It's not usually recommended that homeowners tackle their own plumbing repairs and installation, as there are often many details to home plumbing that are easy to overlook when fixing or replacing pipes, or renovating a bathroom. In turn, you might face larger repair bills down the road, along with a flood or burst pipe or other such plumbing disaster. Note a few common plumbing mistakes you need to avoid in your home, if you're determined to handle your own plumbing repairs and installation or any renovation work.

Traps

Traps are attached at the end of sewage pipes and they do just as the name implies; they trap a certain amount of water, so that sewage gasses don't back up into the home. If you don't have enough traps connected to your plumbing, you may soon notice the smell of raw sewage, and this is unpleasant as well as dangerous to your health. A certain number of traps may also be needed for your work to be up to local building codes, so be sure you know all these requirements before work begins.

Vents

Vents are needed in plumbing systems in order to allow air into pipes; without air pressure, or an open vent, a vacuum is formed in the pipe and water won't flow. If you've ever held a thumb over the end of a straw that was filled with liquid, you realize how air pressure is needed for liquid to actually move. Residential homes usually have vents that go out the roof; if you don't add sufficient vents for new pipes or add pipes that block any vents, you may soon see clogs and backups.

Location of bathroom fixtures

It might surprise you to know that there are usually building codes that dictate how far away toilets and other fixtures need to be from side walls, and the wall in front of these pieces. This is to allow for proper spacing of pipes, but it's also important to consider convenience when it comes to the footprint of a bathroom. A door that scrapes against a sink or a toilet tank that is too close to the shower can mean damaging these pieces and no room for storage, a shower curtain, and all the towel bars and other accessories you need. When replacing pipes or doing any repair work that involves moving around the bathroom fixtures, leave lots of space between them for convenience and to ensure you avoid the potential for damage.