what they do. If you’re sick of dealing with a slow shower or bathtub drain, make this small investment and you should be able to make quick work of clearing out that clog.

Pipe Wrench

A pipe wrench is what many people envision plumbers carrying around: a large-jawed wrench that’s usually orange in color and has a massive C-shaped head used to grab on and twist sections of pipe. If you’ve got a stubborn fitting that’s loose and causing leaks, or a connecting nut is causing you all sorts of headaches, this is the tool you’re going to use to fix it. Whether you’re working with plastic or metal, you can’t afford not to have one of these in your toolbox to take care of the problem.

Drain Auger

Drain augers are sort of like a hair clog removal tool but can service nearly any type of drain. In fact, they’re the tool of choice for sink drain clogs of all types, particularly kitchen sinks. An auger has a metal head with a small attachment on it that’s connected to a line. Simply feed the line down your sink until it contacts the clog, lock it in place, twist the handle, and within a few seconds the clog should be freed and your drain should be clear and operating smoothly once again.

Adjustable Wrench

Sometimes called a “crescent wrench” these simple tools have an adjustable head on them which allows them to grab on to a nut or bolt of any size. They’re particularly handy for tightening down the nuts and screws which hold your faucets and shower fixtures together. And the best part is because they’re designed to adjust to a nut of any size, you only need one! However, be sure you invest in a good one because low-quality tools can have the head come loose with even slight pressure, rendering it quite useless. You want it to stay in place where you set it.

Plunger

Nothing can make a homeowner break into a cold sweat faster than flushing the toilet and the water level refusing to drop down. This usually means there’s a clog or jam somewhere in the sewer disposal line, sometimes caused by an accumulation of human waste, toilet paper, and other debris. A plunger uses nature’s abhorrence of a vacuum to try and dislodge the clog and open the line again: by creating a vacuum seal with the cup and pushing the air out, you create a smaller space which then needs to be filled when pulling back up. This exerts force on the other side of the clog, thus pushing it loose and allowing it to flow away when pressure balances are restored.

If you’ve got a major plumbing problem, trust the experts from Mr. Rooter! Call us at (855) 982-2028 to request a service appointment today.