Plumbing Articles Archives - BobsPlumbingVideos.com

I Need Your Help!

April 1, 2017 By BobsPlumbingVideos Leave a Comment

It’s March 31, 2017, and the last video I posted to my youtube channel was on Feb 25th. I’m sitting here in my office with a totally blank slate. So rather than racking my brains out trying to decide what content to create, I’m going to ask my subscribers. I need your HELP! What Videos would you like me to post?

After 40 years in the service business, I lose sight of the fact that my daily adventures don’t seem all that important to me. But I’m probably missing the fact that what comes second nature to me, may be of great interest and really valuable to you. So again I ask, what Plumbing Videos / Basic Plumbing Repairs do you want me to create?

Do you really want to see major plumbing alterations and repairs? Are you more interested in the materials, tools or the techniques to get a job done? Plumbing repair covers a very wide range of tasks ranging from very simple fixes to very elaborate and beyond.

Below I’ve created a simple survey and would appreciate your participation! Simply check off the content you would like me to create more of !

The fact is if you’re a homeowner you’ll most likely be faced with having to call in a plumber at some point. My goal here at BobsPlumbingVideos.Com is to educate homeowners like yourself about the art of residential plumbing repair and in the process help you save your hard earned dollars for basic plumbing repairs.

My equipment is set up and ready to start filming my next video so, please send me your ideas, your thoughts, and suggestions on how I can help keep the plumber out of your life! Regards, and HAPPY PLUMBING!

Bob

Top Plumbing Blogs & Websites for Plumbers & Plumbing Professionals

February 7, 2017 By BobsPlumbingVideos Leave a Comment

Guess who’s been featured in a global list of Top Plumbing Blogs?

The Top 50 Plumbing Blogs & Websites for Plumbers & Plumbing Professionals!

Are you Kidding! So my usual morning routine goes something like this. Travel from my home in Staten Island into Brooklyn hit the local Dunkin Doughnuts at about 6:40 am and in the office by 7:50/7:00 am depending on traffic. Prepare my breakfast (usually egg whites and some fruit) then grab my large black hot coffee and hit the desktop.

First, it’s Desk.com to check and answer any email inquiries from BobPlumbingVideos.com, over to YouTube to check viewer comments and finally over to FaceBook to check on any inquiries from my Robert Sessa Plumbing and BobsPlumbingVideos profiles. I see someone left a message over at B.P.V. so I’m curious and the message read something like this, You’ve been selected as one the Top Plumbing Blogs.

Naturally, I’m curious I hit the link and was taken to an attractive looking page listing all 50 winners of which B.P.V. was sitting in the #3 position. What the heck is this I utter to myself, who posted this and where did they get all the information about all these companies? Feedspot! What is Feedspot, well that was my response so I head over to FeedSpot.Com to see what they’re all about!

Top-Plumbing-Blogs

So FeedSpot is basically an RSS feed that keeps track of what’s going on in your industry. FeedSpot allows you to “pull” industry related articles into one central location so you can stay current within your industry. So rather than searching the internet looking for all this information, they feed that information directly to you. Pretty Cool! They look at industry related blogs, websites, etc, rates them in terms of content, how often they post new content and how they show up in the search engines.

That’s the best way this “blue collar” guy can explain it. If you want more information on exactly what FeedSpot is I suggest you head over to FeedSpot.Com. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to be included in the Top Plumbing Blogs and even more shocked to hold the #3 spot. Incredible! I have to say its a great feeling to know that all of your hard work is being shared and appreciated by both the consumers looking for this information and other industry professionals.

A big shout out to plumberparts.co.uk the #2 spot and plumberX.com the #6 spot for also making the Top 50. They both have cool You-Tube Channels and you should check them both out. Well, there you have it, folks B.P.V. has hit the “Big Time” LOL!! Anyway back to making videos, with 5,400 You-Tube subscribers and over 100,000 views a month (as of this writing) I plan on saving boat load of people some serious bucks.

Thanks for Your Loyalty,
Regards, Bob

Top 50 Plumbing Blogs & Websites for Plumbers & Plumbing Professionals

The No Brainer Home Plumbing Inspection Checklist. (NBHPIC)

December 11, 2015 By BobsPlumbingVideos Leave a Comment

If you’re new to BobsPlumbingVideos.com, you must be saying hey this guy hasn’t published any new content since march 2015. What’s up with that? Well, you would be correct so please let me explain. If you’re not aware, in addition to publishing “how to” plumbing videos I also own and operate my own one man plumbing company Robert Sessa Plumbing. A scaled-down version of the original plumbing company I founded in 1978 and sold to my employees in 2004.

