1. During the summer months, the hot temperture can play havoc on your boiler and central heating system.
My top tip is to put your central heating on for roughly an hour a week, this keeps your combination boiler or system boiler running fuctional and opitmal. for the winter season ahead, other wise this will may lead to seizure's and blockages in your central heating system.
2. At the beginning of the winter season, check the pressure gauge on your boiler as the summer season will evaporate some water in your central heating system. The opitmal pressure range of your boiler is between 1.bar and 1.5 bar (different boilers may varie) and if it falls below 1.bar your boiler will not work, leading to no hot water and no central heating,
You can top up the pressure via turning on the filling loop, this fills up your central heating system with water that the summer weather has evaporated.
3. As your central heating system is on and your radiators are hot, use your hands to check the temperture of your radiators. Run your hand over the top and bottom of your radiator. If the top of your radiators are cold and the bottom of your radiator is hot, you have to vent/bleed your radiator to let the air out, with a vent/bleed key. You can find the vent on the radiator, on one of the sides of the radiator, right at the top.
4. These flushable diposalable toilet wipes, can give you a higher chance of blocking your toilet, the reason why is, they take longer to decompose than regular toilet paper. My advice is to 1. throw them in the bin after use 2. flush away your soil first, espesciallly if it is a heavy one. then the wipes 3. Install a bidet spray gun, which is more eco friendly and hygienic.
5. Blocked kitchen sinks..where do i start? people believe they can pour away any thing and everything down that kitchen sink hole. I have seen rice, small beans, macaroni, pasta and last but not least is cooking oil. Cooking oil is the worst culprit for blockages, they set the pace for all the debris to stick together , then it just snow balls untill your kitchen sink wont drain away. With the cooking oil, you be lucky if it blocks your trap underneath your kitchen sink, that job is pretty much strainght forward to fix, now if your blockage is futher down the plumbing pipe, like out side your house, the job is not that straight forward and may potentially cost you more in labour and time.
My advice is to buy a kitchen sink strainer for food debris and put the cooking oil, when cool enough in a plastic bottle or any type of container and throw away.
6. know where your stop cock to your house. its a tap which shut off the water to your property, you never know when you might need to turn it off. winter is getting colder and colder each year, which can cause pipes to burst, when water inside the pipe will freeze and expand.
7. Do not ignore any signs of leaks. look on ceilings, wall and floor. Any water leak over time can cause damage to your property causing hundreds or even thousand of pounds of damage to your furnishing, carpet, paint, wall paper, floor or yet worse, structual damage like plaster walls, plaster ceiling and wooden beams joist holding your floors up.
8. Try not to use chemical cleaners to unblock sink. Use a natural drain cleaner like vinegar or baking soda, they seem to work pretty good on nathroom baths, showers and basin as the main culprit is hair. A build up of hair blocks and collect human residue, which cause's the blockage.
9. If you know where your water meter is, dont use your taps for an hour or over night. Take a reading of your water meter, then after a hour or in the morning, check to see if the readings on the water metre has changed. if it has changed you have a leak and your water bill, if you pay by the meter, will be sky high.
10. Last but not least, water and electric does not mix. do not bring any sort of electric in the bathroom, like exstention leads.
11. If you have an out side tap and have pipe out side, lag the pipe with insullation or if you have a isolation valve in the house solely for the garden tap, turn it off. In winter the pipes will freeze and burst.