Issues with your plumbing can waste water, increase your Sarasota, Florida, home’s utility bills, and force you to pay for expensive repairs. You can save money and make sure your family has a constant supply of clean hot and cold water by spotting them quickly. You should watch out for common signs of plumbing problems, like unpleasant smells, pests, water damage, or a lack of hot water.
Unpleasant Smells
A stale or musty smell in your home could mean you have biological growth from a hidden leak. High humidity and excess moisture encourage microorganisms. They can cause allergy and asthma symptoms, fatigue, rashes, eye irritation and other health problems.
After you repair the leak, make sure you remove any damaged materials that could still contain contaminants. If the water that comes from your faucet is discolored with a metallic smell, you probably have corrosion in your hot water tank. Have a professional drain your tank to remove any sediment.
You should also check your water heater’s sacrificial anode rod. It attracts the minerals in water that cause corrosion, keeping them from damaging the walls and floor of your tank. If it stops working, you can replace it. However, tanks with too much corrosion will have to be replaced. If there’s a strange smell from the cold water, as well as the hot water, you could have corrosion in one or more of your pipes instead.
Pests
Pests like cockroaches, mice, rats and silverfish are attracted to water. In cold weather, a warm home with a dripping faucet or a leaky pipe is the perfect shelter. Pests can enter homes through broken or damaged sewer lines or tiny cracks in your doors or windows. Some can crawl up your sink if there’s not enough water in the drain trap.
Dead rats and other pests can clog drains. Standing water could lead to a mosquito problem since mosquitoes breed in small pools of water. Wet, rotting wood from a leak can also attract termites, carpenter ants and woodlice. These animals and their droppings often aggravate asthma or allergy symptoms. Rodents can carry bubonic plague, typhus, and other dangerous diseases, and they can chew through PVC piping.
Water Damage
You could get water damage from a leaky pipe or water heater, an overflowing toilet, or other problems. If you notice discolored walls or ceilings, peeling paint, cracked grout or caulk, or creaking wood floors, you might have hidden plumbing problems.
You can find the source by contacting an expert as soon as possible. Even a small stain on your ceiling or a floor with a few loose boards could be a sign of a much larger problem. Don’t wait until you need major repairs to speak to a plumber.
Insufficient Hot Water
If you run out of hot water often, your water heater may not have enough capacity for your home. It could also be too far away from your bathroom. You can add a compact tankless water heater as a backup and for extra hot water. You can also try not to use lots of hot water at once. Don’t use your dishwasher and your washing machine at the same time, and avoid showering when either of them is working.
If you hear banging or rumbling noises, you could have enough sediment in your water heater to keep it from working at full capacity. For example, a 40-gallon tank with 5 gallons of mineral buildup is essentially a 35-gallon tank. Low water pressure due to a clog in your pipes or a problem with your utility company can keep you from getting enough hot water for showers and other routine tasks. Unwanted materials on the heating coils in an electric water heater can reduce its efficiency and make heating water take longer.
Arctic Air Services, Inc. has been providing HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services since 2008. We can help you find and repair a wide range of problems, and we guarantee 100 percent satisfaction for all our customers. You can call us anytime at (941) 283-7532 for excellent service.