Welcome Back Seasonal Residents!

Plumbing Tips

Fort Myers Plumbing Service Technician at WorkWelcome back to your winter haven!  What should you do on arrival to make sure all your plumbing is in order? Well we have compiled a short to do list for you to follow:

  • Turn the water back on.
  • Purge system of air at all fixtures.
  • Drain and refill the water heater, by either attaching a garden hose to the bottom of the heater to flush it, or run your fixtures on the hot side for 5-10 minutes.
  • Replace any carbon or sediment cartridges.
  • Check operation of toilets, faucets and tub/shower valves. If your toilet continues to fill slowly several minutes after it flushes, or it flushes slowly, you may want to rebuild it; this will conserve water and have it flushing to its full ability.
  • Check to make sure no water or waste leaks have developed underneath all sinks.
  • Check condition of washing machine hoses.
  • Check outdoor hose bibs for leaks.
  • Check the main shut off to the house. If it will not turn, or is hard to turn, have it replaced.  If you have an emergency, and need to shut off the water, it is imperative that this is working properly.
  • Run the water at the refrigerator and throw out the first batch of ice cubes.

CAP members with Aztec Plumbing can schedule their annual home inspections to coincide with their return and have most of these items checked by a professional at no additional charge! Please visit our website below for a complete description of our Customer Appreciation Plan.

If you have any questions, please call Aztec Plumbing, Inc. at 239.542.2284 (BATH) or visit us on our website at AztecPlumbing.net or send us a “tweet” at twitter.com/aztecplumbing.

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Plumbing Tips!

Polybutylene Pipes – A Ticking Time Bomb

What is a polybutylene pipe you may ask?  Well, in the world of plumbing, polybutylene pipe refers to an older grey plastic pipe that was used heavily in construction in the 80’s and is now obsolete. So… now you ask, what makes this pipe so ominous, and how do I tell if I have it in my home or business?

  • First the  ominous part;  Grey poly lines break down over time (10 years in most cases) and it has a failure rate of 100%!
  • Secondly, the fittings used on these lines are made of plastic, copper or both, which also fail in time.
  • Thirdly, and scariest of all, is unlike copper water lines, which deteriorate gradually, giving you time to realize you need to repipe, grey poly lines blow apart without warning causing a flood.
Total House Plumbing Repiping

Which Pipe Would You Want in Your House?!

“Whoa, I know that I don’t want that happening to my house” you may be saying, but how do I know if I have polybutylene piping? It’s quite easy to determine if you have poly pipes if you know where to look.  Go to your water heater and look at the water lines above it. If they are grey, you probably have polybutylene pipes and should consider repiping your home.

The good news is that by repiping your home with CPVC, this eliminates the potential flood hanging over every home with poly piping!

If you have any questions, please call Aztec Plumbing at 239.542.2284 (BATH) or follow us on our website at www.AztecPlumbing.net, Facebook at www.facebook.com/AztecPlumbing, and/or Twitter at twitter.com/AztecPlumbing.

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Add Value to your home by upgrading Plumbing Fixtures

Plumbing Tips

Add Value to your home by upgrading Plumbing fixtures

 Summertime in Southwest Florida is hot, sticky, and a great time to add value to your home. Many homeowners on a tight budget may not want to overhaul a kitchen or bathroom, but updating faucets, tubs, toilets, sinks and showers are inexpensive projects that add value to homes.

     If your kitchen or baths are outdated consider replacing the faucets or sinks to create a more appealing and “up to date” look.  If you’re replacing an existing faucet, be sure to choose one with the same amount of holes in the deck of the sink as the one that’s being removed.  You also have different styles to choose from, a one handle model that rotates directionally to choose water temperature or two handles for mixing hot and cold water. Also some newer models have sprayers integrated right into the faucet itself.  Another thought to consider, do you want any type of filter system, whether it be total home filtration or a filter attached to the new faucet itself.   How does your toilet look and function, should the entire toilet be replaced or just the lid?  Many older toilets leak causing tremendous water waste over time.  There are many types of toilets on the market today giving us a variety of options in water conservation and style!  

     It only takes a few upgrades in your home to really make a difference in value and style!!

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Water saving ideas!

Plumbing Tips

Water Saving Ideas!

This time of year water conservation always becomes more of a concern for us living in southwest Florida.  The summer rains haven’t started yet, and oftentimes the sunny days of winter haven’t left us with much of a water reserve.

