Your home can be a sanctuary or it can easily become a place you curse under your breath. Why the change in heart you ask? The change can be due to the sometimes countless things that can seemingly go wrong. Many people must contend with annoying plumbing problems that disrupt normal life and cause their blood pressure to rise by the second. If you live in an apartment building, then it’s not quite as bad, since you can simply contact your landlord and wait for them to have the problem fixed.
However, if you live in a house, then it’s completely up to you to repair the problem. Going it alone may worsen the problem. Getting professional help, while more costly, may ultimately be less costly if they fix the plumbing emergency in a timely fashion and are thereby able to prevent future issues, or at least lessen the chance of them recurring.
What are the worst plumbing offenders? The following home plumbing problems are five of the most common that you’re likely to encounter at one point or another, along with their causes. Wishing them away won’t do any good. Understanding their causes can help you ward off the problems from the very beginning by taking preventive steps.
Dripping Faucet
The faucet that drips relentlessly, never stopping, has caused many sleepless nights. Putting a cup or a bucket underneath to catch the water may make things only slightly better. When the problem is a dripping faucet, the solution lies in understanding that the cause may be the faucet’s washers. The washers may simply be too old and worn-out and, therefore, may need to be replaced. One thing you can do to prevent this kind of problem in the future is not to force the faucet’s handles when you’re turning it on or off; do it gently.
Low Water Pressure
Everyone love’s jumping into the shower and turning it on full throttle to get a blast of water hitting them. When you expect Niagara Falls and it turns out to be a mere bayou, it’s disheartening and maddening. Low water pressure is to blame and it’s a doozy. It can happen in other areas of the home as well. The bathroom sink may also suffer from this pressure problem; in this case, the cause might be a buildup of calcium and require the aerator to be repaired, according to The Spruce, a home improvement website.
Leaky Pipes
If you’re seeing some water spots on your ceiling or on the ground—worse, if there’s an actual puddle—that you’ve never seen before, then you might have a pipe problem on your hands. More specifically, your pipes might be leaking and need to be filled at the joints to prevent further damage.
Running Toilet
A running toilet is a major nuisance that you happen upon when after you use the toilet and try to flush it, nothing happens. You stand there jerking the toilet handle up and down but to no avail. If a guest runs into this problem at your home, it’s particularly embarrassing for both them and you. This problem is usually caused by an issue with what’s called the toilet’s flapper. It’s a component connected to the handle by a chain that flaps up when you flush the toilet, an action that lets the water rush in. If the flapper’s not working right, then the action fails. Checking this out should be a preliminary step to fixing this problem on your own.
Clogged or Blocked Drains
Your shower or sink drains, as well as other drains, can easily get clogged and leave you with rising water, and then eventually standing water. Having a sink full of water that won’t go down can make your life hell. There’s no way to wash the dishes, if you don’t have a dishwasher, which leads to a pileup of unsightly dishes. A key reason behind all clogged or blocked drains is a buildup of some kind of substance. Either too much hair, too much food, too much soap or too much of some other element that’s being frequently used in the household eventually creates a hazard zone that must be immediately cleaned up. Caution must be used with store-bought drain cleaner since the chemicals can do harm to your pipes.
Have regular inspections done so that common home plumbing problems, such as a running toilet, a clogged drain, a dripping faucet, low water pressure and leaky pipes, don’t grow worse and turn into real budget-busting problems.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
