This past month the Treasure Beach streets are buzzing with backhoes and pickup trucks. Contractors installing the new water lines are now placing new grass over old dig sites.
Since last month the county official spoke to me about all these changes and pointed out something we all need to know (SO, listen up residents)...
Once a line has been changed out, even just the small fittings on your water lines, the best way to clear your home line is to run your garden hose from an outside spigot.
Doing this will help keep the heavy debris from getting caught up in your filters or any other plumbing in your home. So, if any changes are made to your lines, always try to remember to clean out your lines by running a few minutes of water with your garden hose. Your grass will enjoy the extra drink anyway.
Just this past week the contractors switched us officially on to the new "blue" plastic lines at our meter and again, I had to run my garden hose for a few minutes to clean out dirt and air trapped from the changes. On an important note, we didn't get any warning about this from the contractors or the country reps driving around. Seems this last hook up was without a tag notice, so you'll need to keep an eye on this one. Next time you come home from work or a trip to town check your water line out front and if the famous blue hose is gone, then clean out your system before turning on taps in the house. This alone will help keep your water clear from dirt or small stones, sand etc from getting stuck inside your plumbing.
Just in case someone is wondering about the pressure, well the last reading we got at our main valve here was 80PSI. That is a lot of pressure, but this presents no changes from our past water PSI, so we all should be fine there. IF for some reason your PSI was low in the past, I would keep an eye on your home plumbing system for any chance of a leak.
On another issue, if your have say timers that run outside sprinklers, you might want these shut down. Several problems could occur if your water is shut down for any length of time, and this could damage the hot water heater. Again this would only happen if your system was drained to very low levels before the element in say an electric hot water heater might burn up. The best way to avoid this problem is simply locate the breaker if your water is shut off and turn the breaker off until work crews have your water back on. This might seem like a bit over the top, but again this would only happen if your water was allowed to drain from the home via a automatic sprinkler system for example. In general a normal home with just the water shut off for a few hours should not threaten your hot water tank. But, please keep it in mind.
Ok, now about that new sod or grass we all seem to be getting. I have notice the contractors have watered it days after putting it down. Within county regulations we can water it daily until its stable enough to hold its own. Apparently "new grass" is exempt from the watering laws so don't feel like a criminal. Its ok to water the sod each day to help get it growing in your front lawn. I cannot offer any information about chemicals to feed the new grass, so that will be your own call. Personally we appear to be fine with the new sod and its taking well with just water that I have put on it every other day for an hour. My own home has a built in well pump so we don't actually use city water out front or back for most of the time.
On a side note this month, I'm seeing loose cats and dogs again ! This problem seems to be an unending failure to get home owners to understand our leash laws. What is even less the poorest excuse is "well back in my old neighborhood we could let them run free ". Enough said about this one, but next month we might just have to go over this topic again.
Since last month the county official spoke to me about all these changes and pointed out something we all need to know (SO, listen up residents)...
Once a line has been changed out, even just the small fittings on your water lines, the best way to clear your home line is to run your garden hose from an outside spigot.
Doing this will help keep the heavy debris from getting caught up in your filters or any other plumbing in your home. So, if any changes are made to your lines, always try to remember to clean out your lines by running a few minutes of water with your garden hose. Your grass will enjoy the extra drink anyway.
Just this past week the contractors switched us officially on to the new "blue" plastic lines at our meter and again, I had to run my garden hose for a few minutes to clean out dirt and air trapped from the changes. On an important note, we didn't get any warning about this from the contractors or the country reps driving around. Seems this last hook up was without a tag notice, so you'll need to keep an eye on this one. Next time you come home from work or a trip to town check your water line out front and if the famous blue hose is gone, then clean out your system before turning on taps in the house. This alone will help keep your water clear from dirt or small stones, sand etc from getting stuck inside your plumbing.
Just in case someone is wondering about the pressure, well the last reading we got at our main valve here was 80PSI. That is a lot of pressure, but this presents no changes from our past water PSI, so we all should be fine there. IF for some reason your PSI was low in the past, I would keep an eye on your home plumbing system for any chance of a leak.
On another issue, if your have say timers that run outside sprinklers, you might want these shut down. Several problems could occur if your water is shut down for any length of time, and this could damage the hot water heater. Again this would only happen if your system was drained to very low levels before the element in say an electric hot water heater might burn up. The best way to avoid this problem is simply locate the breaker if your water is shut off and turn the breaker off until work crews have your water back on. This might seem like a bit over the top, but again this would only happen if your water was allowed to drain from the home via a automatic sprinkler system for example. In general a normal home with just the water shut off for a few hours should not threaten your hot water tank. But, please keep it in mind.
Ok, now about that new sod or grass we all seem to be getting. I have notice the contractors have watered it days after putting it down. Within county regulations we can water it daily until its stable enough to hold its own. Apparently "new grass" is exempt from the watering laws so don't feel like a criminal. Its ok to water the sod each day to help get it growing in your front lawn. I cannot offer any information about chemicals to feed the new grass, so that will be your own call. Personally we appear to be fine with the new sod and its taking well with just water that I have put on it every other day for an hour. My own home has a built in well pump so we don't actually use city water out front or back for most of the time.
On a side note this month, I'm seeing loose cats and dogs again ! This problem seems to be an unending failure to get home owners to understand our leash laws. What is even less the poorest excuse is "well back in my old neighborhood we could let them run free ". Enough said about this one, but next month we might just have to go over this topic again.
L.A. Panchuk ( Author: The Devil's Magnet )
Reporter for X zone radio
Treasure Beach
I hearby release any and all copyrights on this article and offer it for public publishing to the Coastal Newspaper for their use in any way they deem or edit.
LP
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment