Don't Trash Your Plumbing This Summer: The Five Things I Keep Fixing in North Texas Every June

# Don't Trash Your Plumbing This Summer: The Five Things I Keep Fixing in North Texas Every June

Another summer, another wave of callbacks for the same stupid mistakes. If you're reading this in late June with a backed-up disposal or a soggy patch in your lawn, you're not alone — but you could've been.

I've pulled more corn husks and watermelon rinds out of disposals in the last three weeks than I care to count. I've trenched through St. Augustine to find sprinkler lines that've been leaking since Memorial Day. And I've reset more vacation modes on water heaters than should be legal, because apparently nobody reads the manual.

Most of this is avoidable. Let's walk through the big five.

Mistake #1: Treating Your Garbage Disposal Like a Trash Can

Your disposal gets absolutely hammered in summer. Cookouts, family reunions, kids home from school grazing all day. I get it.

But here's what I pull out of jammed units every single year: corn cobs, watermelon rind, celery strings, cantaloupe skin, coffee grounds by the fistful, and — my personal favorite — an entire onion peel, still in one piece, wrapped around the impeller like a wet sleeping bag.

None of that stuff belongs down there.

A disposal is for the bits that stick to a plate after you scrape it, not the plate scrapings themselves. Fibrous vegetables (celery, asparagus, corn husks) wrap around the grinding ring and seize it. Melon rinds are too hard and too big. Coffee grounds turn into sludge that coats your drains downstream. And grease? Grease solidifies in your P-trap when the AC cools it down, then you're calling me on a Saturday.

What to do instead: Compost bin or trash for the big stuff. Run cold water for 15 seconds *before* you flip the switch and keep it running for 10 seconds *after* the disposal goes quiet. Cold keeps grease liquid long enough to clear the trap. And if you hear it bog down, shut it off. Don't hold the switch and hope. You'll burn the motor.

If it does jam, the reset button is on the bottom of the unit. Red button, center of the housing. Press it. If that doesn't work, there's usually a hex key slot on the bottom too — spin it back and forth a few times to free the impeller. But if you've already burned it trying to grind a corn cob, you're looking at replacement. A basic Badger 5 is $120 and takes me 45 minutes. Don't make it harder than that.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Your Sprinkler System Until Something's Already Dead

Irrigation runs all day, every day out here from May to September. If there's a weak joint, a cracked head, or a valve that's weeping, you'll find out when your water bill doubles or when that one patch of grass goes brown while everything else is green.

I've dug up so many zone valves this month that were leaking underground for weeks. Homeowner didn't notice until there was a sinkhole starting near the flowerbed. By then, you've wasted a few hundred gallons and you're paying me to trench and replace a $30 valve.

Check your heads every couple weeks. Walk the system while it's running. Look for:

• Heads spraying sideways or misting (clogged nozzle or cracked body)
• Pooling water between cycles (leaking lateral line)
• One zone that won't shut off or won't come on (valve diaphragm shot)
• Soggy spots that don't dry out (underground break)

Most heads are easy. Unscrew, swap, done. But if you've got a break in a 1" PVC lateral line buried 8 inches down, you're digging or you're hiring. And if your backflow preventer is dripping constantly from the test cocks or the relief, the guts are cooked. That's not a "wait till fall" repair. It'll flood your valve box and wreck the solenoids.

A decent backflow rebuild kit is $40 and takes twenty minutes if you've done it before. If you haven't, call it in. It's got to be tested and tagged anyway if it's on a public supply, so you might as well let someone with a gauge handle it.

Mistake #3: Cranking the AC and Ignoring the Water Heater

Sounds unrelated, right? It's not.

When you drop the thermostat to 72 and run the AC hard all summer, your water heater doesn't have to work as hard to keep the tank temp up — the ambient air in the garage or closet is warmer. But if you've got an older gas unit that's been cycling on and off for years, summer's when the thermocouple tends to give up. You get lukewarm showers for a week, blame it on everyone using water at once, then it quits entirely.

Worse: if you go on vacation and flip that "vacation mode" switch (or dial it down to the lowest setting), you might come home to a pilot that won't relight or a unit that's stone cold and won't fire. Vacation mode is supposed to save energy while you're gone. Sometimes it just kills a marginal thermocouple that was hanging on by a thread.

