Doing the dishes has never been one of my favorites chores. I mean, I bought a dishwasher for a reason! But its normally not an overly stressful chore – until you notice water leaking out under your cabinets! Que the pipe leak panic as you rush to find out where it’s coming from and how you can stop it before too much damage is done. Thankfully in our case, the fix was easy. We just had to tighten a connection that had come loose. But this isn’t always the case and sometimes more extreme measures are needed.
Pipe Leak Panic! Causes and Prevention
This is a guest post. This content was supplied to me for posting.
The supplies used in the construction of a house or apartment have a fixed shelf-life; while we don’t always think about it, this does include your water pipes. The most commonly used material is PVC, but in rare cases, cast iron, copper, and cement can also be used. Each material has different properties, but they are all long-lived, under normal conditions.
Sometimes providing these optimal conditions isn’t always possible. Regardless of our best intentions, the pipes can crack and start to leak. That can lead to a lot of damage, such as the appearance of moisture and mold, and water damage. Noticing the problem quickly and contacting a company that provides pipe leaks service can save you a lot of trouble.
Poor Installation Is The Top Problem
One of the most common causes of a pipe leak is poor installation. While I always love a great DIY project and some people can pull off this sort of home repair, inexperienced DIYers and plumbers can cause problems when it comes to plumbing. Leaks can be caused by spare parts of poor quality, inappropriate tools, wrong pipe, tees, and joint angles, overtightened connections, and so on. Excessive pressure can also cause the pipes to loosen or split.
Call Professionals and Invest in Durable Fixtures
If you have no experience working on plumbing, I suggest calling an expert. It’s likely that you will not end up saving money if you try to fix the problem by yourself. You can do some minor repairs without calling a plumber. But if you’re not sure you can do it, don’t risk making the problem worse.
The appearance of the leaky pipes can also happen due to the low quality of the material installed. Cheap pipes inevitably lead to bursting, even under normal conditions.
To avoid this problem, initially invest in quality fixtures and timely replacement of worn pipes and fittings can prevent increased moisture or structural deterioration due to leaks.
Deterioration over Time
Aging and material wear is something you cannot influence. If you are building a home and installing new plumbing, you are safe for the next few decades (unless unforeseen breakdowns occur). But if you are buying a house or apartment, be sure to check the condition of the pipes. The fixtures may be several decades old and in rather a poor state.
How pipes will wear and tear over the years depends mostly on materials they’re made of. Metal tubes corrode, cement and asbestos fixtures begin to sag and thin, and plastic ducts twist and crack over time. If the installations are in the ground and the walls, the settling of the soil may also cause their decay.
Schedule Regular Checks
Sometimes it is difficult to detect a problem with your plumbing, and it can take years for a problem to show symptoms. Pipe cracks become larger over time; a couple of drops of water turn into a jet. A small blemish on the wall becomes a persistent moldy stain. Moisture can spread to the house structure, and the damage that can then occur is enormous and very expensive to repair.
The sooner you spot a problem, the less it will cost you in regards to money, time, and the nerves to fix it. Regular inspections can prevent small problems from becoming major problems. Set aside time to inspect ducts, fittings, and drains at least once a year, preferably in early winter and summer, but also after heavy storms and snowfall.
On the page below, you can find some help on restoring water damage if you find some:
https://www.waterdamageadvisor.com/water-damage/water-restoration/.
Temperature Changes
This problem is especially pronounced in areas where significant temperature variations between day and night occur. You’re probably familiar with the fact that all elements expand in the heat and shrink in the cold. The same goes for the materials used to make the ducts, especially cement or asbestos. If the expansion and shrinkage are frequent the fixtures will burst and leak eventually.
Temperature differences also occur inside homes and buildings. For example, you have been continuously heating the apartment for a month, and now you are going on vacation. You turn off the heating, and the rooms cool very quickly.
The walls will hold heat for a little longer (especially if you have proper thermal insulation), but they will also cool down at some point. Temperature’s below zero will only speed up this process and can cause the tubes to burst inside the walls.
Proper Insulation
In order to avoid the effects of rapid temperature changes, it’s important to protect pipes during the construction of the home or building, especially your plumbing, which is outside and underground. You have to think about the weather conditions these pipes will be exposed to. If you live in an area where low temperatures are possible, you must protect the pipes with specialized insulating materials.
Placing thermal protection on pipes is feasible afterward; it just requires a little more effort. Thermal insulation should solve the problem if temperatures are not extremely low. If you live in areas with a harsh climate, there are individual tube heaters that you can install on your own, or combine with insulation supplies. Frozen pipes must be completely defrosted and dried before installing the freeze protection.
Clogs and Scale Deposition
We often don’t keep track of what goes through our pipes, so we can’t always detect leaks on time (you can learn how to do this by checking this source). Food residue, soap, various dirt, and other non-degradable substances can be deposited in your pipes and cause them to clog. Your water can also be full of scale, which can also build up in pipes over time.
To solve this you can use specialized chemicals that break down these deposits at the outset (in the faucet drain or toilet). Make sure that you use particular a cleanser for each material separately.
Overall…
Situations that require repair of your water pipes before the typical time for their replacement is always a possibility. Calling an experienced plumber is the right move for most problems, and timely inspection and troubleshooting of a potential problem can prevent further damage and costs.
