Conducting home plumbing repairs? Simple plumbing repairs often only require you to shut off the regular flow of water through your system. However, in the case of a home-wide repair, water hammer issue, or seasonal shutdown of your property, draining the entire property may be necessary.
While shutting down the water flow in your home system may seem challenging, it can be simple with the right steps, tools, and support.
The following will help you move through this process with ease. Remember, Meticulous Plumbing is here to help with any and all issues, so give us a call if you run into any confusion!
Draining Your Plumbing System
In order to fully drain your system, take the following steps:
1. Locate and shut off you main water valve at your water meter. If you are unsure where your water meter or valve are, feel free to contact our team for assistance.
2. Begin at the top floor of your home and open up all of your sink faucets.
3. Go to your basement or lowest level in the home and locate your laundry tub. Open the faucet in the tub and allow the water from all the preceding floors to drain out.
4. Return to the upper floor and open each of your tub and shower faucets.
5. Flush all the toilets in your home.
6. Make sure all faucets are in an open position and check for water. At this point, there should be no water coming from any of these faucets, or at most a slight drip as the remainder of the water releases. Once there is no water releasing from your faucets, you’re ready to go!
Refilling Your System
Once you have fully cleared the water from your system and conducted your planned remodeling or repairs, you’ll need to refill it. In order to do so, reverse the above steps in the following manner:
1. Close the faucet in the basement, or the faucet at the lowest level of your home.
2. Close each upper level faucet. Doing so enables the air remaining in the pipes to recharge the air chambers in your home’s plumbing network.
3. Open the main water valve to allow water back into your pipes. Next, one at a time, turn on each faucet and allow the air and water to release until you see only clear water. Discolored water may run out first, so be sure to leave the faucet open until clear water emerges.
4. Next, open your shower faucets and flush the toilets.
5. Once you are seeing clear water flowing, turn off each faucet, beginning on the highest floor in your home and working your way down. This will complete the process.
If you need to clear the water from your home’s plumbing system quickly and easily, consider the above tips, and remember to call Meticulous if you have any questions or concerns!
