Two of the worst things that can happen to a homeowner both involve water. Contaminated water coming into the home’s water supply and water pipes bursting. Strangely enough both nightmares involve today’s maintenance march subject in different ways. In one instance it protects, in the other instance it can be the cause. Here’s what you need to know about caring for your new Utah home’s backflow preventer.
What is a Backflow Preventer?
Like many other terms frequent readers have read about on this blog, the name describes what it does, it prevents backflow. The real question is, what is backflow? Backflow is something that can occur when there are pressure changes in the water and sewage systems that may cause water to flow backwards. Which could lead to outgoing wastewater mixing with incoming fresh water. This could lead to your water supply becoming contaminated with sewage. A backflow preventer normalizes the water pressure in your home to keep waste water flowing out and fresh water flowing in.
Winterizing Your Backflow Preventer
The second nightmare scenario your backflow preventer could be involved in is what can happen if your homes pipes freeze. Frozen pipes eventually become burst pipes. Which is why when your sprinklers are winterized you also need to winterize your backflow preventer. As intimidating as that can sound you can do this yourself and the only equipment you will need is a flathead screwdriver.
Don’t feel too bad if you’re a little intimidated by this process. There are a lot of steps and a lot could go wrong! Your new Garbett Home should come with a manual that can walk you through the process, we would recommend holding on to that. And of course, if you’re really unsure you can reach out to a local plumber. If you go this last route consider asking him to walk you through how to do-it-yourself for next time.
As we mentioned in the first article for maintenance march, we want you to love your home from the day you move-in until your last day. These relatively small things we’ve covered over the last three weeks are things we hope will help keep you in love with your home. If you haven’t bought a Garbett Home and are now curious what else our Zero Energy Ready Homes can do for you. Why not reach out to our new home specialist today? (801) 396-9095 & janie@garbetthomes.com