Plumbing experts will tell you there are only three things you should ever flush down your toilet: urine, feces and toilet paper.

Disinfecting wipes are nowhere on the list, not even the ones marked flushable.

"No flushable wipes they don't break down like toilet paper," said Jeff Logan, owner of Scenic City Plumbing in Chattanooga and a plumber with 22 years' experience.

This might come as a surprise to shoppers clearing shelves of sanitizing wipes during the coronavirus crisis. The products' claims of germ obliteration may be true, but don't believe everything you read on the label. Yes, technically, they are flushable. But so is a cellphone. What these products are not is dispersible, or easily dissolvable.

Bottom line: The only thing you want going down your john are the three P's of potent plumbing pee, poo and (toilet) paper. Keep the wipes out of your pipes.

"You can flush [a wipe]," Logan said. "But especially with older drains, if it hits a rough spot, it's going to snag. Then it catches everything else that comes down the line, and it builds up and builds up and causes a clog."

He'd also add baby wipes, paper towels, facial tissue and feminine hygiene products to the list of no-nos. Only toilet paper is designed to dissolve easily.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday advised against flushing anything except toilet paper in an effort to safely manage the nation's wastewater and ensure that toilets, plumbing, sewer systems and septic systems will continue working properly.

"Having fully operational wastewater services is critical to containing COVID-19 and protecting Americans from other public health risks," said the EPA statement.

Tennessee American Water has issued a similar advisory for its 380,000 customers in Tennessee and North Georgia who may be using baby wipes as a backup for toilet paper or disinfectant wipes for habitual housecleaning.

"While it might seem to make your daily life easier, putting the wrong thing down the toilet or drain can and does cause blockages, which take time and money to fix," said Vice President of Operations Grady Stout.

Even if you luck out and avoid a clog in your own plumbing, you can cause trouble down the line, said Jeffrey Rose, director of the Waste Resources Division of Chattanooga's Department of Public Works.

He manages the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant the No. 1 guy for your No. 2. It's true, he said, that this stuff runs downhill.

"It flows by gravity," he said. "[Home sewer] lines have to be laid on a slope to make sure things flow out. Then when it hits the main sewer line, that's also laid on a slope so that all the water will flow by gravity downstream. The lines get bigger and bigger as they move toward the plant."

Woven wipes arent the only concern for families spending more time at home during the coronavirus. If youre cooking more, you should avoid pouring grease, fat or oil down the drain.

When washed down the drain, grease and oil can adhere to the insides of the pipes that carry the wastewater from homes and businesses to the sewer treatment facility. Over time, this buildup of grease can restrict the flow of wastewater or, worse yet, block the homeowners or utilitys sewer pipes.

These blockages can lead to sewage overflowers or backups in homes and businesses. It can also have an adverse effect on the environment if the overflow enters local rivers, lake and streams.

Tennessee American Water advises:

* Allow grease to cool, and use a rubber scraper to remove the fat, oil and grease from cookware, plates, utensils and cooking surfaces. Then place the grease in a sealed container and dispose of it in the trash.

* Install baskets/strainers in sink drains to catch food scraps, and empty the scraps into the trash.

* Keep in mind, garbage disposals do not prevent grease from washing down the drain. Also, detergents that claim to dissolve grease may pass it down the line and cause problems in other parts of the wastewater system.

In places where gravity can't do the work, there are pump stations. Their job is to rapidly spin the wastewater and push it into a force main, or a pressurized sewer pipe, that can run it for some distance, such as over a hill, until it reaches a gravity line, he explained.

"Sometimes those pump stations have chopper mechanisms to chop things up. It works for normal [biodegradable] stuff," he said.

Not so much for wipes. Instead of mincing the wipes into small pieces, the chopper may only mangle the cloth into halves or thirds, especially in neighborhoods that are flushing large numbers of wipes into the sewer system. When these pieces hit the pump station's spin cycle, chugging at 1,200 to 1,800 rpms to pressurize the wastewater, the wipes "reconstitute themselves and turn into strands, like a rope," Rose said. "It's likely to clog the pump station eventually.

