FAQ's

If you see water leaking, follow the drips, turn off the nearest shutoff valve. Grab a paper towel, a paper bag, or even a newspaper and put it under where you suspect dripping. If a drip falls, it will leave a mark.

If there are supply lines or appliances around the suspect area, check them carefully for breaks or splits, unattached hose, or anything else that looks like it could cause a leak. If all looks ok, turn on the water (or water-using appliance), making sure you can turn if off again quickly just in case

Once you know what’s leaking, you can try fix it yourself or call your landlord and/or plumber and let them know what you found and how you found it.

This is a common problem and most of the time it’s the grout or a bad pan under the shower. Firstly, We try to determine if the leak is constant or periodic. If it is constant there is a good chance the leak is in the pressurised water lines. Usually the leak is periodic so there’s a series of tests that can be performed to track it down. Sometimes a quick visual inspection of the tile will show that the grout is old/worn away and is the most likely cause of the leak. Other tests can be carried out to make sure.

Fill the bath tub half way and drain it. This will tell if it’s in the drain pipe. For a shower with a lead or vinyl pan block the drain and fill the base with water. This will show if the pan is leaking. Then remove the shower head and put a cap on the shower arm and turn on the pressure. This will tell if there is a leak in the pipe between the shower valve and the shower arm.

If no leak has shown up by then ther’s a possibility the leak is water bleeding through the tile due to bad grouting or that water is escaping the shower and going down through flaws in the bathroom floor. Check this by taping up a plastic dropcloth inside the shower covering all the tile work and having the customer use the shower normally for a day or two. If the leak has suddenly disappeared then we know it’s coming through the tile. A few cups of water on the floor will show a leak through bad tile or a cracked floor base. If none of this works, it’s time to open the walls.

Is the top of the toilet flange even (or close to even) with the finished floor? If it is too low, then use two wax rings. One regular wax ring on the bottom and one (or more) with the plastic horn insert on top. Leaks can happen if the glued flange is not really glued in all the way. If your floor and flange is flush. Sometimes you need to slightly move the toilet if the floor is uneven or the flange is to high.

Plumbing works because of constant water pressure (about 50 pounds per square inch) in hot and cold supply pipes, the pull of gravity in drainpipes, and the balance of air pressure in vent pipes. Each fixture needs a vent to get rid of sewer gas and prevent a buildup of pressure in the pipes.

Bathroom tubs and bathroom sink drains are only 1 ½” – 2” in diameter and can get a buildup of soap, shampoo, oils, dirt, and hair over a period of time, which causes slow drainage or even backup. These drains may be 10’-15’ away from the 4” main sewer line, so the possibility of low spots or bad connections could cause drainage problems. Placing a strainer of some kind over the drain to catch hair or other objects could help to keep your tub drain running smoother longer and decrease the chances of backups.

Depending on the age and type of your water heater, there are a couple of reasons you don’t have enough hot water: Electric water heaters commonly have two heating elements, one on top and one on bottom.  Either of these elements can stop working.  If the bottom element goes out, only the top portion of the water heater is being heated.  If the top element goes out, there will not be any hot water.

There is a reset button that could have been tripped causing the water heater to stop working.  If that reset button has tripped, that is an indicator that something is wrong.

If your water heater is running out of hot water quicker than normal give us a call

This problem is usually caused by the shower valve being a non-pressure balanced shower valve. The solution is to install a pressure balance shower valve.  This usually happens in older homes with older plumbing.Newer homes all have these pressure balancing shower valves installed.

If you have an older home with low water pressure when taking a shower and someone flushes a toilet, give us a call and we will install the a pressure balance shower valve.

There can be several reasons for a toilet not flushing properly. There may not be enough water moving from the tank to the bowl to clear it out, or the fill valve in the tank is not adjusted correctly.

The siphon jets under the edge of the bowl may be clogged with hard water deposits and may be restricting the amount of water flowing to the bowl.

There also may be an object stuck in the toilet, blocking the bowl from clearing.

If your toilet bowl is not clearing when you flush, give us a call and we can look into this for you.