As much as possible, one wants to arrive at a peaceful home.
But what if you arrive at a wet homeplace and puddled water inside due to burst pipes and water leaks? What would you do?
Would you call for a plumber? How much time do you have before things get worse? Do you have basic knowledge of how you can respond to it? You can find many videos on what to do when your plumbing fails. To ease your research, we’ve compiled a list below of 5 things to do when the plumbing fails.
One out of ten homes in America experiences leaks in their plumbing. This unfortunate incident usually costs them at least 90 gallons of water per day to waste, which means an addition to the owner’s monthly water bill. With this situation, in a year, over 10,000 gallons of water are wasted because of plumbing issues.
Aside from water efficiency, plumbing is crucial as it affects the health and well-being of homeowners. Plumbing is a system of pipes, valves, and other fixtures needed to convey fluids from the water source to homeowners and commercial facilities.
For instance, faucets are meant to get tap water. But if plumbing was not properly in place before the tap became functional, bad pipes can contaminate the flowing water that will pass through them, putting your health at risk. Hence, pipes, valves, and drains must be checked regularly.
What are the Common Plumbing Problems?
The more knowledgeable you are about plumbing problems, the earlier you can prepare to fix them. So, here are the top three common plumbing problems that you can check to help prevent future plumbing problem surprises.
- Clogged Drains and Toilets
This is one of the most common plumbing problems in households. If you notice water backing up as you empty your sink or flush your toilet, these are possible indicators that something is wrong with it. In sinks or in your shower area, strands of hair might have been entered and blocked the pipe. To unclog the pipe and get water flowing again, you may use a plunger to remove the clog. Plungers help loosen clogs using air pressure.
- Leaky Faucets and Pipes
Other common plumbing problems are leaky faucets and pipes. One basic indicator of a leaky faucet is that water still drips out of the faucet even if it is turned off. You may check the washer in your faucets (except if you are using a cartridge faucet) to check if it has damage and replace it if it does.
- Running Toilet
Another common problem that you can experience inside your house is running toilets. In this case, the toilet keeps on running even if it is not used. To fix this is to determine the damage for immediate toilet repair. There are different causes of running water. This includes the broken toilet handle, leaky fill valve, flapper seal failure, and others.
Now that you know a few of the common plumbing problems that you may experience in your house, let’s take note of five things that you can do when your plumbing fails.
5 Things to Do When Plumbing Fails
If your attempt to fix leakage fails, what would you do?
- Shut off the Main Water
If you happen to experience plumbing issues at home, you must shut off your water from your water shutoff valve. This prevents water puddling, which poses a health risk and will damage your floors and furniture. In this case, you will be able to save yourself from tons of wasted water and addition to your expenses.
Once you shut off the water, you can now look for your toolbox and determine the areas that you need to repair. If this needs major repairing, you should call for help from a professional plumber. It is true that there are available Do-It-Yourself (DIY) videos that you can watch on the internet but if you are unsure of your capabilities to fix them, better ask for help.
- Shut Off the Electricity
If there are electrical outlets nearby any burst pipe, immediately shut off the electricity to avoid the potential danger of high voltage shocks. This is a good precaution to take to avoid further incidents that may happen. Remember that every second counts so know where to locate your electricity main fuse box to quickly shut off all electricity.
- Locate the Leak
After shutting off your water supply and electricity, you now figure out where the leak or the pipe crack is. If this is your first time experiencing leakage in your pipes, you repair it through your tools.
For instance, if you want to identify faucet leaks, you can obviously spot them if the faucet keeps on dripping despite handles being turned off. If you allow this to happen without resolving it, most chances are that it starts.
- Call a Plumber
Now that you have controlled the incident, as early as possible, call a professional plumber to handle repairs. Asking assistance from a professional ensures you quality-wise repairs.
In this kind of situation, it is important that you have an updated list of contractors or know one of them to respond and give you immediate help once needed.
- Start Cleaning Up
If the burst pipe flooded some parts of your home, you must get it clean and dry as soon as possible. Without vacuuming and drying measures to remove all the water, you run a risk of developing harmful mold and harboring bacteria, creating serious health conditions for you and your family.
Take all the wet items you can, outside. If you have a wet carpet, it may be destroyed and have to be removed. If you think wet carpet can be saved, there are industrial wet vacs you can rent to suck up as much water as possible. At this point, you may be able to dry the carpet using fans and heaters but this could take a few days.
Conclusion
There are many ways to do it when plumbing fails. These are those that you do not have to call for a plumber just to help you with the fixing. Shutting off the water supply and electricity, locating the leak, calling a plumber, and starting the clean-up are among the options that you can do should your plumbing fail.
Responding to your own plumbing repairs issue can save you money. But the mistakes that you make may result in bigger damage than you expected. That is why you need to fully understand that you know the problem and how you can fix it. If you are not comfortable that you can fix it, you may call for professional help. SIt down and analyze the costs and try to fix the real problem instead of patching it up. You should start thinking of home improvement loans to cover your expenses if the damage is too bad.
However, when you call for a plumber, you must always verify if these are reputable enough to do the work.
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