"The backup [of sewage] may happen at the pump station, or it might be at someone's house," he said.

Public Works employees sometimes pose with the glop of wipes and grease and other nonbiodegradable substances they pull from the system. "It's interesting but gross," Rose said.

The largest of these congealed masses are called "fatbergs," a combination of fat and iceberg. Fatbergs became a problem in the 2010s in Britain because of aging Victorian sewers and the increased use of woven wipes, according to news reports. Among the first notable fatbergs was a 17-ton congealed mass of food, fat and wet wipes, roughly the size of a bus, discovered in drains in London in 2013. More recently, a 440-ton mass was discovered in a sewer in Liverpool in February 2019.

The coronavirus scare means there are many more of these wipes in use, Rose said, creating potential problems for Public Works employees. While some wastewater employees can work from home, most are working normal or staggered shifts to keep the system functioning.

"As you can imagine, it is often difficult to 'social distance' when two or more people are required for certain maintenance tasks on these large and complicated systems," Rose said. "So along with dealing with the normal issues of operating and maintaining aging infrastructure, responding to sewer blockages and overflows, we have the added concerns of a very contagious disease."

Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.

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What your plumber wants you to know while you're home during the coronavirus crisis - Chattanooga Times Free Press

A Vancouver Island plumbing company is taking COVID-19 on with common sense, warm water, soap and a little social distance.

Victoria-based Oceanview Mechanical Ltd. is building and installing washing stations on its projects along with other guidelines to ensure its employees are both working and safe as new precautions are required while still delivering solutions to their clients.

We want to keep working and keep my guys working, and we do a lot of low-income housing and said to ourselves a lot of people need to move into this housing at some point, Oceanview Mechanical project manager Rick Smith said.

We put stations on site and they clean the washroom every half hour to an hour depending on who is on site. We maintain social distancing by dividing up suites so if youre in a suite working nobody can go inside while youre there, Smith said. Thats all we can do, limit the number of people in the suites and in the area and coordinate with our sub trades to keep people working.

Smith explained that his company works on both multi-residential condominiums and houses. With residential work we make sure we have only one person on site. Its a little slower but its better than no progress, he said

As a plumbing company, Oceanview is well-suited to deal with new workplace conditions brought on by COVID-19, Smith said.

We wear gloves anyway. When a plumber has hands in pipes, they arent putting their fingers on their face, he said.

Were just doing wash stations for our own projects, but every single condo has at least one wash station and as projects progress, we put more in. Were bidding on a project at the moment and we have to put in a different price to account for the hand-washing stations, Smith said.

The stations are simple but effective since theyve been built by experienced plumbers, he added.

we just got laundry tubs, the stand-up kind you have at home and put water and soap in them. We instructed our guys to put their hands down deep so there isnt any splashing, and we drain the tubs properly, so people arent walking through it, he said.

Being plumbers, its easy for us, as were bringing temporary water in anyway. Plumbers are really the ones to do this, Smith said.

Smith and others in his staff are also able to work remotely and still manage projects, he said.

I packed up everything and Ive been working from home for about three weeks. Im estimating and coordinating everything from here, and if a foreman needs to talk to me, they can put me on FaceTime and I can (virtually) walk around the site, he said.

Smith emphasized that Oceanview views the current crisis with grave concern and will do what it takes to work within the pandemics new restrictions.

Nobody is like they were eight weeks ago, where we didnt think it would end up here. We know its going to get more serious and we need to be more careful, Smith said.

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Plumbers stay at work with DIY hand-washing solution - Daily Commercial News

WASHINGTON Question:

Is there a risk to having people in your home, such as house cleaners and plumbers?

Answer:

Yes. Every time another person comes within 6 feet there is a risk of transmission, and that's why our experts recommend that you factor in the possible risk when deciding who should come to the home.

Sources:

Process:

In an attempt to "flatten the curve," people across the globe are attempting to practice social distancing. This has prompted questions online about who should be allowed to come to the home.

