Homeowner Hacks: Top Tips for a Clean and Clear Garbage Disposal
In a perfect world, your garbage disposal is a mean, clean, grinding machine. But without proper maintenance, over time, it’s likely to become your kitchen’s #1 source of noxious odors. If a stenchy (or subpar!) garbage disposal is doing your kitchen dirty, today’s Homeowner Hack is for you! We’ll be covering: How to fight even the worst disposal stench How to prolong the life of your disposal Three things to try when it just won’t turn on https://youtu.be/R9wR4uCNKqE Ready to DIY your garbage disposal like a Homeowner Hero? Let’s get to the hacks! As you use your disposal, all [...]
Going on Summer Vacation? Protect Your Plumbing With These 4 Tips
Summer is the perfect time to pack up the family and hit the road for a much needed vacation. And whether you’re a fun-in-the-sun crew, love the great outdoors, or can’t wait to tour a new city, nothing will dampen that family trip faster than a sky-high water bill or plumbing emergency back home. So before you grab your suitcase and SPF 50, take a minute to prepare your home for your summer vacation with these four tips to protect your plumbing: Drain your washing machine and dishwasher. Week-old wet laundry is a smell we wouldn’t wish on anyone. Empty [...]
Why Hire a Professional to Install Your New Kitchen Appliances?
Dear Burton, We just bought a new dishwasher and I was planning on installing it myself. But I got to reading, and it says the warranty could be voided if I self-install instead of hiring a local plumber. Why can’t I just hook it up myself? - Handy at Home Dear Handy, You’re right about your warranty. If you install your own home appliances and anything goes wrong, you can bet that one of the first questions they’ll ask is who installed it. If installation wasn’t completed exactly by the book (and it’s a long book!), your warranty can be [...]
Are Water-Saving Devices Really Worth the Hype?
The short answer is…. YES! The best water-saving devices are efficient, easily installed by your home handyperson or local plumber, and have little to no impact on your comfort. Trust us, green plumbing has come a long way from the trickling shower you probably think of when you consider water conservation. From high-efficiency toilets to shower timers, water-saving is the biggest trend in modern plumbing for good reason. These are the most common (and convenient!) water-saving devices we recommend and install for our Burton customers: Dual-flush toilet triggers. These two-button toilets give you the option of a full flush or [...]
How To Plan for Plumbing in Your Home Remodel Project
Dear Burton, We’re getting ready to start a major home renovation project, updating our kitchen, bathrooms, and a couple other spaces. Is there anything we should know about our plumbing before we start the remodel? - The Demolition Dad Dear Demolition, Before you start swinging that sledgehammer (as satisfying as a good tear down may be) you need to know exactly what’s behind your sheetrock. Otherwise, you’ll have a major flood on your hands faster than you can say “extreme home makeover!” Always shut off your main power, turn off your water, and carefully cut away the wall—before you go [...]
Homeowner Hacks: Handy Tips for DIY Drain Opening
Omaha homeowners: Is your bathtub just not draining like it used to? Before you call a drain cleaning service or reach for the harsh clog-busting chemicals (that often cause more harm than good) try this quick homeowner hack! As much as we love sending our expert plumbers to open drains all across Omaha, with just a few tools and a little elbow grease, you can get your bathtub draining again in under ten minutes— no chemicals or prior plumbing experience needed. https://youtu.be/-8UncgbPsfg Read on to learn Burton’s latest Homeowner Hack: Opening your bathtub drain with just four simple steps [...]
4 Reasons Your Water Heater Isn’t Working Right – and When to Call a Plumbing Service
Are you a hot morning-shower person? Or do you prefer a relaxing bubble bath after work? If your water heater is acting up, you might not get either one! And hot water isn’t just important for bathing. If your water heater is unreliable, your dishwasher and washing machine suffer too. Here are four common reasons why your water heater might not be operating at peak performance, and when it’s time to call a plumbing service. 1. It’s not plugged in… This may seem like an obvious issue, but you’d be surprised at how often electric water heater issues are caused [...]
4 EASY BATHROOM PLUMBING TIPS ANYONE CAN DO
Dear Burton, My wife and I just bought our first home. When we were renting, we had a landlord around to help with occasional bathroom plumbing issues. Now that we’re doing our own maintenance, what are some easy things we can do to keep our plumbing in good shape? - Plumb Perplexed Dear Perplexed, Congratulations on moving into your new home! That’s a great question to ask now— before you’ve got a flood on your hands (and all over the bathroom floor). If you want to play offense when it comes to clogged plumbing problems, [...]
3 Easy Seasonal Plumbing Service Tips for Fall
Feel that chill in the air? That basically means two things in Omaha—it’s Husker football season and it’s time to protect your pipes from being caught out in the cold. A plumbing service tip a day keeps the plumbing repairs away! Love a hot bubble bath? Better flush your water heater Throughout the year, your water heater can fill with sediment. In the summer, when heating water is a breeze, it’s not a big problem. But when your water heater has to fight against the bitter chill of an Omaha cold snap, that sediment makes your heater work harder. A [...]
Can Your Plumber Say “Yes!” to These 3 Questions?
As a local homeowner or landlord, you really should have a plumber in Omaha on speed dial. Yes, right there between your best friend and the pizza guy. Why? When an emergency arises— and it will!— the last thing you want to waste time on is digging through the phone book for a plumber. Calling a dozen different companies, leaving messages, and sitting on hold is a surefire way to make your bad day worse. So do yourself a favor! Vet your go-to plumber with these three critical questions. Do you keep service parts in stock? When you have a [...]
Summer Plumbin’: Home Maintenance Tips in 10 Min or Less
School’s out, you’ve spruced up the patio, and the ice cream truck has begun its neighborhood rounds—summer is (finally!) here. 🥳 While warm weather adventures and activities are wonderful, they can distract us from critical home maintenance tasks—who wants to stop cannonballing or slurping ice pops to check the sump pump? Better that than missing out on a bunch of fun when big problems creep up. It’s a rare plumbing problem that didn’t give a warning sign or two ahead of time. Here are three summer plumbing maintenance tips to do now so you don’t have to put the barbecue [...]
3 Surprisingly Fun Tips For Cleaning Your Garbage Disposal
Garbage disposals are kitchen workhorses, taking the daily grind to a whole new level (often in dark places, out of view). Given everything we throw at them (or rather, down them), it’s not surprising they get funky from time to time. What may be surprising is how easy (and almost fun) it is to keep them looking and smelling their best. Before we get started, here’s a fun bonus tip: Always disconnect the power to your garbage disposal before working on it—because it’s fun to keep all of your fingers attached to your hand—and it’s not fun to work in [...]