You would be very hard pressed to find a person that has not
experienced a plumbing emergency. Imagine arriving home after a relaxing
holiday and discovering that one of your pipes have burst, or you flush your
toilet and the water starts overflowing and you suddenly find that your
bathroom is flooded. The panic starts to set in and people don’t know where to
turn. In an emergency, time is of the essence. Every moment that a person
delays the problem is just getting worse and worse. So, what is one supposed to
do in these situations? This article will provide some simple tips that
mitigate the damage from your plumbing emergencies.
The key in any plumbing emergency is shutting off the water
supply to the fixture or pipe affected. The question is, “where do I shut
off the water?” The answer depends on the location of the problem. If your
emergency is isolated to a single fixture, such as a sink or toilet, there is a
shutoff valve close to it. Just turn the valve to the right, clockwise, and the
water will be stopped. If the emergency involves a burst pipe, the main water
supply to your residence must be shut off. This is almost always located outside
your home, so familiarize yourself with the location right now so that when you
face your emergency plumbing issue, you can respond quickly.
Hopefully you already know a good plumber that you trust and
can call for your emergencies. If not, you will need to jump on the web or open
up the phone book (does anyone use phone books anymore) and start contacting
local plumbers in your area.
You would be ill-advised to just call the first plumber on
the list. When choosing a plumber for your emergency plumbing needs, keep a
couple of tips in mind. First, make sure that your plumber is licensed and
insured. Ask for their license number! next, make sure that the plumber will
provide a fixed price upfront. You don’t want to add to your misery when the
job is done and you get the bill for the repairs performed by the plumbing
contractor. Also, be sure to choose a plumber that provides free estimates. If
you get sticker shock from the quotation from the plumber, the last thing you
want to do is pay for the bad news. And, finally, make sure that the plumber
offers at least a one year warranty on both the parts and labor for all repairs
performed.
Plumbing emergencies are painful and inevitable, we all
encounter them over the course of our lives. But armed with a little bit of
information, we can limit the damage and handle the emergencies in such a way
as to limit the frustration while ensuring that we make wise choices during the
crisis. The process of minimizing the damage is simple
, we just need to be
familiar with the locations of the valves for our plumbing fixtures and know
what to require of the plumber who shows up at our homes to help us fix our
plumbing problems.