At first glance, plastic plumbing pipe looks easy to cut and join. But don’t be fooled. There’s more to a top-quality installation than meets the eye. Here’s a great tip from The Family Handyman of Readers Digest on how you can glue and join your PVC pipe with less hassle:

“Just swiping the pipe with cement and pushing on the fitting won’t ensure a strong joint. You want to make sure you have an even layer of cement over all mating surfaces,” he writes.

If you’re using PVC, wipe primer around the pipe and into the fitting to prepare it for the solvent cement. Let it dry about 10 seconds. Then spread an even layer of solvent cement on the same surfaces. To keep excess solvent cement from being pushed into water piping, don’t apply too much to the inside of the socket on the fitting. At this point you have to work fast to complete the assembly. Align the fitting and pipe about a quarter turn from their final orientation. Then twist the fitting a quarter turn as you press it onto the pipe.

Twisting the fitting helps spread the solvent cement evenly to ensure a solid joint. If you’ve made alignment marks, make sure they’re aligned with each other. Hold the pipe and fitting together for about 15 seconds until the cement grabs. If you let go immediately, the pipe may push out of the fitting, resulting in a weak joint.