This year is no exception, and as a matter of fact our water reserves are at near record lows.  How can you help? Well there are some simple steps you can take to lesson your personal water consumption.

  First of all, follow all the irrigation water restrictions in your area. This is by far the greatest drain on our water reserves.  Secondly, take a quick trip around your house and look for the following things:  Running toilets, dripping faucets in sinks and showers, and leaky outside hose bibs.  These slow dribbles add up quickly to water waste. Next if you have a pool with an auto fill, you might want to turn it off for a day or two and make sure that you have no leaks.  These can be hard to detect as your auto fill keeps the water level steady despite a leak.

    Finally you may also want to consider changing out older toilets which generally use around 3 ½ gallons per flush to more water efficient models requiring only 1.6 gallons per flush. It’s also a good idea to change your flappers annually.  If you ever hear the toilet filling for no reason, the flapper is leaking.

     Remember little changes can make a world of difference! 

Follow us on: http://www.aztecplumbing.net/http or /www.facebook.com/AztecPlumbing

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Aztec customer nominated for City of Ft Myers Beautification Award!

Bradley McGrath of River by Builders Construction Company announced that his company has been nominated by city councilman Johnny Streets for a City of Ft Myers Beautification Award!  The house located in an historic district, was redesigned and rebuilt with wonderful results!  This is quite an honor and Aztec Plumbing is proud to have been the plumber on this restoration project!

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What is a Repipe?

Plumbing Tips!

What is a repipe?

Living in southwest Florida puts us at greater risk for certain plumbing problems, one of them being the deterioration of copper water lines. When this occurs, the only sure fix is a total home repipe.  A repipe is the replacement of all existing water lines with clean, safe CPVC which is a material that is resistant to the effects our water has on copper. The procedure consists of running new hot and cold water lines overhead, down walls, and connecting them to your existing water fixtures. Shut off valves, fixture supplies, icemaker and dishwasher lines are also replaced, as well as washing machine hoses.  At the end of the process all pressurized water lines from your main shut off valve forward are replaced. 

There are several reasons that make repiping a necessity, but one factor is the water itself. Areas that receive water from reverse osmosis plants such as Cape Coral, Ft Myers, Pine Island, Captiva, and Sanibel experience the greatest need for repiping, as this water, over time, breaks down copper piping leaving it prone to leaks.  Most times a visible leak or damage is the first indication that repiping may be necessary. 

Additionally, many homes and businesses in our area were piped with polybutlyene, also referred to as Quest piping.  Serious issues with this piping have lead to a class action lawsuit, for more information visit www.pbpipe.com.

For more complete information please contact us at www.aztecplumbing.net, where you can also visit our blog and face book, or call 542-2284.

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Tips for departing seasonal residents

   

Plumbing Helpful Hints!  

Before you leave for the summer!

     For many of you, the time is fast approaching where you’ll be closing up your place here, and traveling to other places to enjoy more “comfortable” summer temperatures! Lucky you!! Before you take flight and say adios, there a few things you can do in your home to see that your plumbing fares well while you are gone.  Probably the most important thing you can do is to shut off the water to your home at the main junction where it enters your home.  This may seem self evident, but many a flood would be averted if people just took this simple step.  Another simple procedure you can do would be to flush out your water heater.  This is easily done by attaching a garden hose to the bottom valve and running water into the heater and then letting it drain out.  You want to make sure the hose will drain out to your street as to not let the “dirty” water stain your driveway etc.  This prolongs the life of your water heater as the heating elements tend to be in the bottom of most units and this procedure flushes out the “crud” that gums them up.  If you have someone watch your property you will want to have them flush your toilets weekly if possible.  This keeps the seals from drying out and prolongs their life as well!

  These few steps will help preserve your “winter” oasis while you’re away enjoying your summer!  

If you have any questions please call Aztec Plumbing, Inc at 239-542-2284

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Helpful Hints for Keeping Your Garbage Disposal Clean

A Simple Solution

Part of the after dinner ritual in most households is loading the dishwasher, wiping down the counters, and scrubbing the sink. There is however, a mostly forgotten about appliance, in terms of cleaning that is, living in the depths of most kitchen sinks, the garbage disposal…! Oh yea, when did I last clean that? Or, an even better question, how do I clean that?