"Is it safe to have your house cleaned by outside workers," asked on person in an email to the Verify Team.

And of course, it's not just house-cleaners. What about the plumber or the electrician? The Verify Team turned to the experts to get a feel for the possible risk.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention did not offer a clear-cut yes or no answer. Instead, they offered guidelines that all people should follow. The CDC said special precautions should be taken by those who are older, or have an underlining health issue.

"(They should) prohibit visitors who do not have an essential need to be in the home.

Meanwhile, the CDC said everyone else should also practice social distancing by limiting "close contact with others as much as possible.

Dr. Timothy Price, from Price Medical, agreed that people should take the risk seriously.

In general, not having people in your house who are not essential would be my recommendation, he said.

Price said that he made the decision to tell the housekeeper not to come this week for this reason.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, from Johns Hopkins University, said that each person should make a risk assessment, based on whether they are healthy or not. Healthy people may be able to tolerate more risk.

I think each person needs to look at their level of risk," he said. "I think its fine for healthy people so long as youre not hiring sick individuals.

The Verify Team also reached out to the American Association of Cleaning Professionals. A spokesperson said that they are recommending work as normal, although recommending that cleaners wear gloves and face masks.

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VERIFY: Should I have the house cleaner in my home? What about the plumber? Here's what the experts say - WUSA9.com

When you have a family of four or five people that potentially could be home non-stop, that puts a lot more stress on your plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, which causes things to fail, Magic Electric, Plumbing, Heating and Air owner Billy Salts said. Salts noted that activity in Boise has fallen far more dramatically than in Twin Falls.

There are a handful of reasons that even though so many are at home, so few are needing home repairs.

For one, people dont know how long the recession is going to last, so people are holding onto their money, Petruzzelli said.

Plus, many have more free time on their hands and might be more willing to tackle minor issues on their own rather than call a professional.

On top of that, its often older folks,who dont want to grapple with plumbing, heating or electric issues on their own, who call for services. Many of those people might be limiting the number of visitors coming into their homes.

Dynamic Plumbing owner Josh Taylor works on a new house build Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in Twin Falls.

I think a lot of people just have a lot of fear right now, Dynamic Plumbing owner Josh Taylor said.

Caywood said he had a client who asked to just talk to me through the door in the garage.

Plumbers, electricians and HVAC companies said theyre doing everything they can to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

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Even with everyone stuck at home, the phones aren't ringing for plumbers, electricians and HVAC techs - Twin Falls Times-News

With Spain's national lockdown now exceeding two weeks and the recent announcement by the Spanish Government that only essential services will be allowed over the coming fortnight, many of the country's population are unsure of exactly what is allowed or not during the state of emergency.

One such doubt is related to essential services or the day-to-day domestic problems that arise, for instance needing the services of a plumber or electrician. Such services are allowed but have protocols attached to them and have to fulfill a series of requirements set by the Spanish Government in order to avoid the risk of spreading the virus further.

Given that these services require home visits, government protocols stipulate the use of protective clothing: masks, gloves, etc. and state that they may only be rendered in cases of emergency or "extreme necessity". Similarly, the customer who receives an electrician or plumber in their home must also take protective measures: both must ensure there is no physical contact and keep at least a distance of one metre apart, and the customer also has the right to demand the person providing the service wear their protective clothing.

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Coronavirus: Plumbers and electricians allowed in cases of 'extreme necessity' in Spain - AS English

Coachella Valley Water District is urging customers to be careful and pay attention to what they are flushing down the toilet. The district said they have seen an influx of items other than toilet paper that have been flushed down the drain.

"Were sort of speculating that this is COVID-related-- that because people went and started stockpiling toilet paper, toilet paper was in a shortage, more people are using wipes and thats probably why this is happening," Coachella Valley Water District Director of Communications and Conservation, Katie Evans said.

Items like paper towels, flushable wipes and even disinfectant wipes have been found at the district's treatment plant.

