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Even if you’re not the handiest person around, maintaining a small toolbox is a good idea. Some jobs can be done in minutes if you have the right tools for the job. At the very least, you can mitigate the issue until a professional arrives. This is especially true for plumbing-related issues. Having some of these specialized tools could very well help you keep things shipshape in your home.
The classic plumber’s tool, a pipe wrench is a fairly large and heavy piece of equipment, but it’s well worth lugging around. The pipe wrench is typically used for loosening or tightening – you guessed it – pipes. Because of its vice grip, you adjust it to the perfect width, ensuring you get a good hold on whatever you need to work on.
A good pro tip is to put a rag or other barrier between the wrench and the pipe. This will you get an even better grip and keep your from damaging the pipes.
While most homes have a standard cup plunger, not everyone adds a flange plunger to their home maintenance arsenal. So what’s the difference? Well, despite what you might think, this plunger is actually meant to tackle toilet clogs. It looks a lot like a regular plunger except it tends to be black instead of red, and also has an extra piece on the bottom—the flange.
This little guy fits your toilet basin drain much better than a regular cup plunger and creates an airtight seal, allowing you to remove clogs much more easily.
You’ve probably seen whole bins of this stuff at your local hardware store. A roll of plumber’s tape typically costs under a dollar, but so worth having as it could save you a lot of time and grief. Plumber’s tape seals the gaps between various joints or temporarily stop leaks.
One great use for plumber’s tape is on shower heads or other faucets that spray water out the back. Chances are, like most people, you don’t have a proper seal from the main water pipe. Adding or replacing the tape could help take care of that in an instant.
If you’ve ever assembled a piece of furniture from Ikea, your probably have a million of these little guys lying around. So named for their six-sided heads, hex keys (often called Allen wrenches) come in every size under the sun in both standard and metric. And while not strictly a plumbing tool, they see their fair share of plumbing work.
Many shower heads, spigots, faucets and other smaller pieces of hardware are often tightened down with nuts requiring a hex key. These small, L-shaped wrenches can pack a lot of torque and are great for tightening or loosening small bolts.
Sometimes the best toolbox just isn’t enough. For all of those plumbing issues that require a professional, call Terry’s Plumbing. We even bring our own tools!
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