Regular plumbing maintenance and repair is vital in ensuring that you and your family live comfortably in your abode. But, as a subject, it’s pretty boring. Right? Wrong. The folk at Victoria Plum have blessed us with a few fun facts regarding this field and specialised skill; and it’s not all as dull as dishwater. Tap in to the facts below and soon you’ll be gushing to all your friends about your plumbing know-how.
Photo, Jacek Dylag.
Facts You Didn’t Know About Plumbing.
1. Way Back Into 3,000 B.C. Historians have traced the beginnings of plumbing all the way back to the 3rd millennium B.C. We are talking Early to Mid Bronze Age. As Ancient Sumerians became among the first to fashion tools and weapons during this prehistoric period, a form of plumbing was invented as well. Archaeologists have deemed this era as the ‘Indus Valley Civilisation’ and its then-plumbing proprietors are believed to have lineages in Northern India and Pakistan.
What’s fascinating is that this was a time at least a thousand years before the Pyramids of Giza came into existence. Mankind had a form of a proto-plumbing system in place long before one of the world’s “advance” ancient civilisations stamped their greatest achievements in history.
2. Modern Sanitation Was A Bit Late: Modern sanitation began to see amazing innovations during the 16th century. In this notable part of the said century, John Harrington invented what was then, and until now, known as the ‘flushing toilet‘. Another reason why a colloquially accepted pseudonym of the flushing toilet is ‘the John’ has to do with its inventor’s name.
3. Pipe Insulation Works: Are you all too familiar with how you need to turn the tap on and waste gushing water until it gets to the warm-ish temperature you prefer for your bath? You can do away with heat loss and water wastage by having your home’s pipes insulated. Pipe insulation is generally utilised during freezing temperatures. However, it can also be relied on in cold weather. Pipes are basically ‘wrapped’ to prevent them from becoming cold and/or frozen.
In turn, this lets water that flows through them less cold. Waiting for water to heat up through the tap will take less time if your home has insulated pipes.
Photo, Kazuky Akayashi.
4. Toilet Flushing Is Among A Household’s Water Wastage Source: Did you know that flushing toilets are among your household’s appliances and apparatuses that wastes the most volume of water? This is not to say that you should stop flushing. Oh, no, no. But there is a practical solution to this problem. Instead of DIY-ing it, call your plumbing contractor and have them inspect the toilet flusher.
If it uses too much H20 than what’s necessary per flush, they can set up a rigging that will act as a stopper. In this manner, water will cease from unnecessarily gushing after the flushing mechanism has already taken place.
5. Dripping Taps Waste Water More Than You Know: You may think that dripping taps don’t need repairing. Yet according to studies, left unattended, dripping taps waste somewhere around eight ounces of water in every 15 minutes. To put that into perspective, that’s 768 ounces (six gallons) of water lost every 24 hours. As a consequence, it’s recommended that you contact your plumbing expert to have them check on leaking taps in your home as soon as you can.
