Most people love having pets in the house. They can be great company and yet generally undemanding. In fact, Australians love their pets so much, there are more pets than humans in the country!
However, while pets are great, they can cause issues with plumbing in the home, especially exposed pipes and appliances. Pets can be clumsy and slide into pipes or jump and land on them. This can damage the plumbing. Equally, they can rest against hot water pipes and burn themselves.
The plumbing needs protecting from them and them from the plumbing!
Check First
Before you start making adjustments to keep your pets safe, you should contact a good plumber Sydney and get a plumbing inspection done. This will highlight any current issues such as old appliances or leaks you didn’t know existed. You’ll be able to take care of this while pet-proofing your home.
It can also tell you if there are likely to be issued in the near future and the plumber may even offer additional guidance re pet-proofing your home.
This is a good idea even if you don’t have pets as regular inspections can help you budget for issues and deal with them when they arise. Plumbing repairs can be expensive, although that is not always the case. Being prepared will help dealing with issues be affordable.
Cover your Pipes
Pipes get hot and can burn a pet in the same way they could burn a young child. That’s not something you want to deal with. Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid. You simply need to cover the pipes.
There are pipe covers you can purchase in DIY stores, you can also encase them in foam as this helps to insulate them, improving energy efficiency, while keeping pets safe.
Or, if you prefer, you can build your own covers, such as boxing the pipes in to create neat sections around the edge of the room. Either option is acceptable.
Consider Pressure Valves
The water system in your home should be balanced. That means turning one faucet or appliance on doesn’t change the water temperature at another. If it does, you need to have pressure-balancing valves installed.
These are cheap to purchase and easy for your plumber to install. It will prevent sudden temperature changes which can burn anyone using the appliances. It can also prevent burning pets when water spurts out of a faucet unexpectedly and at high-pressure and high heat.
Add Drain Guards
A drain guard is a perfect way to collect hair and other debris that goes down the drain. The guard can be effortlessly pulled out and emptied, preventing an array of plumbing issues. While this isn’t a direct threat to pets, the issues are often caused by them as much as by humans.
Pets, especially dogs, lose a lot of hair when they are in the shower or bath, quickly clogging the pipes. This is especially effective when mixed with soap products. Also, it doesn’t hurt to invest in a great shedding tool, like this one – click here.
Clogs in your pipes cause water to backflow into your home. That’s not something you want to be dealing with. A simple drain guard resolves this issue.
Close your Toilet Lid
You’ve probably seen the funny clips of dogs drinking from the toilet. It seems harmless. But, you need to consider what you use to clean the toilet. While chemicals are not beneficial to the environment and can damage your plumbing, they are still commonly used.
If you have chemicals, even the residue in your toilet and leave the lid up, your dog may drink this and make themselves sick. It’s an expensive vet bill and potentially a fatal mistake.
Watch Dogs Digging
You should know where your sewer line is in the yard. If you don’t then you’ll want to find out, there are plenty of experts who can help. Once you know where the pipe is make sure your dogs never dig over that area. The pipe can be surprisingly close to the surface, perhaps just a foot or two deep. A dog could reach it and even damage it. That’s an issue you probably don’t want to be dealing with in your backyard.
Don’t forget, you are responsible for the sewer pipe until it reaches the main pipe which usually runs under the road outside your property. A damaged pipe means raw sewage in your yard and potentially a clog, causing wastewater to overflow into your home.
It’s much simpler to stop the dog from digging in that section of the yard.
Thanks to ontimelocalplumber.com.au for consulting.
