Archive for the ‘Plumbing’ Category

What is meant by a “Gray Water System”?
Gray water systems pipe all the waste water from bathroom sinks, tubs, showers, and clothes washer and deliver it to a holding tank via a filter for the purpose of pumping it out to landscape irrigation or back into the home for use to flush toilets.

Who is able to install a “Gray Water System”?
New homes under construction are the easiest way to achieve a gray water system. However, if the home is built on a crawl space the existing piping system may be modified to tank advantage of this system.

What plumbing fixtures can NOT be on a “Gray Water System”?
The toilets and the kitchen sink are not allowed to be pumped into a storage tank for irrigation or gray water use. All other home fixtures are allowed to be used for this purpose.

Now that the holidays have come and gone and the weather is spring like again don’t be fooled. We will have our cold weather event here shortly.

Remember to keep water lines winterized, such as hoses disconnected from bibs, freeze bags on irrigation systems and the like. If you’re going to be away from the house for any period of time, leave the thermostat set to 55 degrees.

Just a few simple steps that I have laid out here can save the aggravation of frozen water lines. As always any questions feel free to call me and we can chat about it. Regards, Bill Morse

Rain water harvesting has recently been in the news. Harvesting rain water from rooftops may be required on future homes being built. This can also be accomplished on existing homes as well. The rain is collected through the gutters and into a piping system that runs into a tank.

The water collected in this tank can either be pumped out for irrigation use or back into the house for use in flushing toilets. The storage tank must be sized to hold the water from a 1-inch rainfall event (1 sq. ft of roof with this amount of rainfall equals 0.62 gallons), taking into consideration the size of the harvest system (75% of total roof area will satisfy both your irrigation and indoor toilet use.). Obviously this is making better use of our scarce water source.

Randy Garman
Yavapai Plumbing and Heating
Office: 928-776-7025

The weather is starting to revert back to cold again to the disdain to some of us. That being said, we need to be conscious of the watering we set up for summer irrigation. It’s time to start making these items freeze proof.

The best idea during this transition is keeping an eye on the weather report. We can have nice days but it will get below freezing at night. It’s going to be in the low 80′s today but it got below freezing at night last week. Keep your hoses disconnected unless you are going to use them. Install freeze bags on irrigation backflow valves. These are just a couple of items that can be done to avoid frozen water lines.

We are available to come out and either inspect your home for possible water lines freezing or winterize your home if it’s a vacation house and you are going to be away for an extended period of time.
Bill Morse. Plumbing Service Manager

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there on water piping systems being installed in residential houses. The old standard is copper which everyone is familiar with.

However fairly new to the US market is what is known as PEX piping systems. PEX is short for cross linked polyethylene. There are several PEX piping systems on the market: Wirsbo / Aquapex, Rehau, Zurn, Viega and a couple of others.

Although each system is different in their fittings and connections, if sized properly, they all provide sufficient water flow to each fixture and the entire home. Plumbers will have their personal preferences and opinions, but each system has been proven to perform and work fine. If you have questions or concerns please feel free to call or contact us and we will be glad to send you information on any piping system.

Randy Garman
Yavapai Plumbing and Heating
928-776-7025
Fax 928-771-8607