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Your home’s pipes go through a lot in the winter. With the temperatures outside dropping below freezing on a regular basis, preparing your home’s plumbing for the coming season can help prevent water leaks, burst pipes and other problems. The following tips will help you prepare your pipes for this coming winter. Insulate Your Pipes Pipe insulation helps to shield your pipes from extreme low temperatures, and also helps your home operate more efficiently. Pipe insulation comes in self-adhesive tubes that can easily be cut down to the right size and attached to the pipes in your home. If you’re […]
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The rumors are true: the day after thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for plumbers. At Terry’s Plumbing, we spend the day after Thanksgiving unclogging drains in households all across Pittsburgh. Why Do So Many Plumbing Problems Occur at Thanksgiving? Too many people using the facilities. Often homeowners don’t realize their drains are slow until extra people start using the bathrooms, showers and sinks. House guests don’t realize there’s no garbage disposal. Sometimes house guests trying to help with cleanup make problems by putting food down the drain without realizing there’s no garbage disposal. People overload […]
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Smelly bathroom drains make life unpleasant for everyone, so fixing this problem will no doubt be a priority for you. Unfortunately, smells in bathrooms can come from a variety of sources, so finding the cause of your smell may be a challenge. Starting with the simplest fix and working your way up to more challenging solutions may be the best way to combat this problem. Check the P Traps Look under your bathroom sink. The pipe that runs from your sink drain into the floor or wall should be curved in an S shape. This curve is called the P […]
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In terms of your plumbing, what’s the weirdest thing you can put in a basement? A shower head in the middle of the ceiling? A bathtub right next to the washer and dryer? How about a toilet, standing in the middle of the room, with no walls around it? You probably know somebody who has one of these, or maybe you have one yourself. Here in Pittsburgh, this feature is known as the Pittsburgh potty. A Pittsburgh Classic The story is that steelworkers coming home from a long day in the mill would need a place to freshen up before […]
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Your kitchen sink is the most basic of fixtures. Picking one should be easy, right? Wrong! Until you’ve remodeled a kitchen, you have no idea how hard it can be to choose a proper kitchen sink. Sinks come in a range of colors, sizes and shapes, each of them with their own advantages and disadvantages. At Terry’s Plumbing, we take kitchen sinks very seriously, and we love helping our customers choose the right kitchen sinks for their needs Basin Quantities and Size One of the first choices that homeowners have to make when selecting a kitchen sink is whether or […]
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Halloween is a time of year when many people experience plumbing problems. Sometime late in October, plumbers start to get phone calls from distraught homeowners who claim that their garbage disposals are backed up or their pipes are clogged. Why? It’s all because of the pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is a fun family activity that can spell disaster for your pipes at home. The issue occurs when homeowners try to dispose of their pumpkin seeds in the garbage disposal. Pumpkin guts may feel soft and mushy when they’re fresh from the squash, but once they’re left to dry in your pipes, […]
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Your toilet is like a good friend in your bathroom, isn’t it? Or is it an enemy of your household? Some toilets just don’t work very well. Leaks, scratches, wasted water and poor functionality can all make using the toilet a far less pleasant experience. Fortunately, new toilets don’t cost that much, and installation is relatively easy. If your toilet has any of the problems listed below, then it may be time to get a new toilet. Your Toilet is More Than 25 Years Old In the 1950’s, toilets used 7 gallons of water for each flush. That’s a lot […]
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A noisy shower can be caused by a host of problems. At Terry’s Plumbing, we’ve seen it all and we know how frustrating it can be for homeowners who have to deal with noisy pipes and faucets. In this post, we’ll explore some of the main reasons that people experience noisy pipes in their showers. Scale Buildup One of the most common reasons that people experience noisy pipes in their showers is due to a buildup of scale on the shower head. Over time, scale that builds up on the faucet fixture can cause the holes in the shower to […]
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When you go to a football game, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about the plumbing. A toilet is a toilet, right? Wrong! At Terry’s Plumbing, we’re awed by impressive plumbing fixtures and systems, and during football season, we like to reflect on the amazing feat of engineering and design that makes up the plumbing system of an average football stadium. When you’re building a stadium that holds as many as 69,000 spectators in one event, it’s not enough to simply supply a few bathrooms for all the people inside. Quantity of toilets makes a difference, and in the […]
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As we reach the end of September, now is a good time to reflect upon the plumbing trends of the year so far. At Terry’s Plumbing, we see a lot of changes in bathroom designs as homeowner tastes and priorities change. In this post, we’ll explore some of the common bathroom trends we’re seeing in homes in Pittsburgh. Water-Efficient Fixtures Environmentally-friendly fixtures are popular for multiple reasons. To begin, it’s very personally satisfying to be eco-friendly. It’s also financially smart, because low-flow fixtures help reduce utility bills. If you’re specifically looking for eco-friendly water fixtures in your home, look for […]
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