So while shooting videos is something I love to do, I’m often out in the field performing plumbing work for people just like you. But that’s not the only reason I’ve fallen behind on my video production. In my everyday plumbing practice I make my best effort to convince my customers to allow me to perform preventive maintenance at least once annually. This accomplishes two things, a. I locate small issues before they turn into plumbing disasters, b. I save them a boat load of money in doing so.

Now I must tell you that most homeowners don’t see the value preventive maintenance, they’ll say things like “I don’t have a problem” I’ll worry about it when it breaks! That’s ridiculous! But for the ones that let me do my thing for them every year, they have the peace of mind knowing that if there are issues brewing, I’ll find them and correct the problem before it gets out of hand. Now this annual inspection is a walk thru visual inspection of all the exposed plumbing in a typical one-family home. It includes the bathrooms, kitchens, laundry room, the water and waste system and finally the water heater.

If this is my very first inspection in a customer’s home, I always locate multiple problems they weren’t even aware of. The result, they save a boat load of money by avoiding a potential emergency. So I said to myself, what if I could record a series of videos to show homeowners the value in preventive maintenance and walk them thru the exact procedure I use when performing these inspections.Not only will they save money by locating small problems before they go bad, but they’ll also save the cost of the annual inspection which is a $300.00 value. The No Brainer Home Plumbing Inspection Checklist was born!

So I set out on a mission to create this video series which is a combination of a keynote presentation, video demonstrations, screencast demonstrations and PDF’s. Between the all four along with the editing required to put it all together, it’s taken me just about eight months to produce (hey I’m Plumber, not a videographer). So my regular video production has taken a back seat. Oh and yes all the while trying to operate my small little one-man plumbing business. Well, the No Brainer Home Plumbing Inspection Checklist is finally complete and as a matter of fact I’m currently running a series of Face-Book ads whereby you can download the five module video series for FREE before it goes on sale. All I’m asking in return is for your honest review and testimonial of the product.

I would love for 20 of you to download and give me your honest opinion, review and or critique of the No Brainer Home Plumbing Inspection Checklist before I launch it for sale. As my way of saying thanks, you’ll automatically gain access into my private facebook group and also receive lifetime updates as I refine the process. All you need to do is e-mail me privately and enter into the subject line “NBHPIC” and I’ll forward you a link where you can gain access to all five modules. As of this writing, I haven’t set a selling price for the “NBHPIC” but I can tell you this. You won’t spend $300.00 to have me come out to your home and perform this inspection. Heck, you won’t even spend $100 for the five video modules! The “NBHPIC” will cost you less than a weeks worth of your favorite latte’s from those fancy coffee boutiques.

Well there you have it, that’s what I’ve been up to and now it”s time to start cranking out some more valuable content so you can keep the plumber out of your life! Up next a look into my personal tool bag. A lot of you have been asking about the tools I carry on a daily basis, so I recorded the video and show you exactly what I lug around day in and day out. I also give you my thoughts on what you as a homeowner should have on hand if you want to do you own minor plumbing repairs. I call it Bob’s Basic Tools or (BBT) for short. I look forward to hearing your review of the “NBHPIC” and until next time, HAPPY PLUMBING!

How not to hire a plumber!

March 27, 2015 By BobsPlumbingVideos Leave a Comment

Ok so maybe you’ve decided that being your own plumber is not for you and you would just like to call a pro and get it taken care of. Great!

So you open up your local yellow pages or do an Internet search of your local area and are overwhelmed with the choices you have. “How do I know which one to choose, are they expensive, do they know what they’re doing, will they come back if there is a problem?”

These are key questions that need to be addressed, but unfortunately you won’t really know unless you pull the trigger and call one right? Maybe if you like to gamble!

In my 30 plus years experience, it is my opinion that the worst sources for finding qualified trade people are the yellow pages or the Internet.
Unfortunately, anyone can produce a print ad or have a website and truthfully, you as a consumer have no way of knowing whether what is printed or published is fact or fiction.
Unfortunately, most yellow page publications and or web developers do very little to verify ad content and just go with whatever they’re told.

Back before the Internet became huge, the yellow pages was the primary source for plumbers and drain cleaners to get their message out there. Even though they were supposed to verify trade licenses from the local buildings department before printing their books, they rarely followed through and the proof was seen when the books were published.

There were pages of unlicensed contractors and the public really had no way of knowing who they were hiring.

Your best bet when looking for qualified trade people is to always to ask friends, family or neighbors for referrals. Ask how they were treated, did the job go as planned, did they stand behind their work, did they quote you a firm flat rate before proceeding with the work? If you like the answers you get, then the next step is to interview the company and ask for referrals of satisfied customers they have recently serviced.

