Your household plumbing system is more than a collection of pipes. You also have your hoses and fittings, and notably, the rubber gaskets that connect them to the pipes. Gaskets are essential for creating air-tight seals in your fixtures and stopping plumbing leaks. Unfortunately, the rubber parts of  the plumbing system may also get dry and crack over time when they aren’t used. Read on for the best way to keep your hoses, gaskets and seals in good condition, and how to handle it when they deteriorate.

Dried and Cracked Rubber Seals

Rubber hoses, similar to the ones that connect with your washing machine, don’t last forever. Or do the gaskets in your sinks and showers. If you don’t inspect them regularly and exchange them as needed, there will be a day when they start springing plumbing leaks and you will have to make an unexpected emergency repair. However, there’s one major mistake that you should avoid so you won’t artificially shorten the life of your rubber plumbing components.

The trick with gaskets and hoses is they need to be open to water or they will begin to get dry and from there, break. Therefore, for instance, if you’re taking a prolonged vacation, it’s not necessarily a great idea to shut down your water system. A total shutdown can stop a catastrophic flood, but it may also hasten the weakening of your plumbing seals. A better option if you are going to be away for months or weeks is to have somebody house-sit at least stop by occasionally to run the water and ensure everything is okay.

Point of Concern When Buying a Home

Dried and cracked seals should also be a major point of concern when you are purchasing a used house. If the residence has been empty for some time, there’s a good chance that the proprietors shut straight down the water system — and if the pipelines have actually already been dry for years, the integrity associated with seals features likely taken a huge hit. Whenever thinking about purchasing an unoccupied residence, have actually the vendor turn the water system straight back on a couple of times before you schedule an examination so it will be possible to spot any plumbing leaks that stem from cracked hoses or gaskets.

The good news is that cracked gaskets are not the end of the world and they are a reasonably easy plumbing repair. The specific mechanisms for replacing depend on the particular hose hookups, taps and fixtures, but in general, you just need to take the fixture apart and put a new, correctly-sized seal into place. When in doubt, call Resurrection Plumbing for help.