You’d be surprised how many of the plumbing issues our commercial plumbers in Melbourne respond to can be easily prevented with a simple change in habits!
One of these habits? Flushing your water lines when your business reopens after a period closed.
Whether it’s coming out of COVID-19 lockdown or simply opening back up after the Christmas holidays, one of the first things you need to do is flush your water lines.
But why’s that? Our commercial plumbers explain.
First thing’s first: what do we mean when we say “flushing water lines” in commercial properties?
Simple: it means draining all the water that’s been sitting in your pipes before you get back in business.
A long shutdown period means that your commercial plumbing system has ALSO been in a dormant state.
Before you use your plumbing system once more, you first need to completely flush out your water lines to avoid a litany of different issues.
The process is relatively simple:
- Shut off your water at the water main
- Turn all your taps on
- Leave them for a couple of minutes until all the water in your pipes is drained
Importance of flushing water lines
Remove sediments
Sediments and mineral deposits can often build up and accumulate inside unused water lines as time goes by, leading to water discolouration as well as a change in water’s odour and taste.
Flushing water lines removes water with sediment, iron, and mineral deposits in it, allowing you to get your water back to normal.
And while we’re on the topic…
Keep your water healthy
As we all know, stagnant water can become unsafe, housing all manner of bacteria, parasites, insects and more.
Needless to say, ingesting these or washing using water that contains these unwelcome guests isn’t exactly a recipe for good health!
By flushing your water first however, your business can remove tainted water, replacing it with clean, healthy drinking water.
Maintain proper water distribution
Health isn’t the only reason you might need to flush your pipes – in some cases, it can also be used to identify plumbing issues.
Flushing water lines helps you identify dysfunctional and broken valves, pipes and hydrants that need a repair and replacement from a commercial plumber in Melbourne.
Not only that, but it also makes the job of performing plumbing repairs considerably easier!
Reduces biofilm
It isn’t just bacteria, parasites and germs that build up inside your pipes – biofilm is another threat you’ll have to look out for.
Basically, biofilm refers to the thin layer of microorganisms that can grow inside your water system.
Flushing water lines flushes out this biofilm along with the water itself, ensuring that you have healthy, clean water.
How to flush your water lines: what you need to do
We briefly went over the process above, but to be honest, we did simplify the process.
Safety is always the number one concern when it comes to water flushing. After the prolonged lockdown, you might need to assess how safe your water is, which is why you need to test its water quality by flushing it.
It doesn’t matter what type of business you run:
- Sports facilities
- Schools
- Hotels and hostels
- Restaurants
- Factories
- Retail and commercial buildings
- Warehouses
If it’s been a month (or several) since you last used your plumbing, you’ll need to call a pro – here’s what our commercial plumbers will do…
Step #1: Run cold water from your faucets
First, we let cold water flush from your faucet for 30 minutes.
This process is very helpful for those who have lead pipes at their commercial properties.
Step #2: Check every appliance and equipment that you have that uses and store water
It isn’t just your taps – you need to flush, empty and eventually refill freshwater from such appliances and fittings such as:
- Drinking fountains
- Toilet bowls
- Ice machines
- Boilers
- Water filters/water purifiers
- Water heaters
If you have filters in your appliances and equipment, we can clean and even replace such filters before flushing your pipes.
Step #3: Next up: flush your hot water
Once we’re done with cold water, the next thing on the itinerary is to flush your hot water as well.
Essentially, just repeat steps 1 and 2, except with hot water. This is because hot water often uses different pipes from cold water, necessitating a second flushing.
Step #4: Sanitise and disinfect plumbing fixtures
We highly recommend santisiting fixtures like faucets and taps often to ensure you’re using healthy and clean water that’s moving through healthy and clean fixtures!
As much as possible, remove aerators from faucets and disinfect parts of your kitchen and bathroom fixtures such as drinking fountains, showerheads, and kitchen taps.
Step #5: Test for water quality
After completing the flushing, you may like to get a sample and perform a water quality test to check if there are microorganisms and other minerals leftover in your water.
By doing this, you will know that even after flushing if the water quality has improved or not.
It’s true that water quality testing kits can be found for cheap – however, it’s also worth remembering that the kits you’ll find online also tend to be cheap and somewhat ineffective, and may overlook a lot of potential contaminants.
To make sure you aren’t missing anything, it’s best to call a commercial plumber to carry out a water quality test for you.
Need a commercial plumber in Melbourne?
Contact Watermaster Plumbing today!
With their skill and experience, our fully licensed commercial plumbers can check your plumbing system, carrying out a more thorough flushing or fixing problems that may require more than a flush to fix such as:
- Burst and leaky pipes
- Contaminated water
- Hot water issues
- Water supply issues
With the amount of time that’s passed, can you really say that your business is safe from these issues?
There are many businesses that rely on water and plumbing – that’s why it’s so important that before you get back in business after weeks and months of a shutdown, you prepare your premises by flushing your water lines.
Of course, that isn’t all you can do – the time before you reopen is also the perfect time to get any commercial plumbing work done, such as:
- Overdue plumbing repairs
- Upgrading old plumbing fixtures
- Replacing worn out pipes and joins
- Identifying hidden leaks
Watermaster Plumbing provides a wide range of commercial plumbing services for businesses and commercial properties of all shapes and sizes:
- Dental and medical plumbing
- Construction and renovations
- Real estate and strata plumbing
- Commercial plumbing maintenance
Yours can be one of them.
Make sure you’re ready for your grand reopening – call Watermaster Plumbing’s commercial plumbers in Melbourne today on 1300 156 650 or fill in the form to get in touch online.
You can also visit us for commercial plumbers in Melbourne: pop into our headquarters at 9/22 George St Sandringham, VIC 3191, if you prefer a more hands-on approach.