Plumbers Jacksonville FL: Could your plumbing be hiding a disaster movie looking for a place to happen?

By Billy Aldridge

What do the words Plumbing Disaster bring to mind?  Water shooting twenty feet high in the front yard from a broken pipe?  Opening the front door only to have a foot of water come rolling out onto your shoes?  The bathroom toilet working in reverse to transport raw sewage into your house instead of taking it out?  All these crisis and more happen every day to good people from coast to coast.  I know this due to the fact that I am the guy hired to slay the beast. While hidden flaws and sudden plumbing failures can occur, more often than not the vast majority of impending disasters can be prevented by installing and maintaining quality plumbing fixtures, as well as heeding the subtle signs that a disaster is imminent.  So before your life turns into a disaster movie, here are some things you need to be made aware.

1.      Old pipes, leaking pipes or water stains where the source can’t be readily identified.

If your house is more than thirty years old, chances are that some of the pipes behind the walls and in the ground are beginning to be effected by hard water common to big cities.  The minerals in the water can cause the pipes to both corrode and/or clog.  Scale is the term for concretions that hamper the smooth working of plumbing fixtures and appliances.  Scale not only reduces water flow, but it can also cause back pressure to build up.  This back pressure can work away at any weakness in the pipes and eventually lead to sudden failure.  If you ever notice a water stain that can’t easily be tracked to its source, this is the time to call in a plumber before the drip, drip, drip turns into a torrent that will cost you far more than having a few pipes replaced.

2.      Unpleasant odors that Fabreeze can’t cover.

      Bad smells can be another telltale symptom of a hidden leak or backup.  Now I’m not talking about an odor that emanates from the garbage disposal.  The remedy for this problem can be found on the video below.  What I’m talking about is the “My God, what is that smell?” that suddenly infiltrates its way into your kitchen or bathroom when no one is using the facilities.  Many times hidden leaks can cause mold to take hold in the walls, or raw sewage from a cracked pipe can find its way into the crevices behind the sheet rock.  Either of these can create an unpleasant odor that while disconcerting, is no cause to panic.  Most experienced plumbers will be able to quickly and efficiently solve the mystery and fix the problem before the leak causes more serious damage.

3.      Low pressure when you turn on the tap.

Low pressure isn’t always a warning sign.  Some neighborhoods simply have persistently low pressure.  This can be solved with the addition of a booster pump.  However, if your water pressure over the past few weeks or months has suddenly dropped without rhyme or reason, this could be a horse of a different color altogether.

Low pressure can be caused by a number of reasons: the age of your system, the difference in elevation between your fixtures and the water main, the diameter of your pipes (if too small, the demand of water cannot be met by the size of your pipes), or scale deposits inside your pipes.  Or it can be caused by a hidden leak.

4.      Odd noises behind the wall that occur when a toilet is flushed or a faucet is run.

That "blub blub" or "glug glug" noise you hear from a drain might mean that there is a problem with the drain system itself, such as a partial drain blockage, a drain venting problem, or even a failing septic system.  If a gurgling sound is heard at a sink or shower drain only when a nearby toilet is flushed, or at a sink or shower when a nearby tub is draining, we'd suspect that the building drain-vent system is inadequate. Plumbing fixtures originally installed with no vent connection to which a local plumbing vent was later installed to permit air to enter the plumbing line as needed, can stick causing a gurgling noise.  A plumbing drain line can become partially blocked causing both a noise as well as being slow to drain.  Any sound out of the ordinary from your plumbing or behind the wall could well be an omen of worst to come should you neglect to locate and correct the problem.

5.      A soft spot on the lawn that comes and goes.

Leaking septic systems, seeping drain pipes, cracked water mains and buried plumbing can manifest themselves by unexplained soft or wet spots in the yard or adjacent to sidewalks or driveways.  While subtle at first, and only intermittent at times, these are the early warning signs of a real disaster, the kind that can cause water to shoot two stories high and require a front end loader to dig up your yard to correct. 

While all of the above mentioned dilemmas can easily be rectified before they cause serious damage, the most important thing is early detection.  I can’t tell you how many times I have taken the time to speak with a homeowner after repairing serious damage to their home caused by a leak of epic proportions, only to find out that they had ignored the warning signs of impending disaster.  I usually tell them right then and there that the next time they either see or hear anything out of the ordinary with their plumbing, they need to call us right away.   The best cure for disaster is to avoid one whenever possible.

Billy Aldridge is one of the doctors of plumbology at Aldridge & Sons Plumbing, a family owned and operated commercial and residential plumber located in Jacksonville, Florida.  Visit their website for more helpful hints and how-to videos at http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com