Keeping your plumbing in tip-top shape is essential to a happy and healthy home. It helps you keep your water bill down and avoid costly damage and other risks.

However, many plumbing upgrades can also boost the value of your home. Here are some plumbing upgrades you can make to make your home more valuable to potential buyers.

Pull-Out Faucets

Got old sinks? Why not upgrade them to pull-out faucets? Pull-out faucets have a cord attached to them that lets you detach them and move them around. This offers plenty of added versatility for washing foods and cleaning dishes. Thus, they’re quite attractive to homeowners.

Additionally, you should consider a dual-basin sink if you have the space to add it. This adds plenty of room to clean dishes. Alternatively, it offers your sink the ability to serve multiple purposes at once. One side can be for dirty dishes, while the other can be kept clear for washing food or other purposes.

Both of these upgrades can give your home a nice value boost.

Modern Pipes

Many homes are still using corrosion-vulnerable galvanized pipes. When pipes corrode, corroded material can get into your water. This causes both a bad taste in the water and potential health risks to those who drink it. In some cases, corrosion can build up and cause blockages, leading to pipes bursting.

If your pipes contain lead or polybutylene, we advise you to replace those pipes immediately. For your water pipes, copper is a good choice. PVC works well for waste pipes. Neither of these materials are at risk of corrosion.

Energy-Efficient Appliances and Fixtures

Old washers and dryers use up a ton of water and energy, which is costing you money and doing more potential harm to the environment. Upgrading to eco-friendly appliances can cut these bills down and improve your environmental impact.

For appliances like your washers and water heats, look for the energy star. This signals that the appliance is energy-efficient.

As for fixtures, there are many areas for improvement. Low-flow showerheads and faucets can ease the strain on your plumbing and save you untold gallons of water. If you get a dual-flush toilet, you can further cut water use, as these use less water to flush than traditional toilets.

A New Bathroom

One of the most work-intensive, yet obvious ways to substantially improve your home’s value is to add a second bathroom. Building a new bathroom allows you to add some style and luxury to your home, as well as making it easier for a larger family to live there — or for people to spend less time in the morning waiting for a bathroom to be available.

You may also consider renovating your first bathroom. There is a lot of work involved, sure, but the return on investment is also worth it. Even if you don’t sell your home anytime soon, your bathroom will be a much more enjoyable place to spend time in.

As you can see, some simple plumbing upgrades can make your home a lot more valuable. If you’re thinking of adding these upgrades to your home, but aren’t sure if you can do it yourself, Barner Murphy is happy to help. Contact us today to learn more.

Noticed an extra high water bill recently? Unless you’re taking extra long showers every day, that could be a sign you have some issues with your plumbing system. Here are some reasons your water bill might be high, and what you can do to fix them.

1. Leaky Faucets or Fixtures

Leaky faucets and fixtures can fly under the radar — after all, a few drops a day doesn’t seem too significant.

However, those tiny droplets add up: one leaky faucet can, on average, waste up to 3,000 gallons of water per year. For reference, that’s almost 200 average-length showers!

Fortunately, these are easy to find and fix. The most common reason for leaky faucets is a defective rubber washer in the handle of the faucet. You can fix this by first turning off the water to this faucet. From there, you can unscrew the handle and replace the old washer with a new one that works.

2. Leaky or Running Toilets

Toilets already consist of nearly a third of Americans’ indoor water usage.

If leaky faucets can waste so much water, just think about how much you can lose to a leaky or running toilet. It's much more at around 6,000 gallons a month if left untreated. That’s a lot of extra money you have to pay.

You can use one of two methods to detect a leaky or running toilet:

1. Listening: Make sure it’s quiet in your home, then walk near your toilet. Any hissing noises may indicate a leak. 
2. The dye test: Get a dye tablet or food coloring. Put the dye/a couple drops of food coloring into the toilet tank, then wait about 20 minutes. After, check the toilet bowl. If the bowl water has coloring in it, you’ve got a leak somewhere causing tank water to move to the bowl.

There are many possible causes of a leaky or running toilet. It could be the faulty tank flappers, but you should also check the water line and seals as well. That said, faulty flappers are the most common reason for running/leaky toilets.

3. Old Fixtures or Toilets

Do you have an older home? The plumbing system might work fine still, but that doesn’t mean that they’re just as efficient as the newest modern appliances. In fact, they could become less efficient over time.

If your water bill is climbing, replacing some of your appliances and fixtures might be worth the water savings over time. Check your appliances for WaterSense labeling and for their dates of manufacture. Consider replacing old washers and dishwashers with new, energy-efficient models.

Can’t find the reason why your water bill is so high? Or maybe you know why, but you aren’t sure how to fix it? Not to worry — Barner Murphy is here to help. We’ll find out what’s wasting your water and work quickly to fix it with minimal disruption to your life. Contact us today!