The last one year has been rather dull here at aavaas. There are multiple reasons for the same. For one, there was a lack of a dedicated team member who could take care of site-coordination and such related activities.

Now – no more. I would like to welcome our new member – Ms. Kathleen Ludwig who would be handling Marketing and communications for Aavaas Infomedia Private Limited.

Kathleen operates from Europe and has been an integral part of the team since the inception of aavaas. Now she will be playing a more formal role as “Assistant Marketing Manager”.

Please join me in welcoming Kathleen. We wish her the very best for her new role.

for team aavaas

Vivek

So if you are interested in writing articles for aavaas.com, please write a mail to admin [at] aavaas [dot] com

Kindly have the subject line of the mail as “Write”

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We will revert to you in one business day with the terms and conditions and would be delighted to have you on board.

for team aavaas

Vivek

We thank you for visiting Aavaas regularly. We appreciate your association with our portal and would like to thank you all the people who have helped others by answering their queries! Aavaas has grown from being a small portal with about 100 visitors a day to over 1000 visitors a day in less than 2 years. This reflects the fact that there is no dedicated community to homemaking in India and we are here to help you in making informed decisions. We believe that a community is being born and is here to stay!!

Due to certain reasons, we have not been able to update the portal as regularly as we used to. But the pause is temporary and we would be taking “aavaas” to the next level pretty soon.

Until then, we request you all to continue building the community by commenting on the existing posts and also helping others’ queries.

Once again – we would like to thank you for your support.

Sincerely

Team Aavaas

Previous Questions : Courtesy Grohe India Private Limited

1. I live on the 3rd floor of a 5 floor building. From the very beginning the apartment has a pressure problem for all the outlets like basin mixer, wall taps and shower heads. What corrective action you would recommend to improve pressure?

Mr. Anup Shinde, Vile Parle, Mumbai.

It looks like your problem is due to insufficient main/header lines. Possible solutions can be

1. Replacing the main water line by scraping the old one and putting in a new lining.
2. Replacing the main lining with a larger one.
3. Installing pumps to boost the pressure (if the pipe line is more than 12 years old boosters are not recommended).

2. We have a 5 year old house. Our tenants complain of clogged drains. We have spent a lot of money on rectifying this problem. Can you suggest some solutions?

Mr Pankaj Malhotra, G K 1, New Delhi

Reasons

• Dumping solid food materials into kitchen, bathroom drains.
• Pouring greasy sticky materials into your kitchen sink/gully traps.
• Pouring chemicals or paints in drains.
• Improper, inadequate venting.

Solutions

Use a plumber to declog your drain. This will work for clogs of smaller size. If it still persists, call an expert. Homemade solutions sometimes do not work for bigger clogs. Clogs can be removed using various techniques. Cable/curtain spring/bamboo stick can be used to remove solid clogs and break through roots.

High pressure water jetting is effective for clog that happen due to sticky greasy materials (if happens especially in new houses or renovations because the painters pour the waste paints in drains). Before using water jetting as option, it is important to know the quality of the plumbing materials used and ability of the plumber. High pressure used in the process of removing clogs may damage pipes if inferior quality material is used.

Check the vents provided for any visible blocks. Find out whether the venting is adequate for the fixture it serves. An expert can help you in this regard. If the venting is absent or inadequate, experts will give suitable solutions to overcome the problem.

3. What are green buildings? Do you have any products for these kinds of buildings?

P. Indrareddy, Builder, Habsiguda, Hyderabad

Green buildings can be defined as “A building which throughout its lifecycle (construction, usage, demolition/renovations) supports the local, regional and global environment.

Yes, Grohe certainly has some products which qualify the norms of USGBC and LEEDS. Some of our products like showers and basin mixers are certifies by WELS (Water efficiency Labelling Scheme) with star ratings of 3 and 5 respectively.

4. What is concealed cistern? Is it safe to install? Can it be repaired easily?

Mrs Radhika Bhatt, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

The cistern is built into the wall behind the toilet, mostly used along with wall mounted closets. It can be also used for squatting pans. This cistern will have dual flush actuation through a wall plate, with full and half flush provision. Yet it is very safe to install, one should buy the products from reputed manufacturers like Grohe who provide pre and post installation guidance by well trained technicians.

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Aavaas is looking for people with good writing skills. These people are expected to write regular articles on aavaas about homemaking. Their efforts would be recognized by cash payments.

If you are interested in writing or contributing regular articles and would like to know further about the rules and regulations, please drop a mail to admin at aavaas dot com , with subject line “write”. Please send some background details about you including your current location.

for team aavaas – Vivek

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Toll Free from BSNL and MTNL.

Previous Questions : Courtesy Grohe India Private Limited

1. What causes the water temperature to change in the shower when someone flushes in the toilet or runs another water appliance in the house?

MR Rubin Mehta – Washi – Navi Mumbai

The possible reasons can be

- Differential hot and cold pressures
- Geyser is not connected with pressurized line
- Insufficient header line

During installation of pipe lines it is important to use pipes with enough volume and pressure so that many fixtures can be used at the same time. Running two fixtures is recommended on a 1/2″ line. So a standard bathroom would have a 3/4″ line for cold header line and a 1/2″ line for the hot water is sufficient.

2. What does a vent do for the plumbing system?

Varsha Usgaonkar, Interior designer, Navi Mumbai.

A plumbing system vent is basically used to “vent” the gasses off plumbing system in home or a commercial building. If you want to see a plumbing vent, look from your roof approximately 12″  high. For every pipe that goes down, one needs to go up. The obvious reason we have vents is that sewer gases need to be vented outside the dwelling. When water goes down a pipe, air needs to follow it.  Without the vent pipe, the draining liquid will try to such air through P-traps, Nahani traps, water seal of W.c. etc. If the air is sucked through any of the plumbing fixtures, the fixtures become dry or no water seal which will result in unbearable smell in house coming from the now dry seal on the P-Trap. Hence it is imperative that the waste and vent system should keep sewer gas out of the dwelling and also drain every fixture well.

3. Our house was constructed 20 years back. I am facing a peculiar problem since last 3 months. When I turn on my health faucet, I get black and smelly water and after about a minute it clears up. Smell also comes in my bathroom basin tap or cold water. Surprisingly I do not have this problem in my shower area. What can be the possible reason?

Mr. M.C. Mohan, Chinmaya Nagar. Chennai.

This problem is common in old galvanized iron supply pipes. Water color is mostly (rusty) red but sometimes black due to accumulations inside the pipelines. It usually happens in both hot and cold lines and it flushes out after a minute. Water color does not change in the shower area as there may not be any accumulation in that particular pipe. If possible, visually inspect your pipes to see the amount of accumulation inside your pipelines. If you find that there is a lot of accumulation, replacing the pipes is the best option.

4. Is vitrifies tile better than marble or granite?

MR. Y.P.K. Reddy, Gajuwaka, Vizag.

Vitrified tiles have far superior properties compared to marble or natural granite because being a manufactured product their quality is controlled whereas in naturally occurring marble and granite good quality is just a natural thing. Vitrified tiles posses much better mechanical strength, scratch resistance, resistance to acids, alkalies and chemicals, resistance to staining etc. compared  to marble or natural granite.

5. Can I use compressed air to pressure test a plastic plumbing system?

Mr. Vinod Chauhan, Project Engineer. Navi Mumbai.

No, unless the procedure being used has been clearly and explicitly approved by the manufacturer(s) of the plastic products or system being tested. Compressed air contains a large amount of stored energy that presents a serious safety hazard, should the piping system fail for any reason. The uncalibrated pressure gauge of the pressure system may also cause serious problems.