The Don’t DIY Plumbing Tips Dad Taught Us

Dads are great at DIY tricks. They love to learn how to fix things, especially when it comes to household projects. Teaching their children how to do these things is another thing dads are great at.

As precious as those moments are of him showing us how to do it ourselves, there comes a time when we realize when that the DIY tips dad treasures are actually more like Don’t Do It Yourself tips. As Father’s Day comes, let’s reminisce in the times that dad had to fulfill many roles around the house.

Among being an electrician, roofer, and a mechanic, dad also had to be a plumbing expert. Unfortunately, plumbing dad probably had the worst DIY tips compared to the other roles he played.

Toilet Installation May Be Better Off with Pros

As infrequent as this task may have occurred in your house, plumbing dad still preferred to do it himself to save time and money. Considering the health and personal injury risks however, this is a perfect example of when he shouldn’t do it by himself.

A toilet has one job and it’s a pretty unsanitary one. Handling a toilet requires proper protection, such as goggles, gloves, and a mask, to keep from being exposed to the dangerous amount of germs that could cause sickness.

A standard one-piece toilet weighs about 88 pounds. Lifting one without any help would cause a back injury, or other serious bodily injuries if it was dropped.

Avoiding Worsening Water Leaks With, Tape?

As a kid, dad may have had you fooled into thinking that duct tape was a fix for nearly everything. Dad tested and approved, duct tape was cheaper and easier to use for leaks in the plumbing.

Sadly, this could lead to other problems that were much more expensive. Depending on the size of a water leak, it could waste thousands of gallons of water per month.

The water damage to the area surrounding the pipe could also be significant and costly. Even if the tape were to hold for a time, the initial leak isn’t fixed and water has a way of eroding away at weak spots. Rust and other harmful bacteria would be exposed to the water which would then make it bad to drink or bathe in.

Drain Snaking Cleaning Options

Next to water leaks, clogs are just as likely to happen. Your dad knew this and that’s why he thought it might be easy to bring out the big guns when one appeared.

Drain snaking is no small task though. It requires knowing what size of snake drain should be used so as not to cause damage to the inside of the pipes or the toilet.

Scraping the insides of the pipes would remove the protective coating which prevents rust from appearing. Not knowing how to properly use a snake drain could also cause serious personal injuries. It’s easy to lose control of the machine and dangerous to the user that has no prior experience.

Even though there were times when we knew dad shouldn’t have attempted some projects by himself, it’s still admirable the way he tried. He only had good intentions after all. Hopefully, he realized after trying some of these tasks that there were some things you just don’t do by yourself.