Welcome!
hot water plumbing
If you are planning on getting plumbing work done, or just have plumbing related questions, I am glad you found this site! I have over 15 years of extensive, residential and commercial new construction, remodel, and service plumbing experience, and I built this site to pass the knowledge from that experience on to you.
If you are unprepared when you call a plumber, you can be in for a horrible experience. Many times, if you have the info you need about the problems you are finding, you may not need to call a plumber at all. Either way, you need the knowledge and tools to know exactly what is going on with your plumbing and how to best get it resolved. This site will get you there.
You get find the info you need a few ways:
- Hover over the “Categories” menu above to see the dropdown where you can choose what categories to browse.
- Do a site search, using the custom Google search box on the top right, just below the header graphic
- Check our sitemap which separately lists all the posts and categories by title.
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For your convenience, you can see excerpts from my most recent posts below.
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Posted by
Steve -
November 19, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Diagnosing an upstairs plumbing leak can actually be a lot trickier than a lot of people may think. In fact, when I worked for Allstar Plumbing, one of the questions we asked every potential employee during the interview process was how to properly perform this diagnosis. Even when making the scenario fairly simple, almost everyone got it wrong. Here is the scenario that we gave:
“A home owner calls you out because they have a wet spot in their ceiling directly below the upstairs tub/shower. It’s getting worse over time. To make the scenario easier, we will eliminate the possibility of the leak coming from the toilet or lavatory sink. We will focus on the tub/shower combo. How do you go about diagnosing the source of the leak?”
Almost every single interviewee responded that they would cut a section of sheetrock out of the ceiling and look through the hole with a flashlight. Sounds reasonable, right? It’s the wrong answer! Here is why:
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As a service plumber, one of the most common plumbing problems that I have been asked to diagnose is low “water pressure”. The reason that I put “water pressure” in quotes is because what a customer thinks is low water pressure is quite often actually low flow. There is a difference, and that difference is very important when trying to figure out the best remedy for the problem.
So what’s the difference? Pressure is the amount of force behind the water, pushing it through your pipes. It is measured in pounds per square inch (psi). Flow is the amount of water that “flows” out of an open outlet, like an open hose bib or faucet. Flow is usually measured (in the US) in gallons per minute (gpm). The symptoms for low pressure and low flow can sometimes look similar, but it is usually pretty easy to diagnose.
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Quite often a home owner’s first experience with a plumbing problem is when a drain in their home backs up. Knowing how your drainage system works and the most common causes of back-up problems with different drain lines can really help you when it comes time to get your drains serviced. This information will make it easier for you to get the right solution to your problem, and make life easier for the plumber who is trying to explain it all to you.
Let’s begin with a little plumbing theory. Please keep in mind, that depending on your area, your lay-out may be different. I will give you a simple layout to give you an idea of how drains tie together. Your plumbing may be a bit different, but the theory will be the same.
We will start with a 1 bathroom home, for the sake of simplicity. Let’s say that the toilet is at the back of the house. That is the end of your house sewer line. Your toilet will connect straight into that main line (3 or 4 inch), go towards the front of your house, and continue through your front yard and into the street where it ties into the public sewer. Maybe you have a septic system, and the line runs straight to the back of your house where it ties into the septic tank. Either way, the thing to remember here is that your main will usually run from the furthest toilet, as straight as possible, until it reaches whatever it ties into (public sewer, septic tank, etc.).
All of your other plumbing fixtures will drain into smaller drainage lines (1 ½”- 2” lines called secondary lines) that tie into the main at different points. Your bathroom sink may tie into your shower line before it goes to the main, or your laundry line tie into your kitchen line, but they all tie into the main. The only plumbing fixture with direct access to the main is the toilet. A 2 bath house is the same, but with more tie-ins.
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Hello again! In my last plumbing info article, I talked about the two different types of plumbers and the pluses and minuses of using each. I also revealed my opinion on the best kind to go for to deal with most plumbing issues. In this article, I am going to tell you how to make sure you are getting the best value for your plumbing dollar.
This article is going to focus almost entirely on up-sellers. These are complete plumbers, and the true plumbing professionals will be in this group. There are a LOT of impostors though, so I want you to know how to tell the difference. You want a professional working on your plumbing.
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An interesting thing happened today. I joined a plumbing forum. The forum rules said that I could have a link to my website in my signature, so I put the link to the PlumbingInfo.org home page. I went to the part of the forum where new members can introduce themselves and created a post that basically said, “Hello! Steve from California here. I am dropping in to say hello”. After several people from that site went to view this website, I was banned from the forum!
Just proof that most plumbers do NOT want you to be an informed consumer! They are afraid of you knowing what this site is telling you. My girlfriend assures me, however, that I am doing the right thing. Now, on to the topic at hand…
In this article, I wanted to cover plumbers themselves and how to know whether or not you have the right plumber for your plumbing needs. Most of you don’t know the difference, so I hope this helps.
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