If you spend enough time living in a home, you’re going to have to deal with plumbing issues eventually. No matter how careful you are about keeping your drains clear and watching what you flush down your toilets, plumbing problems will come a-calling at some point.
The good news is that there won’t be any shortage of plumbers out there to help you. You should be able to track down a local plumber in your area to help you fix your plumbing system ASAP.
Before you can do this, though, you’ll obviously need to know that a home plumbing problem exists. It’ll let you know that you need to call a plumber to have them visit your home to deal with the situation at hand.
Check out six of the most common plumbing issues below and discover what you should do about them when you spot them in your home.
1. Dripping Faucet
Drip, drip, drip…
Is that the noise that you hear all day and all night long because of a dripping faucet that just won’t stop? If so, you might not think you have that big of a plumbing problem on your hands. But this can actually be one of the worst plumbing issues around.
A dripping faucet might not seem like it would be a huge deal. But if you let it keep dripping, it can waste thousands of gallons of water per year. You’ll want to get this dripping to stop both for your own sanity and for all the water you could be saving.
You might be able to get away with not fixing a dripping faucet for a week or two. But it’s a job that should get done sooner rather than later.
2. Clogged Drain
Is one of the drains in your home not draining like it’s supposed to? This likely means you have a clog either in the drain itself or somewhere in your plumbing system.
Either way, you should set out to unclog your drain as soon as you can. Otherwise, it could end up causing more damage to your plumbing system in the not-too-distant future.
You might be able to unclog a drain with little more than a small plunger or a plumbing snake. But you might also need to call a plumber to come out and get rid of a clogged drain once and for all.
3. Backed-Up Toilet
If a toilet in your home is backed up, trying to flush a little too much toilet paper might be the problem. This is a plumbing issue you should be able to correct within a minute or two with a plunger.
But if your toilet continues to back up on you, this could be one of the biggest plumbing issues you’ll face. It could suggest that you have a clog somewhere in your sewer line that’ll need to be dealt with.
Whatever the case, you can’t let a backed-up toilet linger for long since it could result in sewage spilling back into your home. This could do a ton of damage to your home and even put your health at risk.
4. Leaky Pipes
Every so often, you should seek out the water meter for your home and look at it when you aren’t using any water in your house. If it’s spinning in spite of the fact that you don’t have the water turned on, it could mean that you have leaky pipes somewhere.
You can also spot leaky plumbing pipes based on any wet spots that you see on your ceilings, walls, or floors. You’ll want to do some investigative work to try to hunt down where water is leaking from.
Repairing leaky plumbing pipes or possibly even replacing them will be your only option. If you let leaky pipes hang around, they can waste a ton of water and put certain parts of your home at risk.
5. Low Water Pressure
It isn’t all that out of the ordinary for homeowners to deal with low water pressure from time to time. It could merely indicate that your local utility company is working on the water lines in your area.
But if you have low water pressure in your home almost all the time, that’ll be a different story. You should call a plumber so that they can find out why your water pressure is so low. It’ll be the only surefire way to fix it.
6. Bad Water Heater
The water heater in your home isn’t going to last forever. It’s only going to hang around for about a decade or so before you’ll need to replace it.
If you suspect your water heater might be on the way out, you should start shopping for new options and aim to replace it before it gives out on you completely. It’ll help you avoid finding yourself in a situation where your water heater dies and leaks all over the place.
Shop for the instant water heater that you’d like to use to replace your current one. It’ll be one of the most worthwhile investments you will ever make in your home plumbing system.
Don’t Ignore Any of These Plumbing Issues
There are some home improvement projects that you might not need to tackle when they come up. But plumbing issues don’t fall into this category.
Even the most minor plumbing problem can spiral out of control quickly if you aren’t careful. You should fix any plumbing issues in your home to keep your plumbing system in great shape.
Look for more tips that’ll help you take better care of your home in the other articles posted on our blog.