Let’s Talk Toilets!

Toilets account for almost 30% of residential indoor water use in the United States.

Toilets are also a major source of wasted water due to leaks and inefficiency. In a home that was built prior to 1993 it is most likely that the toilet uses 3.5 gallons or more for every single flush (in Dekalb County alone, approx. 165,000 homes were built prior to 1993 – there are approx. 1 Mio. Homes in the Greater Atlanta area that still have old, inefficient toilets in use). Experts say that the minimum needed to meet the basic human needs of drinking, cooking and hygiene is five gallons of clean water per person per day. It’s far from enough to ensure health and well-being-just enough to get by. Do we really need to flush down that much each time we go “Number One”?

In the beginning of modern toilets there was the seven-gallon flushing porcelain lavatory. Then there was the low-flush toilet. And by the time you’d flushed several times the bowl was “clear” and you had flushed more water than you did with the faithful lavatory.

Then there was the new and improved low-flush toilet, which was better but still not what always got the job done. And finally, the High-Efficiency toilet arrived; you now have your choice of flushing as little as .8 gallons with dual flush toilets. The best part is that they really work!

What Are High-Efficiency Toilets?

Under federal law, toilets must not exceed 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). High-efficiency toilets (HETs) go beyond the standard and use less than 1.3 gpf. The WaterSense label will be used on HETs that are certified by independent laboratory testing to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency. Only HETs that complete the third-party certification process can earn the WaterSense label.

Do High Efficiency Toilets Work?

Everyone is concerned about the performance of low-flow toilets. Do they clear the bowl and leave it clean? Do they stop up frequently? Unlike the first 1.6 gallon / flush toilets, WaterSense HETs combine high efficiency with high performance. Advances in toilet design permit WaterSense HETs to save water without loss of flushing power. In fact, many perform better than standard toilets in consumer testing.

How Much Water and Money Do HETs Save?

High efficiency toilets save you money by reducing your water and wastewater costs. Over the course of a lifetime, an average person flushes the toilet nearly 140,000 times. If you install a WaterSense HET, you can save 4,000 gallons per year and your children can each save about a third of a million gallons during their lifetime. If a family of four replaces one 3.5 gpf toilet made between 1980 and 1994 with a WaterSense toilet, they can save $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet. If the toilet being replaced was made before 1980, it uses 5 gallons per flush so the savings will be much greater. If you’d like to calculate how much water you can save try the water savings calculator on www.ecotransitions.com.

With these savings, new high-efficiency toilets can pay for themselves in only a few years. Even better, many local utilities offer substantial rebates for replacing old toilets with HETs. Detailed information on the rebates available in Georgia can be found here Rebates in Georgia.

What are Dual Flush toilets?

Dual flush toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. They can save up to 40% (approx. 4600 gallons) compared to today’s standard 1.6-gallon single flush toilets. On an average of 4/1 uses a day, Dual Flush toilets have the lowest water consumption of all – 0.96 Gallons per flush. Caroma, an Australian manufacturer that invented the Dual Flush technology manufactures award winning toilets that are both user friendly and, with a full 4″ trap way, virtually blockage-free! Wouldn’t that be nice to be able to finally kiss the plunger good bye? Beware of some products reducing the amount of water flushed to use with your existing toilet. Existing bowls are not designed to perform with reduced amounts of water, so the likelihood of clogging your toilet while you are trying to flush paper and solid waste increases drastically.

Select a WaterSense Labeled High-Efficiency Toilet!

Whether you are remodeling a bathroom, beginning construction of a new house, or just want to replace an old, leaky toilet, a WaterSense labeled HET is your best bet. Look for the WaterSense label on any toilet you buy. If every home in the United States replaced just one old toilet with a new HET, we would save almost one trillion (spelled with a T) gallons of water per year, equal to more than two weeks of the water flowing over Niagara Falls!

Note that some manufacturers offer high-efficiency and ordinary models with very similar names, so be sure and look for the WaterSense label. A list of WaterSense labeled High-Efficiency Toilets can be found here List of WaterSense labeled HET’s published by the EPA.

Where can I find a HET?To find WaterSense partners and resources in your area, please follow the link and click on your state below or choose from the list that follows. EPA - Where you live

 

For a watersavings calculator and more information on Dual Flush toilets please visit www.ecotransitions.com.

Stop Flushing Money Down the Toilet

Do something good for yourself.  With the economy slowing and gas prices increasing it is time to look at your current situation and identify ways that you can save money by cutting your current expenses.  One way to do this is by switching out your old toilets with new water conserving toilets.

Following Dekalb County’s Plumbing Retrofit Law, the City of Roswell in partnership with the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, is now participating in the Toilet Rebate Program.  The program allows Roswell residential water consumers the opportunity to apply for a rebate on the purchase of new water-saving toilets to replace older inefficient toilets.

Roswell residential water consumers are eligible to receive a toilet rebate if the following is met:

1. Have an individual residential account with a participating water utility in the District and be up to date on your billing payments.
2. Own or rent a single-family residential home built in 1993 or earlier (this will be verified).
3. Purchase an approved toilet after September 28, 2007 to replace an older toilet using greater than 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf)
4. Agree to an installation verification visit to ensure your efficient toilets have been installed.
5. Agree to complete a program participation survey.

