Small Leak, Big Problem – When You Should Call a Plumber

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Small leaks can quickly become big problems if they aren’t addressed. They can build up to require substantial repairs, including replacement of pipes and the repair of your ceiling, floor, and drywall. A household plumbing inspection will tell you about all the small leaks and other problem areas in your plumbing that could lead to larger problems in the future.

Here are three signs that you have a leak and should call a residential plumber for a household inspection ASAP:

Brown spots appear on the ceiling

If brown spots are starting to form on the ceiling, you likely have a water leak directly above. The leak could be new, but it could be an old opening that has grown large enough to impact your ceiling. Take the brown spots as a sign that your pipes are signaling for immediate help. The longer the leak is unattended, the more likely your pipes will break down from corrosion around the leak area.

Your water bill is increasing despite unchanged usage

If your water bill is gradually increasing and you can’t justify why, that’s a sign of a water leak. If a faucet even dribbles a few drops of water, your bills can increase. No matter how infrequent the dribbling, it will drain at your savings.

To be sure this is a water leak, check your home for loose or running faucets. If you have a sprinkler or water system for your garden, check those water lines for breaks. If everything appears to be in shape, contact a residential plumber to check for unspotted leaks and problems.

In cases where you can’t locate the leak yourself, the leak might be in the sewer line that runs underneath your home and yard. This would most likely require trenchless sewer replacement, a minimally invasive procedure that disrupts as little as possible of your landscape.

Peeling paint or mold growth in the bathroom

Bathrooms are frequent sources of excess moisture, but not all moisture problems are caused by the humidity of hot showers. Sometimes blistering or peeling paint is caused by water leaks behind the wall. Mold growth can also be caused by water leaking down the walls.

Moisture problems should be immediately treated, especially if they’re in the bathroom, because they can progress to cause the floor or ceiling to collapse. Not all mold is toxic to your health, but if stachybotrys chartarum (also called “black mold”) grows on your walls, it can severely affect your respiratory and immune systems. 

Clear any mold immediately, then have a residential plumber determine if there’s a leak or if your bathroom merely has poor ventilation. You want the leak fixed before the damage can spread to your drywall and cause a need for major repairs.

Ehret Co. Plumbing & Heating provides local household plumbing inspections

You can stretch out time between repairs by applying plumbers tape to the problem areas of small leaks. Keep track of the leaks you find so your plumber can get to work faster.

Small leaks can be indicative of larger problems. Reach out to Ehret. Co Plumbing & Heating through our online contact form or call us at 510-528-4292 to schedule a household plumbing inspection.

How to Unclog and Clean a Urinal

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As a business owner, you should have a commercial plumbing services provider maintain your urinals and other plumbing on a routine basis to prevent clogging and backup. If your urinal is clogged and you have time to clear it up, follow the steps before.

Unclogging a Urinal

Materials

  • Filled bucket of water
  • Gloves
  • Screwdriver
  • Plunger (for shallow clogs)
  • Urinal Auger (for deep clogs)

In some ways, urinals are easier to maintain than standard toilets, which often requires more finesse. However, there are several differences between the two that require a different approach to unclogging and cleaning.

Steps

  1. Put on your gloves and remove debris from the top of the drain covering.
  2. Use the screwdriver to unscrew the drain covering from the inside of the urinal.
  3. Pour a few inches of water inside the clogged urinal.
  4. Place a plunger over the drain and give several strong thrusts. This will remove shallow clogs that are close to the drain. If the bucket water flows through, flush the urinal to make sure it’s truly unclogged. If so, proceed to the cleaning steps.
  5. If the plunger doesn’t work, get your urinal auger and slowly crank its cable into the urinal’s pipe.
  6. Stop cranking once you feel the auger hit something solid. Then crank a little more to break the auger through the clog and attach to the clog.
  7. Crank the auger in the opposite way to withdraw the cable and the clog, then flush the urinal to confirm the urinal is completely unclogged.

If you weren’t able to find the clog, or you removed the clog and the urinal still didn’t flush smoothly, contact commercial plumbers for rooter service. The clog could be deeper in the plumbing system and might only be accessed through removal of the urinal and professional plumbing methods, such as hydro jetting.

Cleaning an unclogged urinal

After the urinal is unclogged, all that’s left is to clean it.

