Plumbing 21 April 2023

The Plumbing Tools Every Home Owner Should Have

No one wants to deal with a plumbing emergency, but it’s always a good idea to be prepared. By having the right plumbing tools on hand, you can save yourself time and money by fixing minor problems yourself.

Tools for Clearing Blockages

• Plunger: essential for clearing blocked drains. Keep one for sinks and a flanged one for the toilet — they are not interchangeable.
• Drain snake: a long, flexible tool for reaching blockages further down the waste pipe than a plunger can shift.

Tools for Pipework and Fittings

• Adjustable spanner: a versatile tool for tightening and loosening the nuts on compression fittings and tap connectors.
• Pipe wrench: a specialised tool designed for gripping and turning pipes.
• Tongue-and-groove pliers: pliers with a flat, serrated edge for gripping and bending pipes.
• Hacksaw: for cutting metal pipe.
• Pipe slice or tubing cutter: gives you a far cleaner, squarer cut on copper or plastic than a hacksaw will.

Tools for Sealing

• PTFE tape: wrapped round threaded joints to seal them.
• Sealant gun: for applying silicone around baths, basins and shower trays.

Odds and Ends Worth Keeping

• Torch: always handy, and particularly so when the problem is under the sink or in the airing cupboard.
• Old towels and a bucket: unglamorous, but the two things you will actually reach for first.
• Knowing where your stop cock is: not a tool, but it will save you more damage than everything above put together.

When to Put the Tools Down

Having a toolkit is not the same as having a licence. Anything involving gas is illegal to touch unless you are Gas Safe registered, and that includes your boiler. Soldered joints, anything buried in a wall or under a floor, and anything you have already had two failed goes at are all worth handing over.

Our repair work is charged at £95 + VAT for the first hour, which is always billable, then £47.50 + VAT an hour after that. An hour of that is a great deal cheaper than a ceiling.

Five Jobs This Kit Will Actually Get You Through

To make the case for owning it:

• A dripping tap. Isolate the supply, strip the head, replace the washer or the ceramic cartridge. Adjustable spanner and pliers.
• A slow sink. Bucket under, unscrew the trap by hand, clear it out, refit hand-tight and check for weeps.
• A cold radiator. Radiator key, cloth, five minutes.
• A blocked toilet. Flanged plunger, patience, and the good sense not to keep flushing.
• A burst pipe, temporarily. Water off at the stopcock, repair clamp on, bucket underneath, then ring somebody. A clamp buys you time; it is not a repair.

What This Kit Will Not Get You Through

Just as useful to know. Put the tools down and ring somebody if the job involves:

• Anything on the gas supply, the boiler or its flue. That is Gas Safe work by law, whatever your trade background.
• Soldered joints, unless you have done it before — a blowtorch in a floor void near joists is not the place to learn.
• Pipework buried in a wall or under a floor, where a mistake costs far more to put right than the original fault.
• Anything you have already had two failed goes at. The third attempt rarely goes better.

Buy Decent Ones Once

The cheapest adjustable spanner in the shop will round off the nut you are trying to turn, and then you have two problems. The same goes for pliers with soft jaws and plungers with a flimsy cup. None of this needs to be expensive, but the very cheapest tools cost you more in the end.

Store Them Where You Can Find Them

Preferably near the stopcock, in one box, with the torch. Two in the morning with water coming through a ceiling is not the time to discover the pliers are in the shed.

Call 01732 792 454, or see our plumbing services for the jobs that need us rather than the toolbox.