Here’s an easy way to freshen up that great chopper of kitchen waste! Buy a toilet bowl brush specifically for this job, keep it under your sink, and whenever things seem a bit grungy, use it to scrub out the rubber flaps and chopping mechanism. You can use anything on the brush you like, from a little dishwashing soap to lemon juice, it’s up to you. It’s amazing to see the “stuff” you’ll bring up, and voila, now your hard working garbage disposal is as “clean as a whistle”!

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The Health and Global Benefits of a Total House Carbon Filter by Laurie Taub

Why You Need a Water Filtration System

You’ve had a long and beautiful day at the beach, and can’t wait for that shower to rinse off all the sand and suntan lotion! You turn on the water, wait till it gets that nice warm temperature, and you’re in!!  Feels great, but what’s not so great are the chemicals released during this shower…Let me explain!

Most of us utilize municipal water in our every day lives, water that has been treated with chlorine to eliminate bacteria and kill microbes, a good thing right? Yes, but the major problem with chlorination is the potential formation of hazardous, chlorinated, organic chemicals (trihalomethanes). A warm shower releases these cancer causing agents into the air we breathe.  In a U.S News and World Report dated July 29, 1991, the following was stated regarding this issue.

“Studies indicate the suspect chemicals can also be inhaled and absorbed through the skin during showering and bathing. Ironically, even the chlorine widely used to disinfect water produces Carcinogenic traces. Though 7 out of 10 Americans drink chlorinated water, its safety over the long term is uncertain.”

Now, being thirsty after your day at the beach, you reach for the bottle of drinking water that you have in the fridge. This water tastes better than the chlorinated water from your tap, so you buy it right? Have you ever considered what is in that bottle of water, and the resources required bringing it to you?

Well here we go…The plain truth is that most bottled water is little more than tap water in a bottle. City tap water is required to meet standards that include testing for contamination, if surface water is utilized it must be filtered and disinfected, and city water systems must issue annual “right to know” reports informing consumers what is in their water.  Not so with bottled water.  And then there are the global ramifications of bottled water.  Here are some facts:  Over 60,000,000 plastic bottles a day are disposed of in U.S. landfills from bottled water use. Other than the direct impact of 30 billion plastic bottles a year being disposed of, bottled water negatively impacts our environment in many other ways.  17 million barrels of oil are used each year to produce the 30 billion plastic bottles producing 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution.  Then there are the transportation costs, with distribution of these 30 billion bottles, the total barrels of oil consumed is around 50 million, the equivalent to run 3 million cars for a year!!

Whew! Isn’t there something better?  Yes, here is where a total house filter comes into play. With a standard whole house water filter, water enters your home via pipes, and into the carbon filter. The activated carbon can help with the  removal/reduction of many volatile organic chemicals (VOC), pesticides, and herbicides, as well as chlorine, benzene, trihalomethane compounds, radon, solvents and hundreds of other man-made chemicals found in tap water before it enters your home. It is difficult to find exact statistics on the reduction/elimination of these substances as the carbon filter’s ability to filter is affected by a few factors; the amount of carbon in the unit, frequency of backwashing, filter replacement, and the flow rate. But there is no question that a filter leaves you with better tasting drinking water from every faucet (no need to buy the bottled water) and a reduction in exposure to chemicals from showering!

Fort Myers Plumbing Company Water Filtration System

The process of installing a whole house water system is a bit more involved than putting in a faucet or shower filter.  Because the device impacts your home’s plumbing system, installation must be completed in compliance with the plumbing codes of your state and municipality.  Therefore, it is important to enlist the services of a licensed plumber to handle installing your whole house water filter which can be done in within a few short hours. After a brief flushing period performed by your plumber, you have “pure water on tap” from every fixture!

So the next time you reach for that bottled water, or take that nice warm shower, think of what you could be doing instead to help yourself and the environment as well!!

Please visit our website at www.aztecplumbing.net or follow us on www.facebook.com/aztecplumbing, and twitter.com/aztecplumbing

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Men at Work!

Making Sure All Systems are a Go!

Fort Myers Plumbing Service Technician at Work

Service Technician Jim Goode completes the installation of a replacement water heater. The water heater will be turned on and tested while we are on site to make sure all systems are operating correctly. All labor and material is guaranteed for one year in addition to the manufacturer warranty on our water heater. Using a licensed plumber assures that the work completed is done correctly up to current Florida plumbing code.

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