3 plumbing jobs you can easily do yourself

A clog, leak or other plumbing mishap can potentially mean expensive damage to your home. Not all fixes are complicated, though. Discover three DIY plumbing jobs.

If you have a garbage disposal, you know how easily it can jam and stop working. Plumbers can charge up to $100 or more to fix this, and all it takes is a few minutes. Most disposals have a red reset button under the sink.

• Try pushing the red reset button first.
• If it doesn't work, see if you can locate the manual for your disposal or find it online. It will help guide you through the process.
• You'll want to make sure you turn off the fuse to your garbage disposal to avoid any chance of injury from the sharp blades.
• Then, you can take a wrench or hex key and loosen the blades by turning the wrench counter-clockwise to loosen the flywheel.
• Once it's loose enough, you can reach in with a pair of rubber gloves and remove the offending objects on the inside.
• After it's clear, tighten the flywheel again, turn the power back on and test it. It should work fine now.

Faucet drips can be annoying and are also a waste of water. They are easy to fix as far as plumbing jobs go — even for amateurs.

• Buy a repair kit that includes the ball, springs, seats and O-rings for the spout.
• If water is leaking from the base of the handle, you might be able to fix it by taking the handle off and tightening the adjusting ring.
• If it's leaking from the end of the spout, you need to replace the seats and springs.

The kitchen sink can easily get clogged with food and debris and cause the water to back up. This is easy to fix.

• First, plunge the opening to the drain with a plunger.
• Do this a few times before removing the sink trap. This will get most of the water to drain, so the mess won't be as big.
• If you have a double sink, plug the other side so that the draining water doesn't back up into that sink.
• Once the water level decreases, you'll be able to reach into the sink trap to remove the objects that are blocking the water from draining.

Home maintenance doesn't have to be a source of stress and anxiety. There are some easy DIY plumbing tricks that you can learn. They'll save you money and leave you confident that you'll be able to handle similar problems that arise in the future.