4 Common Plumbing Emergencies That Every Homeowner Should Know How to Prevent

Something that no homeowner wants to add to their plate is a plumbing emergency. Here are some tips and tricks to help reduce the likelihood of one occurring at your home!

1.      Toilet clogs. Probably one of the most common plumbing emergencies that homeowners experience. You get up in the middle of the night (because let’s be honest, these things seem to only happen in the middle of the night; like there’s some evil doing version of Elf on a Shelf running around clogging toilets at random) to use the bathroom and there is sewage water all over your bathroom floor. UGH! How did this happen?? Well, there are typically only a few root causes for toilet backups. If you have no other drains that are slow draining, gurgling, or backed up, then you can probably assume that the issue is isolated to this specific toilet.

So, what happened? Well, the most common cause is a soft blockage. But what does a soft blockage mean? It means that too much material went down the toilet at one time, and the combination of water pressure from the flush and the diameter of pipe couldn’t handle it. Too much toilet paper, too much waste, and/or items that are not actually flushable (think “flushable wipes”, feminine products, diapers – yes people try to flush diapers, hand towels, etc.).

How can this be avoided? Some simple ways to avoid a soft blockage are:

·         Use an appropriate amount of toilet paper, not excessive amounts. Toilet paper is designed to break apart in the water, but if you are using excessive amounts, there just isn’t enough time for that to happen before the paper gets stuck in the line.

·         Don’t flush flushable wipes down the toilet. Yes, they’re flushable…meaning the CAN flush down the line, but as I heard often while growing up, “just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.” This applies to flushable wipes. Unlike toilet paper, they do not break down in the water and as such, they become an easy target to get stuck in traps and branch sewer lines. Discard those flushable wipes in a waste can.

·         Feminine products, diapers, hand towels, those all belong in the waste can too. None of these are designed to break apart in the water from a flush. They are all heavier products, and they will sit on the bottom of the sewer line, or in the trap, and serve as a barrier to stop anything else from moving through the line.

2.      Leaking water heater. Did you know that water heaters should have annual maintenance performed to maximize the life you get out of them? Most people are unaware. You just bought a new water heater; great! Worry free for the next 8-12 years, right? Wrong. Water heaters need to be flushed annually as a part of their routine care and maintenance.

You may be wondering, why would I flush water through a water heater, which is a reservoir of water; seems a little counterintuitive. Your water heater will develop build up and scale at the bottom of the heater over the course of time from minerals and hard water. And before you go saying that you are covered because you have a water softener, know that most softeners aren’t adequate for the home’s usage. Therefore, it is likely that your system is not softening all of the water before it enters the home, leaving a lot of grains of hardness passing through to your water heater, fixtures, and appliances. So, your scale builds up in the bottom of the tank and ends up eating away at the seams at the bottom of the tank over time, until it causes a leak. This will also happen at the top where your water inlet and outlet are, right at the joints.

The solution is to perform, or schedule a professional, for annual maintenance needs of the tank. A small investment up front, but one that will help extend the life of the appliance towards the longer end of the manufacturer’s expectancy, and one that will allow you to be informed of issues that the heater may be experiencing before they become an emergency service call or unplanned replacement.

3.      Leaking faucets. This is a pretty easy one to keep on top of. Here in Northeast Florida, it is common knowledge that we have some of the poorest quality of water in the entire country. We are on a slab of limestone, so the water is insanely high in grains of hardness. We have a lot of minerals in the water that, invisible to the naked eye, create problems for fixtures.

Have you noticed a white crust that forms around your faucets, and on the aerators of the faucets? What about spots on your glasses and dishes when you run the dishwasher? Perhaps a film on the shower walls or glass doors of your shower? All of those are outward signs that you have some water quality issues that need addressed, and in Northeast Florida, we can say with certainty that includes water hardness. We have some great solutions for improving water quality that we will address in a future post, or you can give us a call to learn more about options that will address your home’s specific needs.

What does water quality have to do with leaking faucets though?  Well, that white crust that you see clogs internal cartridges that are built into the fixtures, causing them to perpetually remain slightly open, and thus creating the drip that you see and find annoying. It also clogs the aerators, causing a reduction in flow and those annoying side sprays that always seem to shoot right for your eyes!

4.      Clogged kitchen sink. Not much is more annoying than a clogged kitchen sink.  Running a dishwasher cycle and the water starts to back up in the sink? Rinsing produce off to start dinner and the water starts to build up? No fun at all! Often times, kitchen sink clogs are the result of either grease down the line, or much like the toilet, too much material going down the line. Things like eggshells, carrot peels, potato peels, those should stay out of the garbage disposal and out of the sink drain; put them straight in the trash can or compost bin. Did you cook bacon or sausage for breakfast this morning, and then pour off the excess grease in the sink? That is going to coat and solidify on the inside of the pipes well before it ever makes it out to the city main or septic tank. It may cause unpleasant odors, but it will create a bit of a sticky surface that is going to grab and trap other waste moving down the line, leading to your back up. Peels and eggshells don’t belong down that line either, even if you have a disposal. The disposal may jam from trying to run these items through there, and if you don’t have or use the disposal, these are heavy items that will just sit on the bottom of the trap or drain line, catching other waste moving through, and creating a backup.

Ready to prevent plumbing emergencies and keep your home running smoothly? Contact Cannon Plumbing today to schedule maintenance and address any plumbing issues promptly. Don’t wait until it is too late – ensure your peace of mind with expert care from Cannon Plumbing.