You might not realize it, but bad shower habits can impact your bathroom plumbing in ways you wouldn’t expect. Common problems including clogs and leaks can come from careless and sometimes dangerous shower habits.

Bad habits die hard, but overcoming some shower habits can give your bathroom plumbing a new lease on life. You will not only enjoy more reliable plumbing and fewer service calls but also conserve more water and pay less for the privilege of using your shower. The following are a few things you can do to break those habits and ensure your bathroom plumbing works efficiently.

Your toilet is not a garbage can, and you should never use it as such. While this sounds easy enough to remember, you would be surprised by how many people use their toilet to get rid of certain items. Of course, flushing certain things down the toilet is not always done on purpose.

This is especially true if you have small children, who sometimes make a game out of seeing whether their sibling’s favorite toy is flushable. Even if you do not have children, just flushing something down and forgetting about it might be tempting. However, according to professional plumbers, the only things that should go down the toilet are human waste and toilet paper.

If you wonder why Kleenex or baby wipes are not flushable, this is because they do not easily disintegrate in the water as toilet paper does. Even flushable wipes should never go down the toilet. Besides wipes and Kleenex, here are five more things you should never flush down the toilet.

The plumbing throughout your home is something you rarely think about until you notice a leak, clog, or any other number of minor issues.

The following are a few plumbing bad habits that need to be broken.

Plumbing leaks can strike at any time. When they occur, many unexpected problems can arise. Often, these problems can seem unrelated to the home’s plumbing. If you know what to look for, you may be able to recognize the signs of a plumbing leak before the problem gets out of hand.

Upgrade your outdoor water capabilities this summer with new exterior faucets installed by a qualified plumber. Here are four great reasons to schedule an exterior spigot update.

1. You Have a Pool or Pond

Whether you’ve bought a new pool or you’re refilling the old one, you need a lot of water before you can swim. At 40 pounds of water pressure, a standard 1/2-inch diameter garden hose needs at least nine hours to fill a 5,000-gallon pool or pond. A 5/8-inch-diameter hose only takes five hours to deliver the same amount of water to your outdoor water features.