Square-shaped or pear-shaped, floor drains keep your home great shape. Truly a wonderful invention and a signature of thoughtful design, floor drains are highly sought after in basements, laundry rooms, garages, pool/shower areas, and even driveways. Advantages of Floor Drains If you have ever worked in a garage or basement without a floor drain, you understand how much nicer life is with them.  Floors can […]

It doesn’t take much to clog a pipe – overzealous use of toilet paper, a washcloth, tree roots, and misplaced Matchbox cars are common culprits. Thanks to improvements in technology, today’s plumbing professionals are able to use tiny, waterproof cameras to venture into your pipes and spy the cause of the clog as well as potential trouble spots in an entire drainage system. At Allied, […]

Cincinnati has an impressive reputation as home to world class restaurants. And all restaurants, from Four-Star to Gold Star, have one thing in common: grease traps. With that in mind, this news item from Arizona caught our eye: Eateries Ignore Grease Trap Ordinance: Read article Grease waste: A slick operation Most people give grease traps little thought. But, well maintained traps (and their counterpart, grease interceptors) are […]

Over 50% of insurance claims related to water damage are from broken water supply hoses. The average claim is more than $6,000. The laundry room is one of your home’s most important work spaces, yet it typically receives the least attention…until it’s out of service. This week, we’re taking a closer look at a simple home maintenance item: washing machine hoses. Did you know that […]

Recently, an insurance salesman returned home from a business trip to find his first floor and basement flooded with water. The trouble? His water line burst, spewing thousands of gallons of water unnoticed. It took months of work and two contractors to repair the damage. “If you’re going to have a leaking supply line, it’s going to happen while you’re away,” says Ray Connaughton, president […]

A few weeks ago, we mentioned our sticker shock upon receiving our quarterly water bill. Since then, we’ve added another person to our household: Mother (and her dog) are staying with us for a couple of months. When we freaked out at our $300 bill, Mom commented (in her mother-in-law way) “$100 a month for water for a family of 6 isn’t so bad. Other […]

A few years ago, we hosted our first Thanksgiving Dinner; a home-cooked affair for about 35 people, including all the in-laws.  Midway through cooking the meal, the garbage disposal failed in a big way: it didn’t have enough horsepower grind the celery waste.  Here’s an appetizing image (NOT): a watery backlog celery strings gurgling up from the kitchen sink just in time for dinner.  Ugh. […]

In today’s busy world, unexpected hot water heater failure can rapidly create havoc in your home life. A broken water heater means time off work, finding a suitable replacement, working with a reputable plumber, and — worst of all — cold showers. The popular manufacturers (A. O. Smith, American, Whirlpool, Bradford White, and others), suggest the life of a water heater is 8-12 years. Fortunately, […]

Ahhhh, spring! As our thoughts turn to warm weekends, flower beds, washing cars, and sprinklers, it’s time to turn on the outside faucets. Thinking back to last Fall, the early cold snap caught a lot of people off guard – freezing temps set in before many thought to disconnect their garden hose and turn off the water to outside faucets. If that happened to you, […]

If you live in a hilly region, like Cincinnati, Ohio, you may know first hand how it feels to find water flowing into or backing up into your basement. A very effective method of channeling this water away from the home is to dig a “Sump” or hole to in your basement floor. Then you place a pump within the hole that is connected to […]