Who is NOT eligible:

1. Customers who have already received a rebate from a District water utility.
2. Customers of utilities who are not participating in the program.
3. Customers who own or rent a single-family home built after 1993.
4. Customers who purchased a toilet before September 28, 2007.
5. Customers who currently have a 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf) or less toilet.
6. Customers living in a multi-family residence or non-residential customers.

There are two rebate options, and a limit of two toilet rebates per household.  Toilets that fit into option 1 are eligible for a $50.00 rebate and toilets listed in option 2 qualify for a $100.00 rebate.

For more information view the Residential Toilet Rebate Program’s website.

What do you think? Is this a program you would take advantage of in Roswell?

Spring Cleaning: Pressure Washing & Gardening

I bought my first house this past December. The house I bought was a foreclosure in Terramont Subdivision in Roswell. The house needed mostly cosmetic work and I have been working diligently to rehab and “modernize” it. The inside of the house is nearly complete and with the warm weather I have begun to focus on projects outside of the house.

A few weeks ago I rented a pressure washer from the Home Depot, just down the road from me on Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell…the cost including supplies was right around $100 for the day. I had enough time to pressure wash the concrete around the pool as well as the covered deck. I had to return the pressure washer before I incurred any additional charges so I was unable to get to the driveway, front sidewalk, or the house itself. Looking back it would have made sense to buy vs rent because you can get a pressure washer new for around $200-$300…I probably have a day or two worth of washing still to do.

Check out the before and after shots of the concrete around the pool below:

Last week my girlfriend Elika and I spent the weekend moving clay from the backyard to the front, filling a hole that was a result of building material waste from when the house was originally built. We purchased 35, 44lb bags of topsoil from Home Depot to mix in with (using a roto-tiller we bought, not rented) the remaining clay in the backyard to prepare for new landscaping. We still have three sides of the pool left to get ready, but we completed the biggest section.

I don’t want to have to pay a landscaper to do the work to my landscape, but I also don’t know where to begin. Neither Elika nor I know much about gardening so I sent an email to a few agents in our Keller Williams Realty - First Atlanta office asking if anyone could suggest a “master gardener” local to Roswell who could help us create design plans that we could then follow and do the work ourselves. My email led me to Tara Dillard who has quite the extensive and impressive resume. She has written five books, hosted various gardening television programs, written for magazines, served as an instructor and speaker for various groups, and the list continues.

For reasonable professional fees Tara has agreed to meet with me at my house in Terramont to create my landscape plan. The plan will incorporate plants, such as azaleas, camellias, and hydrangeas to ensure something is blooming everyday…something that if I attempted on my own I most likely wouldn’t achieve.

I’ll be sure to follow up with additional blog posts and pictures as I work on this project.

Newly Installed Landscape Watering Restrictions for Roswell

Residents of the city of Roswell may get a one-time 30-day exemption for watering newly installed landscaping to allow watering from midnight to 10 a.m. for three days a week by obtaining a certificate through the EPD Outdoor Water Use Registration Program.

There are three ways to obtain your certificate. Each requires you to view a presentation and pass a quiz.

• At your County Extension Office.

• At a retail garden center.

• Online.

All newly installed landscapes must be registered online through the EPD Outdoor Water Use Registration Program. They must also be registered on the city’s Outdoor Water Registry and post the permit issued.

Do I Need a Permit When Finishing Off My Basement?

Recently one of my client’s posed this question to me…”Do I need to get a permit from the county when I finish off my basement?” When getting bids from contractors, most were pushing back on this as it creates so much of a hassle for the contractor and adds delays and expense to the process. My client was concerned about whether not getting a permit would impact them when it came time to sell their house.

Here has been my experience with basement permits….rarely have I seen it come up as a question from a potential buyer as to whether or not the remodeling was permitted….especially if it is professionally completed.

It was also implied in the original client’s email to me that the contractor(s) thought not obtaining a permit could impact the square footage calculation upon resale of the home. That was news to me, so I also called an appraiser/past client of mine to get his take. He confirmed that they never take into consideration whether or not a basement has been permitted when assessing a home’s value on an appraisal. At the same time, finishing a home’s basement may not carry the same value as the main living spaces of the home…it all depends on the quality of the finishes.

However, the one person that would take permitting and square footage into account is the tax assessor…which is why people often do not get permits, they don’t want to increase their tax base because their s.f. has increased.

I think the more important thing to do is ensure that any contractors that are hired to finish your basement are qualified guys that will build to code. Should you go to sell, there is a question on the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement that asks if there was any work done that was not permitted. You disclose it there and just indicate that you used professional contractors that built to code (I have not really seen this typically questioned by buyers even if disclosed as such…again, if it looks professional). If the Buyer still has questions, they can conduct their own general inspection as part of the normal home buying process to ease their concerns.

Ultimately, the decision is yours as to whether or not you require permits and the amount of risk/expense that creates for you as a result. In my real estate experience the only time I have seen the question of permits come up has been when there is a poor quality of construction (like on an older home that was remodeled) or perhaps a deck that was built near a flood plain or something like that.