A well qualified company will gladly give you referrals and if they don’t, then it’s time to move on and find one who will. Keep in mind that all plumbers are required by law to be licensed by your local buildings department. They are required to carry mandatory liability insurance and if they have employees, workers compensation and disability insurance as well. I’m in the New York City area and because I perform minor renovations in addition to my plumbing services, I’m also required to carry and to hold a current Home Improvement Contractors license issued by the department of consumer affairs.

If you do decide it’s time to hire a plumber, make sure they are LICENSED. It’s your only recourse if things go wrong! Trust me the last thing I want is to get a call from my local buildings department regarding a consumer complaint!

If you still have questions about hiring a plumber, please drop me a line at www.bobsplumbingvideos.com, I’ll be glad to steer you in the right direction!

Happy Plumbing!

What is Plumbers Putty & When Should I Use It?

September 16, 2014 By BobsPlumbingVideos Leave a Comment

Never heard of plumbers putty? So what is plumbers putty exactly?

Plumber’s putty іѕ аn adhesive / sealant thаt іѕ used fоr sealing various plumbing jobs.

It іѕ extremely convenient tо uѕе fоr а variety оf purposes, аnd саn even be used by а layman. Most often, one wоuld uѕе іt tо seal thе space bеtwееn faucets аnd counter-tops, оr when setting sink and tub drains.

It іѕ а watertight material whісh makes іt аn excellent choice аѕ а sealant fоr thеѕе purposes. Aраrt frоm thе aforementioned uѕе, thеrе аrе many оthеr uses оf plumber’s putty.
Bесаuѕе іt’s аn adhesive / sealant, plumber’s putty finds іtѕ uѕе іn numerous plumbing jobs.

It іѕ hоwеvеr, extremely soft, аnd thеrеfоrе ѕhоuld nоt bе used іn areas whеrе high water pressure occurs. It іѕ still watertight, and bесаuѕе іt’s ѕо soft, іt саn bе easily removed bеfоrе іt dries.

Plumber’s putty has а clay base, аnd consists оf linseed oil. Sоmе mау consist оf fish oils, talc, аnd limestone. check out ѕоmе оf іtѕ uses.

Thе prime uѕе оf plumber’s putty іѕ tо create a seal between a faucet and a kitchen counter-top.

Bесаuѕе оf іtѕ oil content it’s best used on formica countertops and should be avoided on granite and marble as it will stain those surfaces. If you do have a granite or marble countertop you should look to use a water based silicone sealent.

It саn аlѕо bе used tо seal self-rimming stainless steel kitchen sinks tо countertops. Apply thе putty оn thе base оf thе sink edge, аnd place іt іn thе space created tо fit thе sink. Uѕе pressure as you tighten the hold down clips on the sink and when the excess putty squeezes out, just trim it with a non-metallic putty knife.

Just like setting sinks, I use putty to set sink drains, tub drains, faucets and even use it on the bolts that secure a toilet tank to a bowl.

It’s insurance that I guarantee will avoid future leaks. One word of caution is when setting a stainless steel sink or working on a stainless steel counter-top, use plumbers putty specifically designed for use with stainless steel.

A lot оf people аrе concerned аbоut thе uѕе оf plumber’s putty vѕ. silicone. I personally feel thе former іѕ always а better option whеn compared tо thе lаttеr. On thе оthеr hand, bесаuѕе plumber’s putty stains marble аnd granite surfaces, уоu mау opt to use the water based silicone which seals considerably wеll.

Plumbers putty is much more forgiving іf уоu wish tо reverse а plumbing job уоu mау have done wrong, thе putty tends to remain pliable making іt possible to correct a mistake. A lot оf people аlѕо confuse plumber’s putty wіth Teflon tape.

In effect, Teflon tape іѕ used tо seal pipes frоm thе outside, аnd іѕ а good option fоr pipes thаt receive heavy pressure. Bесаuѕе plumber’s putty remains pliable, іt іѕ nоt а good choice fоr pipes thаt receive heavy pressure.

Aѕ mentioned earlier, plumber’s putty іѕ а great choice for the professional plumber as well as the weekend do-it-yourself plumber,аѕ іt іѕ very easy tо uѕе. If уоu still have questions, speak tо thе sales people іn thе plumbing supply or home center уоu frequent tо find оut whеthеr іt wіll bе suitable fоr thе purpose уоu want tо uѕе іt fоr.

Thеу ѕhоuld bе аblе tо answer уоur questions аnd give уоu а fair idea оf whеthеr оr nоt іt wіll bе useful. You can also shoot an e-mail to info@bobsplumbingvideos.com and I’ll be happy to help!

HAPPY PLUMBING!