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When everything goes well with the plumbing, most homeowners in Rockwall, TX never spend a second thought on their pipes. However, when it comes to your plumbing, what you don’t see can be devastating.
That’s because your pipes are laid out throughout your home, and if there’s a problem with them, it’s often going to be in a hard-to-reach area that only an experienced plumber can safely access. Unfortunately, by the time you do get a plumbing expert to your house, the damage can often be severe because the signs are so subtle that most homeowners miss them at first.
Knowing what causes the leaks can help you be on the lookout for potential problems so that you can call a professional before the damage gets out of control. If you do have a leak in your home, these are some of the most likely culprits!
Aging or Damaged Pipe Joints
As your pipes age, they might not connect quite as well as they used to. In some cases, they might even have become damaged from corrosive materials and other foreign objects, and when pipes get damaged, they don’t hold together as well as they once did.
If that happens, your pipes might very well come apart, creating small leaks that eventually expand into major issues. Unfortunately, these pipes are often in hidden areas, and even when they’re not, the leaks are usually so subtle that only an experienced plumber can spot them.
Your best bet in this kind of situation is to look for a pool of water or discoloration in your wall, as these are signs that you’ve got a buildup of water somewhere in your home. If you spot either of these signs, it’s time to call for plumbing help immediately.
Excess Water Pressure
Did the water in the shower feel a little more forceful than usual? That might be a good thing today, but it’s a very bad thing in the long-term. That’s because your pipes are meant to withstand a certain amount of pressure, but they’re not going to hold up against high pressure for very long. If your pipes are exposed to high pressure for an extended length of time, there’s likely to be a breakdown somewhere in your plumbing system.
If you do feel a high amount of pressure in your shower one morning, be sure to have a plumber come out and test the pressure. You might just have gotten fortunate and enjoyed a really forceful shower, but it’s always better to know for sure and make sure that you aren’t looking at a long-term problem that’s waiting to occur. Having a professional check your water pressure can help you head off an issue long before it has a chance to cause problems in your house.
Tree Roots
Your pipes are strewn throughout your walls, and they’re also underneath your home so that they can connect to the Rockwall, TX water supply and bring clean water to your house. However, there’s also plenty of roots from nearby trees, which can be a real problem if they come across a pipe. Tree roots are strong enough to puncture a pipe, and they’ve got a tendency to seek out water wherever they can find it.
When it comes to your plumbing system, tree roots can cause major problems because they can destroy your home’s water pressure, forcing you to call an emergency plumber just to bring water to your house. However, if your plumbing system gets to this point, there’s a good chance that you’ve had an issue at your home for a while.
Luckily, there’s a telltale sign that you need to call a plumber: marsh-like conditions in your lawn. If it hasn’t been raining for several days, but your lawn feels more like a swamp, you’ve almost certainly got a plumbing problem on your hands.
Corrosion
If you’ve got newer pipes at your house, you probably aren’t going to run into this kind of problem. Copper and PVC piping tends to be resistant to corrosion, so if a plumber has installed your pipes fairly recently, this likely won’t be the cause of any issues you might have.
But if you have older pipes that were made from metals that aren’t as strong as copper, you might have an issue with rusting pipes. If you see red or brown water coming out of your faucet, corrosion is almost certainly the issue, as these colors mean that rust is coming through your pipes and mixing with your water.
Even if you do have copper or PVC piping at your home, you might have corrosion if you’ve been pouring materials such as Drano down your pipes. Drano really isn’t the best thing to pour down your pipes, because it’s a corrosive material that can eat away at the glue that holds pipes together. There’s a reason why many plumber recoils when they hear the home owner has used Drano on their pipes: it’s because they know the damage that it can cause.
Clogged Pipes
We’ve saved the worst for last here, as a broken pipe is every home owner’s nightmare. Bursting pipes isn’t much of a concern in the winter in the Metroplex because of higher temperatures, but if a pipe gets clogged with grease and other undesirable items, the pressure will eventually cause a serious issue with your plumbing system.
If a pipe does burst because of a blockage, you don’t have a minute to lose. It’s time to call a plumber as soon as you see the problem, because every second you waste means more water damage.
At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North East Dallas, we’re ready to assist whenever there’s a plumbing issue in the Metroplex. If you’ve spotted the signs of a plumbing problem at your home, give us a call. We’ll make sure to get an expert plumber on the scene so that you can once again get water flowing the way it should!
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