Plumbing Secrets - Hand Tightened Everything First
Here's a little secret that I have learned over the years
and I would like to now pass it on to anyone who is interested in fixing
or installing plumbing traps or drains.
Hand tightened everything first. If you're installing a new drain
underneath your kitchen sink or repairing your bathroom sink trap, make
sure that you hand tightened everything that you put together, first.
You can always tight end up later, but snug it up for now.
These plumbing parts are designed to be hand tightened or in other words
tightened them with your hands, until they fit snugly together. Now use
your head here, if you're a football player or a large man, your idea of
snug and my idea of snug, might be two different things.
To put it simple, you don't need to do what I would refer to as
guerrilla tightening. There is no need to over tighten these things,
using all of the strength that you could possibly muster. Simply put the
plumbing drain trap and other parts that are required for the drain
assembly, together and snug them up tightly.
Now you can test your drain, run some water through the plastic drain
pipes and look for leaks. If you have any leaks, you can turn the water
off and then tighten the plumbing drain parts a little more, or you can
leave the water running as you start to tighten the plumbing drain
parts, until the water isn't leaking anymore.
This little secret, can save you a lot of frustration, especially when
dealing with leaking plumbing traps or drains.