What Every Renter Should Know About Plumbing Repairs

This is the second post in a “What Every Renter Should Know” series. Also check out What Every Renter Should Know About Electrical Repairs.

At home, plumbing is where the biggest repair emergencies will happen. Sinks block, pipes burst, dishwasher hoses leak. Mostly you won’t be installing plumbing like you might install electrical systems, other than hooking up washing machines and dishwashers. Your likely interactions will be in cases or emergencies, malfunctions, or cleaning things when they get too gross to ignore. It’s important, then, to be prepared. 

If you’ve got a particular repair in mind, don’t forget that iFixit’s got a ton of guides for plumbing issues.

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Water fixtures and their piping, as well as the myriad of components that keep them flowing.

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The very first thing to do is to check where the water enters the home, and where it can be shut off. Seriously, if you don’t know, maybe pause on reading this article and go check. You’ll have a main tap that cuts off everything. Knowing where that is, so you can shut off the whole system if you’ve got an aggressive unknown leak, is the best protection against flooding.

You will also have “sub-taps” closer to faucets and toilets to isolate just those outlets, and it’s good to know where these are, too. Check under sinks for these, and next to toilet cisterns. 

Gas works the same way. You’ll have a main shutoff for the home, and usually another one near the gas stovetop and/or boiler. 

Basic plumbing repairs are mostly straightforward. Leaky plugholes can usually just be disassembled, cleaned, and put back together. Often, you just remove a machine screw in the middle of the plughole, which screws into a bolt or threaded part underneath, clamping everything together. Beware of the gross sludge accumulated inside, and place a bucket underneath the plug draining assembly in the cupboard under the sink.

If your plughole smells, this is also the way to clean it. 

In a modern rented home, the rest of the under-sink plumbing is likely plastic. Any leaks between parts can be fixed by either tightening loose connections (by hand, or with an adjustable wrench padded with a rag to prevent damage to the plastic), or by unscrewing those connections to check the rubber washers inside are still good. These washers may be broken, or just squeezed too thin to form a seal any more. In both cases, replace them. In a pinch, you can cut a new washer from rubber (for instance, from an old bike inner tube cut and layered), or even plain old cardboard for a temporary fix.

If you have a garbage disposal system, things will be more complicated, but the rest of the setup should be very similar. 

Washing Machine/Dishwasher Plumbing

This is essentially the procedure same as fixing leaks. To plumb in a washing machine, you just connect and tighten the hose or hoses (some dishwashers take hot water, some don’t) and make sure the drain pipe is securely hooked up. For the washing machine, this will probably just be a corrugated, bendy pipe that you shove into a waiting pipe in the wall. 

Modern rented homes should already have all these hookups, either under the sink, or in the bathroom. In Spain, where I live, older apartments even have washing machine plumbing on the balcony!

Gas Soundness Test

In my part of the world, it’s illegal for any non-certified technician to work on gas installations. However, there’s one essential tip for gas pipes that everyone should know: the soundness test. If you smell gas, and it’s not coming from an open, unlit burner on the stove, then you should check the joints in gas pipes.

The easiest way is to rub soapy water onto the joint. Add a milliliter or so of liquid dish detergent to 100ml of water and mix well. Use a brush or a saturated cloth to spread it on the joints. Make sure the gas is switched on, otherwise there won’t be enough pressure in the pipe to actually leak out. 

If there’s a leak, you’ll see bubbles. That’s it. If you are performing your own gas pipe repairs/installations, like maybe hooking up a gas oven yourself because seriously why pay anyone for that, then you should do the same test on newly-made joins. 

Unblocking Stuff

Blocked toilets and blocked sinks are home-life showstoppers, and getting a plumber to come and fix things is expensive and often slow. Most of the time your blockage will be within reach, i.e., somewhere in the u-bend (the water trap) of the pipe. And this means you can reach it. 

First, try a plunger. Make sure it seals well over the plughole, and block the overflow with a wet cloth (you might need assistance for that part) so that the air and water doesn’t just come out again. Then, add some water to the sink; the plunger works by shoving the water against the clog, so you might need to keep adding water, or just keep the faucet running slowly, while you work. 