Materials

  • Gloves
  • Filled bucket of water
  • All-Purpose Cleaner
  • Soft-Bristle Brush
  • Soft Cloth
  • Air Freshener (Optional)

Steps

  1. With the drain covering still removed, pour all-purpose cleaner down the drain. Follow the cleaner directions, but you typically want to let it sit for a few minutes.
  2. After the cleaner is flushed through, clean the urinal with a soft bristle brush dipped into the water bucket.
  3. Wipe down the urinal with a soft cloth.
  4. Optional: Sprizz the restroom with air freshener to mask lingering smells

Your Local Providers of Commercial Plumbing Services

Ehret Co. Plumbing & Heating has provided quality plumbing services across the Bay Area since 1910. Contact us today to discuss our commercial plumbing services for urinals. As a fully licensed and insured company, we are open 365 days a year to work on everything from major emergency repairs to simple fixes.

Hydro Jetting: Clear Out Your Pipes for the New Year

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Stubborn pipe blockages are common during the holiday season, when plenty of food and grease is washed down the drain. If your new year is full of drains that clog more frequently, you’ll need to do more than wriggle a snake into your pipes. You need the powerful rooter service of hydro jetting. 

Hydro jetting shoots high-pressure water through pipe blockages

A hydro jet is a professional plumbing tool that inserts a hose through your sewer’s cleanout, a capped pipe that allows access to your lateral sewer line, and blasts high-pressure water at every angle to break up blockages, including tree root invasion. The water pressure varies based on blockage strength and pipe condition, but normally ranges from 1,500 to 5,000 PSI (Pound per Square Inch).

Hydro jetting is harmless when conducted by experienced rooter service plumbers, so the pipes won’t be damaged from the inside. However, if the pipe is too old or weak, it might need more traditional cleaning methods, and if the pipe has severe tree root invasion, it might need to be repaired or replaced. A household plumbing inspection will reveal which service is more beneficial for your situation.

Hydro jetting has many benefits over traditional drain cleaning

A few benefits are:

  • A quick and simple process — Hydro jetting is versatile because of its water pressure range, so rooter service plumbers can quickly adjust to your pipe’s needs. 
  • Restoring your pipe’s full flow — Sewer augers or snakes are less likely to clear out all blockages, because hydro jetting clears out your pipe at all angles.
  • Giving your pipe a fresh start — Because sewer snakes typically don’t remove all obstructions, blockages build up sooner. That means more frequent cleaning. Hydro jetting can remove all the “building blocks” of blockages, so it’ll take longer for your pipes to clog. And if you follow the best practices of pipe care, including routine drain cleaning, you might never have another severe blockage again.

Ehret Co. Plumbing & Heating is your local hydro jet provider

Ready to hydro jet your pipes for a fresh start to 2021? Contact Ehret. Co Plumbing & Heating through our online contact form or call us at 510-528-4292 for quality hydro jet and rooter service, including drain cleaning and trenchless sewer replacement.

What are the Benefits of Trenchless Sewer Replacement?

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Decades ago, the only way to replace a sewer line was to entirely remove its damaged pipes. Workers had to upend all surrounding landscape and structures to access the line, making for long days or weeks of excavation. Now, modern technology allows an easier, quicker, and less-expensive method to replace damaged sewer lines: trenchless sewer replacement.

Minimally Invasive

Traditional sewer replacement is messy. If the damaged segment of a sewer line runs beneath a garden, fence, or building structures, they’ll all be dismantled or unearthed for the excavation site. Workers will dig trenches to access the entirety of the damaged sewer pipe, which is avoided with trenchless sewer replacement.

Instead of exposing the entire sewer pipe, trenchless sewer replacement creates entry points for new piping to be fed through. There are typically two entry points, so instead of digging up the entire pipe, workers only have to dig up enough land to access those portions. This leaves the rest of the landscape untouched.

Higher Quality & Functionality

Trenchless sewer replacement can improve your sewer line’s functionality by installing higher quality pipe liners or pipe replacements. A new pipe liner can reinforce your sewer line by increasing flow capacity with stronger piping material, and a seamless pipe replacement can prevent off-set piping caused by tree roots and other environmental factors. Not only is your sewer line repaired, it’s upgraded with the latest pipe technology. Your sewer line will last longer  and have fewer needs for residential plumbing services.

