New Scope for the Home Plumber
Most people fix dripping faucets as a matter of routine.
Beyond that chore, plumbing generally has been left to plumbers.
Yet today a whole list of tasks once the province of professionals—replacing old fixtures and faucets with modern easier-to-use types, extending pipes to add or relocate equipment, installing purification filters, special valves or built-in sprinklers—can be and often must be handled by amateurs.
Economy is one reason; the professional must charge so much for his time that a householder may save money completing a job himself even if he buys a special tool to be used only once.
Perhaps more important is the revolution in plumbing techniques that has eliminated the requirements for brute strength and dexterous skills; new materials are light in weight and many are assembled simply by tightening nuts or applying glue.
And an increasingly significant factor in the trend to do-it-yourself plumbing is the growing concern for a resource long taken for granted.
Water is constantly getting more expensive: care and economy in its use in private plumbing systems has become essential.
Every family can keep its water bills down—while enjoying the many conveniences of new equipment—by a regular program of repairs and minor alterations.