"What has increased is the drain calls- thats for sure," Tommy Rooter Plumbing owner, Thomas Clarke said.

"A lot of these people still have toilet paper in their house, theyre just so afraid of running out of toilet paper. Theyre willing to use things that arent supposed to be flushed down the toilet and thats causing some major issues for us," Clarke said.

Clarke said he has even come across people using restaurant napkins in place of toilet paper.

"Regular toilet paper is designed to fall apart, and allow it to flush normally. It goes down the drains, and it just falls apart. Paper towels arent designed to do that. They're supposed to stay together," Clarke said.

Flushable wipes have also become a culprit showing up in drains.

"The packaging does say flushable and they are flushable in the sense that if you put it in the toilet and flush it, it will flush but that does not make it good for the system," Evans said.

These types of items could potentially clog the sewer system.

"It could create clogs in the sewer pipelines that are running under the street which would be a huge problem. Wed have to cut into the streets, cut those clogs out of the pipes and put new piping in," Evans said.

Meanwhile, if residents were to run into similar problems back at home it could be costly.

"That could get into the several hundreds, even thousands of dollars depending on the severity of the clog," Clarke said.

The issue has one simple solution.

"You should only be flushing human waste and toilet paper," Evans said.

Read more:
Plumbing issues on the rise as more wipes, paper towels are found in sewer system - KESQ

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) State pollution control officials are warning consumers not to flush any paper products other than toilet paper.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says the lack of availability of toilet paper in stores amid the COVID-19 outbreak is causing people to use alternative options.

That includes products like baby wipes or paper towels.

We are seeing people flushing things down the toilet that they shouldnt be, Hero Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling drains manager Chris Stevens said.

Flushing those products can cause a big problem for pipes, including clogs and even sewage coming back up into the home.

Stevens said plumbers are slammed with business right now as working parents and school age children are suddenly at home all day.

Everyone is just using whatever they have, they have no option, Stevens said.

Stevens said a sewage backup can cost a homeowner tens of thousands of dollars. The MPCA also said flushing products other than toilet paper can also cost a city money in repairs and harm the environment.

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Coronavirus In Minnesota: Plumbers In High Demand As Families Flush Paper Products Other Than Toilet Paper - CBS Minnesota

Advice from DFW plumbers during the COVID-19 crisis: stop flushing weird stuff down the toilet.

Because of our bizarre, virus-fueled run on toilet paper, many area residents are being forced to resort to alternative options. Kleenex. Wet wipes. Paper towels. Napkins. No reports yet of leaves or corn cobs, but were only in Day 5 of shelter in place, so stay tuned.

Reminder: There is no viable substitute for toilet paper.

Some of those things may be biodegradable, but they dont break down as well as toilet paper when immersed in water, says Berkeys Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electrical president Jamie Wooldridge.

Adds Baker Brothers president Jimmie Dale, Were getting about twice as many calls (for clogged toilets) as usual.

COVID-19s gnarly tentacles are presenting essential businesses with a variety of quandaries.

As temperatures flirt with 90 degrees Thursday, HVAC service repair experts are the first responders to air-conditioning units being kicked on for the first time after winter hibernation. Those service calls are being made to potentially dangerous environments contaminated with coronavirus.

Along with adhering to the CDCs guidelines of wearing protective masks/shields and gloves and remaining 6 feet apart during calls to homes and businesses, companies are taking extra measures to disinfect equipment between jobs and implement touchless transactions.

When possible, were having customers simply read us the credit card number, Wooldridge says. Instead of passing the card back and forth between hands.

Wooldridge says that if a customer tells Berkeys that theyre under quarantine or exhibiting symptoms associated with COVID-19, theyre asked to reschedule. Still, even without warning there is risk upon entering homes or businesses and touching multiple shared spaces with strangers.

The fact is that the techs cannot only become infected, but also spread it to other places and other people, Dale says. Thats the part that really scares them and scares us. Thats why were being extra cautious and vigilant.

