Before You Ring a North Bay Plumber, Try These Four Checks

You wake up and find water on the basement floor. Oftentimes, your initial instinct is to pick up the phone and call a North Bay plumber, and in some cases, that would certainly be correct. Sometimes the problem is small and obvious; walking away after five minutes of searching will cost you a service call. It’s worth learning the difference.

None of this can replace a licensed tradesperson. There is a reason a North Bay plumber hauls the tools, the training, and the insurance: older homes throughout the region hide some surprises behind those walls. Consider these checks like the first two minutes of the discussion, done before it even takes place.

Check One: Shut Off Valves 

Start with control. In any house, there should be a main water shut-off, most often found near where the water supply enters, either in the basement or crawlspace, usually, but not always, in proximity to the meter. Every fixture in your home has a smaller valve located under the sink or behind toilets. Look for them right now.

Ensure that the control valve moves by turning it one-quarter revolution. Ancient gate valves rusted closed and leaked or failed at the most inconvenient time.

Put tape on the main valve so anyone in your household can find it in the dark.

Review the crusty white buildup around the small fixture valves.

In a plumbing crisis, half the panic stems from not knowing how to contain the water. The other half is not stopping it quickly enough. 

See also: Hire a professional removalist when moving to a new home

Check Two: Slow Drain Or Clogged Drain

Hair, soap, and grease lining the pipe walls around the fixture are common signs of a slow drain. An empty drain that backs up into another fixture means something on the line further down, and is a different issue.

Ask yourself two things. Does one fixture drain poorly more than another fixture at the same moment? When the toilet flushes, does it cause the water in the tub bottom to rise? Does a yes answer to two point towards a main line problem as opposed to just a local blockage, and does that require proper tools like a camera and hydro jetting?

More often than not, we only end up pouring more chemical cleaner down an unyielding drain. And it just sits in the pipe, generating heat and frustrating whoever finally opens that line on a hot Saturday afternoon. The safer first alternatives are plunging and boiling water.

Check Three: Signs That Your Water Heater Environment

Hot water that runs out early, water that never gets hot, or a faint rumble from the tank all tell a story. Tank sediment builds over time, settling at the bottom of the tank where the water carries a lot of minerals and steals capacity.

Look at the base of the unit. Pooling water, rust streaks, or damp concrete indicate the tank is actually leaking rather than just working poorly. That is not a sit-and-wait.

You should also check the temperature setting in case you believe there is a fault. Maybe someone in the house turned it down last summer and forgot. This is a lot more common than people will admit, and it hardly costs anything to take a look.

Check Four: The Invisible Leak Test Anyone Can Conduct

Hidden leaks do quiet damage. Long before you see any evidence, they rot subfloors and feed mold behind walls and cause bills to swell.

Here is a simple test. Shut off all water-using taps and appliances, including the ice maker and washing machine. Make a note of the reading on your water meter. Wait two hours, then reread it away from the house. If you have movement but nothing is running, the water is leaking somewhere.

Other signals worth trusting:

• A warm patch on a floor that has no heating under it
• Musty smell in one room and not the rest of the house
• Paint bubbling low on a wall
• A toilet that hisses or refills on its own

Any of these justify a call. Leak detection equipment determines the source without opening every wall, which is usually the more economical option.

When the Call Should Happen Immediately 

In some cases, the checklist is bypassed altogether. Anything from sewage coming back into the fixture, water near electrical panels, or gas smells, and any leak you cannot stop with any valve, are all reasons to pick up the phone and call immediately rather than search around.

Providence Plumbing offers 24-hour emergency response in the North Bay, Sturgeon Falls & surrounding communities, with licensed technicians and upfront pricing. If a visit should be arranged, or even if you would like an honest answer on whether one is necessary, call 705-978-235 or email info@providenceplumbing.ca.