Then, plunge. Give it a good shove, but don’t go nuts; we don’t want to split any weak seals in the pipe. If that fails, the quickest way to unblock a sink is to disassemble the plug drain assembly under the sink. Clear out the cupboard and place a bucket underneath to catch whatever comes out. 

If the blockage is further down, you might try a snake.

Plumbers don’t recommend using an unblocking product. Caustic chemicals can damage skin and eyes, but even if you’re careful, they can also melt PVC pipes and damage seals.

Snakes flick a barbed spiral around inside your pipe, catching and extracting the offenders, usually a mix of hair and toothpaste. Having a hand-cranked or electric drain snake on hand can save you a plumbing bill.

For toilets, let me tell you a story about the weirdest $100 I ever spent on a plumber, 30-odd years ago. My toilet was blocked, but the plumber arrived without his tools. He’d loaned his van to his brother-in-law (I’m serious, he actually used that old excuse), so he asked me to gather up a mop, a trash bag, and some old rags. He had his own roll of gaffer tape, which was something at least. He stuffed the trash bag with rags, shoved the mop-head in there too, and taped it up.

It was a makeshift plunger, and it worked perfectly. That fee (£80 in 1990s money) was far too high for the job, but it was cheap for a lesson in guerrilla plumbing. I’ve used it countless times since, but there’s a quicker way, if you can stomach it. Just take two trash bags. Put your hand in one, and reach into the toilet to unblock it manually. Just push the blockage around the bend. Then, turn the bag inside out as you remove your hand, and put it in the other waiting bag. You’re done. Sometimes the best tool really is your hands.

Bleeding Radiators

If your home uses water radiators for heating, then you’ll need to remove the air from the circuit from time to time, especially at the beginning of the season. The air sits above the water in the radiators and reduces efficiency. You’ll know there’s air in there because the top part of the radiator will not get hot. 

To bleed the radiators, you just open a valve on the top corner of the radiator, using either a radiator key made for the job, or a flat-head screwdriver. The keys are cheap and way easier to use, especially in a panic when you accidentally unscrew the stopper all the way and it gets spurty. 

After the heating has been running for a few minutes to get things moving, start at the radiator nearest the boiler, and open the valve with a jug paced to catch the water. Any air will hiss out, followed by a gurgle of mixed air and water, followed by a stream of water. Close the valve, and move to the next radiator. The ones furthest from the boiler will have the most air. Also, make sure to check the pressure on the boiler and add water if needed. 

If you still have trouble with cold radiators, close all of them using the knobs on each, all except the first one on the circuit. Bleed that, and wait. Then, open the radiators one by one. 

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Defrost/Unblock Fridge/Freezer

If your fridge/freezer has a defrost cycle, then just use that. Otherwise, you’re going to have to do things manually. For small freezer compartments inside the refrigerator, I usually just scrape off any ice that is interfering with the door seal from time to time, and when required, I’ll use a plastic dough scraper to lever off the bergs from the top of the chamber. From there, a quick wipe with a cloth will take care of the rest. And be sure to spread some towels on the floor in case of spills and so on. 

Or you can just switch the entire thing off and wait. If you do this, then don’t bother with a hair-dryer; it won’t speed anything up significantly. Really all you need is for the ice to become loose enough to pull away. A shallow pot full of boiling water might help speed things up, although you’ll have to replenish the hot water quite often as it cools.

Refrigerators can also get clogged, and then flood with condensed water. Some models have a drainage hole, probably on the back panel, above the salad crisper, set into the center of a v-shaped channel. This collects condensation and drains it out of the fridge. The water will be piped to an open tray on top of the compressor, whose heat will help it evaporate back from whence it came. 

That hole can get blocked with gunk. I use a chopstick to gently poke the hole clear, after cleaning off the gross jelly-like plug that accumulates. 

And that’s it for the basics. Just remember, maintenance is your friend, and takes less time in the end. And being prepared ahead of time (investigating the water and gas shutoffs, and having basic tools to hand) means that you won’t have to panic in an emergency. Good luck, and sleep well!