Not surprisingly in light of the airborne virus there is also an uptick in inquiries regarding air purification systems.

Industry experts tout the Captura HEPA, which is advertised to trap viruses, germs, bacteria and allergens with a 99.7% efficiency, and the REME HALO, which claims to successfully defend staph (MRSA), SARS and E. coli by eliminating sneeze germs up to 3 feet.

Neither system has been tested specifically against COVID-19.

But we havent come across anything that it cant handle, says Rene Luna, a representative of The Partners Group HVAC, which distributes to a four-state area including Texas. We represent 16 other products, but this is the one people are asking for.

Luna says demand for HALOs has risen one thousand percent in the last two weeks.

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Plumbers and HVAC Repair People Also on Coronavirus Front Lines - Dallas Observer

Sponsored - The following content is created on behalf of Keith McNeil Plumbing and does not reflect the opinions of Gray Television or its editorial staff. To learn more about Keith McNeil Plumbing, visit Keith McNeil Plumbing.

Are you considering switching to natural gas appliances in your home? Your first call should be to a qualified plumber. Dryers, water heaters, fireplaces, ovens, stove tops, furnaces and more home appliances can all be powered by natural gas. To get that gas from the curb to your home, youll need a professional plumber. McNeill plumbing is your local expert in gas installation.

Powering your home with natural gas has several advantages. Primarily, gas is almost always more cost effective to use than electricity. There are usually less emissions involved when using natural gas as opposed to using electricity. Natural gas is also much more reliable than electricity. Natural gas outages are extremely rare, especially when compared to the frequency of electrical outages.

Today, more than ever, as we become more conscious of rising costs, energy use, and the environment, it really is time to consider converting to a tankless water heater. These systems not only have a positive effect regarding these issues; they feature systems designed to fit your specific needs. The advantages to owning a tankless water heater include:

Unlimited supply of hot waterSince a tankless water heater system works on demand, you have hot water when you want it and for as long as you want it.

Space efficientThe tankless water heater is much smaller than a water tank. This is especially beneficial if you are living in a condo or smaller home where extra space is always beneficial.

Water is clean and fresh A water tank stores water. This can lead to corrosion, rusting, and scale build-up in the tanks interior. This stored water is what you are using when you bathe, wash dishes, do laundry, and so on. End result the water you use is less than fresh.

Energy efficientThe system only runs when hot water is being used. When you turn off the hot water the unit turns off. Consequently energy is not being used energy when its not needed.

Savings on energy billsIf you currently have a tank water heater, a large percentage of your energy bill results directly from it. A tankless water heater can save you up to 40% on your water-heating bill. Remember, the system turns on only when there is a need (i.e., someone turns on the hot water faucet).

Longer lastingCompared to conventional water tanks, tankless water heaters last twice as long. A tankless system has an average life expectancy of 20 years.

Keith McNeil Plumbing. is ready to help make your transition to natural gas and a tankless water heater easy and painless. Our expert technicians will do the job right the first time, and have you saving money in no time.

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Save Money at Home With Natural Gas and Tankless Water Heaters - WCTV

Plumbing contractors, general contractors, and plumbers whose businesses and services have closedby the COVID-19 pandemiccan receive online technical training in the use of tankless water heaters and boilers.

Navien, a manufacturer of water-heating equipment for residential and commercial construction projects, is offering live and on-demand digital trainings via webinar.

Live trainings are real-time virtual training sessions hosted by one of the Navien product trainers. Plumbing and construction professionals can view the training as it is presented, ask questions of the presenter, and receive real time feedback.

Prerecorded on-demand webinars may be viewed at the attendee'sconvenience. Contact information for the presenter will be provided so that attendees can ask questions via email.

Training sessions coveringthetechnical aspects of condensing tankless water heaters, non-condensing tankless water heaters, fire tube boilers, and fire tube boilers combi-boilers are available live or on demand.

To register, go to:https://training.navieninc.com/virtual_classes.php

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Online technical training sessions on tankless water heaters and boilers - Building Design + Construction