If you're leaving for more than a few days, vacation mode is fine — but test the unit when you get home *before* everyone showers. If it won't come back up to temp or won't relight, you've got a service call. A thermocouple is $25 and ten minutes if you know what you're doing, or $150-200 if you're calling someone at 8 p.m. on a Sunday because nobody can shower before work Monday.

For what it's worth, if your water heater is over 10 years old and you're seeing rust stains in the pan or hearing popping noises when it fires, just start budgeting for replacement. Summer's not a bad time to do it. I'm not slammed with freeze calls, and you can usually get a unit in a week. A basic 40-gallon gas heater installed is around $1,200-1,500 depending on code requirements and venting. If you're in a newer house and need power-vent, add another $400.

Rheem still makes a decent residential gas unit. I've put in dozens of the Performance Platinum series and they hold up. The electronic ignition is better than standing pilot on the cheap models, and the warranty actually means something if you register it.

Mistake #4: Overloading Your Sewer Line With Guests and Laundry

Kids home from college. Relatives visiting. Everybody showering, flushing, running the washer twice a day because there's sand and chlorine in every towel.

Your sewer line was spec'd for normal use. Summer is not normal use.

If you've got any low spots in the line or any roots that've been creeping in for years, the extra load is what tips it over. You get slow drains first, then a full backup, then you're paying me $400 to run a snake on a Sunday because the main's stopped up and nobody can use a toilet.

I've been in crawlspaces in 95-degree heat this month clearing roots out of cast iron that should've been replaced in 2010. It's miserable for me and expensive for you.

Preemptive move: If your house is over 30 years old and you've never had the line scoped, get a camera run before you host a dozen people for the 4th of July. It's $150-250 depending on who you call, and you'll know if there's a problem waiting to happen. If there's roots, you can get them cleared on your schedule instead of theirs. If there's a belly or a crack, you can plan for it instead of panicking.

And for the love of god, tell your guests not to flush wipes. Even the ones that say "flushable." They don't break down. I pulled a wad the size of a cantaloupe out of a line last week. It was wipes, hair, and grease all felted together. Looked like a dryer lint sculpture. Smelled worse.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Washing Machine Hoses Until They Blow

You're running twice the laundry in summer. Beach towels, swim trunks, sheets because everyone's sweating, whatever. The washing machine's working.

Those rubber supply hoses on the back? They're under pressure every second the valves are open, which is all the time. They dry-rot. They crack. And when they blow, they blow *wide open*.

I've been to three floods this month from washing machine hoses that let go while nobody was home. One was in the middle of the day, ran for six hours before someone noticed water coming through the ceiling into the kitchen below. Ruined hardwood, soaked drywall, trashed the washer itself. Insurance paid most of it, but the homeowner was out a $2,500 deductible and had fans running for a week.

Check those hoses right now. If they're the cheap black rubber kind and they're more than five years old, replace them. If you can see cracks, bulges, or any corrosion on the crimped ends, replace them.

Braided stainless hoses are $20 for a pair at any big box. Ten-minute swap. Turn off the valves (the red and blue handles behind the machine), unscrew the old hoses, screw on the new ones hand-tight plus a quarter turn with pliers. Done. I've seen those stainless hoses last 15 years without a problem.

While you're back there, make sure the drain hose isn't shoved too far down into the standpipe. It should go in about 8-10 inches, no more. If it's crammed all the way to the trap, you'll get siphoning and the machine won't fill right. And if the standpipe's only 1.5" instead of 2", you might get overflow on the spin cycle when it's draining fast. That's a code problem and a rough fix (you're opening the wall), but at least you'll know why there's water on the floor.

What Actually Matters Right Now

If you take anything from this, take this: don't wait for a problem to announce itself on a Friday night in July.

Walk your sprinkler zones this week. Toss the corn husks in the trash, not the disposal. Check your washing machine hoses. If you're hosting people or leaving town, make sure your sewer line can handle it and your water heater will come back online.

I'm already booked three days out for non-emergencies. If you call me for an emergency that could've been a $50 part and a Saturday morning, you're paying weekend rates and waiting till I'm done with the guy who had an actual emergency.

Summer's hard on plumbing. It doesn't have to be hard on your wallet.

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