Saves You Time & Money

Smaller excavation sites means shorter project times. There is less land to dig, and less land to replace after the pipe is repaired. This frees up substantial time for the actual replacement. Workers can be in and out of site within a day, compared to the multiple days often required by traditional sewer replacement. And if your sewer pipe damage extends beyond your property and underneath the sidewalk, traditional replacement might stretch into a week or longer.

Trenchless sewer replacement also can cut down the money you’d spend with traditional replacement. You won’t need to pay for dismantling all the structures that would get in the way of a complete excavation. You’ll also have a lower bill to pay for post-project cleanup, including replanting the small sections of your lawn and garden that were dug up. Make sure you plant greenery that is pipe-friendly and won’t grow into your sewer line, or plant them far away from your pipes.

Your Local Providers of Trenchless Sewer Replacement

Ehret Co. Plumbing & Heating has provided quality residential and commercial plumbing services across the Bay Area since 1910. Contact us today to further discuss our trenchless sewer replacement and repair services. As a fully licensed and insured company, we are open 365 days a year to work on everything from major emergency repairs to simple fixes.

How to Prepare Your Plumbing for Winter [5 Easy Tips]

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Ask any residential plumbing services expert about seasonal plumbing care, and they’ll agree that the winter can be especially harsh, especially if you live in an area prone to low temperatures. Cold temperatures can freeze the water in your pipes, causing them to expand, crack, or burst.

Before the temperature dives, prepare your plumbing by following these five simple tips:

1. Shut off outdoor faucets

Don’t let water rest inside your outdoor-leading pipes when the temperature starts to dip. Still water is prone to freezing, which can crack or burst your pipes. A household plumbing inspection can tell you if there’s already damage from prior winter years. If your pipes are already weak, you should have residential plumbing services to repair them before winter hits.

When you’re done using your outdoor faucets, turn off their shutoff valves, then open the faucets and the bleeder cap to let out any remaining water. Disconnect any hoses attached to the faucets and store them in a shed or garage. If left attached, the water inside the hose can freeze its way up into the pipe and cause damage.

2. Insulate your hose bibs

After your outdoor faucets are shut off and drained, they should be protected from freezing temperatures with insulation covers. Even if you have specialty outdoor faucets that are freeze resistant, they aren’t entirely frost-proof and will still benefit from additional protection.

Insulation covers are made of rigid thermal foam or flexible insulated bags that secure around the faucets, trapping the heat that radiates from the internal portion of their pipes. They don’t cost much, and can be purchased at most home improvement retailers.

3. Make sure your HVAC system is functioning properly

If you live in an area where winter temperatures reach freezing or close to it, your thermostat shouldn’t be left off, even when you’re away from home. You can reduce your thermostat, but not too low, because your interior pipes (kitchen & bathroom pipes) will freeze if they get too cold.

Interior pipes usually aren’t insulated, so they rely on your interior heating system to keep them warm. If the temperature outside is freezing, a day without indoor heating can damage your pipes and require repairs from residential plumbing services.

4. Insulate your pipes

Though your interior pipes might rely on your HVAC system to stay warm, pipes that are located in colder areas of your home, such as the attic or crawl spaces, might need to be insulated. This can be a simple DIY project; however, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, you can have residential plumbing services insulate for you.

If you’re open to a DIY project, all you need to do is measure, cut, place, and secure the proper pipe insulation material. You’ll need to research which material is appropriate for your pipes and water heating system, how much insulation material you’ll need, and how to safely cut and secure the material.

The easiest way to insulate your pipes is to have a residential plumbing services contractor install the sleeves for you. It’s a simple enough job for experienced contractors, and after watching the process, you might feel up to doing the job yourself next year.

Open your bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors

You can improve the warm air circulation around your pipes by opening the cabinets that house them. When the cabinets are closed, the pipes are kept from ambient air that can help water flow more effectively in cold temperatures.

Get professional preparation from residential plumbing services

These are only five steps you can take to winter-proof your plumbing. Residential plumbing services might have other suggestions for you, such as professionally inspecting your home exterior for cracks that might let in cold air that freezes your pipes.

Ehret Co. Plumbing & Heating has provided quality residential plumbing services across the Bay Area since 1910. Contact us today for help preparing your plumbing for the winter. As a fully licensed and insured company, we are open 365 days a year to work on everything from major emergency repairs to simple fixes.