About Harris Plumbing, NG

Here are a few things you can try before calling a plumber:

• Put on a pair of rubber gloves to protect your hands. The gunk that comes out of the drain will be full of germs and chemicals.
• Remove the stopper if your sink or bathtub has one. Depending on the brand of fixture, the stopper comes out differently.
• Remove any hair or debris on the stopper and throw the gunk into the trash. Do not throw it into the toilet or you risk plugging the toilet drain.
• Fill a 1-gallon bucket with hot water and a few drops of dish-washing soap. Wash the stopper in the soapy water.
• Remove any hair or other debris that may be caught in the crosshairs of the drain. Tweezers or needle-nosed pliers can pick the gunk out if you don't want to use your fingers. Throw the gunk away into the trash. If this does not solve the problem, proceed to the next step.
• Apply a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the lip of a plunger.
• Place the plunger over the drain and fill the sink or tub with hot water. You'll want enough hot water to cover the rubber portion of the plunger.
• Plunge the drain in quick up and down movements. Repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 several times if necessary.
• Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into the drain.
• Add 1/2 cup white vinegar into the drain. The foaming action will clear out remaining debris in your drain.
• Allow the baking soda and vinegar to stay in the drain for three hours. Do not use the drain during this time.
• Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil on the stove.
• Pour the boiling hot water into the drain.
• Turn on the hot water and continue to run hot water down the drain for another five minutes.
• If this doesn't help, you probably need your drained snaked out. Contact us for assistance! 208-431-8633

There is usually a flow restrictor in the faucet that can be removed. It should be in the center of the faucet where the hot and cold mix. As far as I know the government made it mandatory for manufacturer's to only produce low flow faucets. Manufacture only, consumers can do what they want with them.

Your ANTI SCALD valve (if equipped) may be defective. This valve is a device which usually adjusts the temperature of the water coming out of the faucet so as to prevent scalding. The valve usually decreases or governs the hot water side. It is usually preset from the factory, unless you have a model that needs to be set manually. Most better faucets come with that feature. Check with the manufacturer to determine if yours does.

OR During Installation, you may have also caused an obstruction within the hot water inlet, bet it a piece of teflon tape or plumbers putty, etc. The item obstructing may be forced towards the valve after a period of time, or expanding with the increase of temperature causing the water to stop.

On the bottom of the "stem" is a rubber gasket called a washer. This washer is solely responsible for the stoppage of flow. Some "stems" do not use washers but are valves within themselves. You will have to replace the "stem".

To fix this:

• Turn water off under sink by turning the T-Stop valves (for a sink) or the Water Main in the house (for a tub/shower).
• Remove faucet handle (One screw is usually under a metal or plastic cap on the top of the handle). Be careful for the screws are often rusted or degraded and can cause alot of problems.
• Remove the stem using the proper sized wrench. Often times the stem is reverse threaded meaning "righty loosey" rather than "lefty loosey" (careful! here too you can run into degradation).
• On the bottom of the stem you will see the washer (held in with 1 screw {degredation warning}) Remove the washer (if you see no washer it is time to buy stems) and match it in size at your local Hardware store or with the proper one in the Assortment Pack you previously purchased (Hint! Hint!). If the screw on the bottom of the stem is completely (most likely) degraded (un-removable) you will have to replace the stem ($6.00 - $21.00). Your local Hardware store or Plumbing supply house will serve you if you bring the old one with you. (there are many,many,many different types)
• Reverse the process for assembly and your will no longer be leaky.

If your garbage disposal stops working the first thing to remember is NEVER PUT YOUR HAND DOWN THE DRAIN INTO THE DISPOSAL. There are 2 main things to check first.

1 The first thing you should notice is whether the motor is humming or is it quiet ( no noise ). If the unit is humming then you probably have too much food down in the hopper and it has bound up the blades. Turn the unit off. If you have a wooden broom handle you can turn it upside down handle first into the unit and pry the blades loose. This usually works every time. Turn the unit back on and try it. If that works then problem solved but if the motor is quiet the first thing you should check is the red reset button on the side or bottom of the unit. If the button is popped out then push it back in and try the unit again.

2 If the button is in then the next thing you should check is the circuit breaker located in the electrical service panel. If the breaker is tripped then reset the breaker and try the unit again. If the breaker is not tripped then the switch or the unit itself is bad

No, you can buy a new shower head and install it, but if you want to change the controls you will probably have to buy a new unit. It is sometimes possible to cross reference the parts to see if they will fit. If you can do this, you might be able to change the handle without changing the controls.

Check the shower head for restrictions such as:

• Mineral deposits/flow restrictor
• If you have a pressure/temperature protection type of shower body like a Moen or Monitor series of Delta shower body this can also cause a severe flow restriction.
• Check to make sure all the valves are open leading to this shower body including the interregnal stops if applicable.

Your fill valve may be clogged with sediment. Just replace it.

Do the rest of the fixtures in the bathroom drain well? If they do not drain well, it may be the venting of the plumbing system. If all of the other fixtures in the bathroom drain well, then there is probably something in the trap-way of the toilet. Assuming it is just the toilet that is having problems, then a closet auger might do the trick.

Home toilets do not use "suction power" to flush. The inertia of the water falling from the tank when you flush pushes water through the trap and down the drain. If there is any significant amount of blockage in the drain, the water will not be able to move at enough velocity to get past the trap. In other words, if the drain is blocked, water can't flow fast enough to flush. You'll need to get the drain cleaned out to make it flush.

The rubber tank seal (bowl to tank) didn't seat correctly.

Somewhere there is a clog that hasn't been hit yet or the line has a sag in it. Call us to diagnose and repair the problem.

There is a blockage in the waste line. Have you flushed the basement toilet to see what happens? Try running the upstairs shower and see what happens. (use two persons , one up stairs, one downstairs so you can control the amount of water that rises in the toilet.) There should be a "clean out" cap somewhere downstairs near the point where the waste line exits the house. It is here that one would "snake" the line.

The other possibility is the water level in the downstairs toilet is lower than the level of the waste line exit. This means that the point of exit of the line is physically higher than the toilet. The only remedy for this is to raise the toilet to above the height or re-plumb the toilet into a waste pump that evacuates upwards to a point slightly higher than the waste line. This is the most common set-up in a "basement" toilet.

The toilet evacuates into a point lower than the floor. The waste pump or grinder pump then pumps the waste upwards than gravity allows it to evacuate normally. The benefit is that the waste pump creates a separate system for the basement toilet.

Yes. Take care when removing the existing plastic valve. Just dope and tighten the new nipple (galvanized or brass) and brass valve and you're in business.

Flush the lines - The under sink shutoff valves and or the fill lines to the sink are probably clogged. Sometimes you can flush the lines and everything will work fine. Other times you need to replace the lines. Be sure to remove the aerator and check the flow first. it might be the whole problem.

Its just air in the lines, nothing serious...

There is usually a flow restrictor in the faucet that can be removed. It should be in the center of the faucet where the hot and cold mix. As far as I know the government made it mandatory for manufacturer's to only produce low flow faucets. Manufacturer only, consumers can do what they want with them.

It depends on if your on a well or city water. Generally, If its a well then you'll need to use rock salt. If on city water, use salt pellets.

Yes and you could have burned up the well pump and you could have also frozen your drain line. If you don't have water pressure at this time I would suspect your pump is toast from running too often. Electric motors are only designed to start so many times an hour without burning up.

Expansion and contraction. Especially ABS and PVC pipes touching wood or sheetrock.