Category: Plumbing

Given the importance of protecting the environment and our natural resources, it’s essential that we all make some life changes and do our part. After all, we only have one planet and our natural resources are limited. While this can feel overwhelming, the encouraging thing is that there are many changes we can make to help protect the environment.

What’s even more encouraging is that some of these changes are incredibly easy. As easy, in fact, as flushing a bathroom toilet. For most homes, toilets use more water than anything else in the house. As a result, it’s important that your toilets are as efficient as possible.

Thankfully, low flush toilets are efficient, effective and can help you save money. Given their many benefits, today we’ll talk low flush toilets - what they are, how they work and how they can help you and the environment.

What is a Low Flushing Toilet?

A low flush toilet is any toilet that uses 1.6 gallons of water or less per flush. For context, traditional toilets use anywhere from 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush.

For the average family of four, switching to low flush toilets can save as much as 15,000 gallons of water per year. Obviously, this avoids wasting significant amounts of water, and it will also result in a noticeable decrease in water bills.

If your toilets were installed after 1994, there’s a good chance that you already have low flush toilets as all toilets made after 1994 are required to be low flushing. However, if you’re toilets are older or if you’re unsure about the type that you have, it’s a good idea to have them checked to ensure that they are low flushing. If they’re not, it’s worth the effort to install low flushing toilets throughout your home.

How Low Flushing Toilets Work

The great news about low flushing toilets is that while they use a fraction of the water as traditional toilets, they work just as effectively. The majority of low flush toilets are gravity-assisted.

In these toilets, when water is released by the valve, it flows downward and the combination of the water and the additional force of gravity effectively wash away waste.

Some low flush toilets utilize a pressure-assisted technology. In these toilets, water is stored in a tank under pressure. When water is released, the combination of water and air pressure effectively clear away waste. Both methods are effective and efficiently use water. So, making the transition to them is a no-brainer!

Conscientious Water Use

We appreciate all of the efforts that you’re making to protect the environment and our natural resources. It’s because of efforts like yours that we’re going to be able to protect our environment.

Keep up the good work, and keep thinking of new ways to help protect the environment.

Please share any conservation ideas that you have and contact us today at (608) 837-9367 if you have any questions about the toilets in your home or need low flush toilets installed.

Indoor plumbing may be something we take for granted in 21st century America, but it has been one of the most significant factors in shaping our modern civilization.

From the early days of brick sewers to the development of closed pipes in Europe during the Renaissance, to the 1972 Clean Water Act instituting the nation's first water treatment plants, commercial plumbing is largely responsible for who we are as a civilization today.

Public Sewer Lines, From Then to Now

The earliest evidence we have of primitive sewer pipes dates back to 2,500 BC in the ancient city of Eshnunna (in present-day Iraq), where archeologists have found remnants of brick sewers. As time passed, other ancient civilizations like the Minoans, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Macedonians continued to improve on and build their own sewage systems.

Finally, in about 800 BC, the Roman Empire built the first open sewer lines. These sewer lines were designed to carry stormwater away from the city, but in the process also swept away the excrement in the streets. The Romans even built cesspools outside of their cities to hold the contaminated water, serving as an early version of what we now know as a septic tank. After the fall of the Roman Empire, in the Dark Ages, sewer lines were abandoned, and filth reigned throughout much of Europe.

The idea of removing waste from the city rose again during the Crusades. For hundreds of years after, progress continued with the development of closed sewer lines and flushing toilets. By 1800, almost 600 American cities had systems in place to pipe water to and from the homes of their inhabitants.

On-Demand Drinking Water

Imagine coming home from a long day of work, wanting nothing more than to take a hot shower and climb into bed. We’ve all been there. Now imagine coming home feeling like that, but needing to go down to a well to get water, and light coals to heat that water, before being able to take your relaxing bath. You could still take a hot bath (or a lukewarm bath, at least), but you’ll have to work harder for it.

One of the many privileges commercial plumbing affords us as a society is water- when we want it, where we want it. And boy, do we take advantage! In fact, research says that upon the integration of water pipes into city homes in 1800, the use of water per capita increased tenfold!

Commercial Plumbing Has Allowed Us to Live Within an Advanced Society

Because of the advancements in commercial plumbing, our cities have been able to advance and grow as well. We also owe the fact that people can live far away from cities, in small towns or on farms, to the advancement of commercial plumbing.

How could we water crops in a field, wash our cars, or even take a shower without water pipes and plumbing systems? It's impressive to take a step back and think how much of our modern society relies on commercial plumbing.

The one thing you don’t want to cut corners with either at home or at work is your plumbing. When you want to use a toilet, you want to make sure it works and doesn’t need to get repaired every week. When you want to take a hot shower, you should just be able to do it as and when required.

One important step in making sure your plumbing works reliably is making sure the right people are on the job. A certified, experienced Sun Prairie plumber is essential in making sure your plumbing work is done right. But you may also require a plumbing permit, and if you’re not sure when to get it, or how it’s used, we’ll explain it all in three easy steps.

1 - Find Out If You Need It

A plumbing permit is official documentation handed out by the city that gives you permission to do plumbing work. But you don’t actually need it for every single plumbing job.

If your Sun Prairie plumber is doing something that is strictly a repair job, such as clearing out a blocked drainage pipe because something improper got flushed down the toilet, there’s no need for a permit.

If, however, you are doing a much bigger job, such as investing in a major home renovation that will be adding new bathrooms to certain floors of the home, you are making fundamental alterations to the existing plumbing of the home. In the case of very large jobs with much bigger scope, you’ll need to have a plumbing permit on hand before you can start the work.

2 - Fill Out The Application

As you may have already guessed, you can’t get a plumbing permit without first getting something approved. That means that you need to fill out an application, submit that, and have the city look at it. Once the city has seen the work request you have, they will issue your permit.

Your permit, however, does more than just give your Sun Prairie plumber permission to work. It’s a valuable document for you to keep, and it’s also now a part of the city records that indicates the work you ‘re about to do is registered, legal, and still covered by your home insurance.

If you decide to do major plumbing work without a permit, you may invalidate your home insurance, and you may even have trouble selling the home at a later date. All it takes is one home inspector from potential buyers to check your home and realize it has an illegal addition that you’re trying to sell without disclosure to complicate your home selling endeavor.

3 - Paying The Fee

Once you know that you’ll be needing a plumbing permit, and you’ve filled out and submitted your application, there’s still the matter of the fee. With an experienced Sun Prairie plumber, you’ll often be informed well beforehand how much this fee will be, and it might even be rolled into your total plumbing charges.

However, if you want to do the research on your own just go to the Sun Prairie website and look for the building permits. Under the plumbing section, you can find a fee schedule for just how much different jobs cost, as the fee varies depending on the task.

In this way, your Sun Prairie, WI plumbing will always be done right! Get a good plumber to work on the job and make sure your plumbing permit is secured if you need one!