Homeowners are often left scratching their heads while holding their unusually high water bills. Either that or they are concerned about the water pooling up in their yards, even on a hot and bright day. However, they are unable to pinpoint the problem, no matter how hard they try. That is because the issue lies hidden below the surface, in the form of an underground water leak that is never easy to find.

If there is a pipe leakage inside your house, pinpointing it is a pretty straightforward task since there are visible signs and indications all over the house. These signs include water on the floor that is dripping from the ceiling or wet walls. However, identifying a leak in your yard is a totally different ballgame. Finding an underground pipe leak is difficult because they are several feet below the surface, sometimes underneath driveways, or in other complicated and unobservable areas.

What Causes Underground Water Leaks?

There are many reasons why an underground water leak might occur and how it could damage your house.

Firstly, there are certain chemicals and other elements existing in the water or soil, which might damage your underground pipes. These chemicals force the tubes to erode, leading to holes that deposit water in the ground below your house, or in the basement.

Other than chemicals, natural disasters like an earthquake or a tsunami can move the ground, causing excessive load and pressure on the pipelines. Eventually, the pipes would give in to the pressure and crack, and the water will shift to the soil below the slab.

These structural changes caused by natural disasters can cause safety concerns and make your house extremely dangerous for residing.

How to Decide if a Leak Exists?

As mentioned earlier, you can suspect a water leak by casting a glance at your water bill or checking the soil of your property. If you doubt that an underground pipe or fitting is damaged, causing a leak, you can perform the following test to confirm your suspicion:

• Turn off every single appliance that consumes water in some way. However, keep the key shutoff valve open.
• Open the water meter’s cover so that you can observe the gauge.
• Check the direction of the needle and mark the rim of the gauge accordingly.
• Keep the water turned off for about twenty-five minutes to half-an-hour, and then go back to check if the needle has shifted from the original point. If so, you can be confident that there is a leak somewhere underneath your property.
• Try and search for an indication of a leak, but it is likely that you will not be able to find it on your own and may require assistance from a professional.

How to Find an Underground Leak?

If you do not have sufficient knowledge and expertise to fix a plumbing problem yourself, it is advisable to call a professional plumber. However, it is important to practice due diligence and contact the right kind of professional – someone who is an expert in problems related to underground leakage.

It is needed to be understood that every water supply causes underground leakage. Certain leaks might be due to damaged drain lines, or the sewer.

Professional plumbers most commonly charge the pipes with nitrogen to spot an underground leak.

The coerced gas, upon spotting a leak, emerges with a blow that causes a very prominent hissing sound. The next step is to push a probe into the surface, and, using an amplifier and earphones, the sound is made clearer and more audible. Once the sound is clearly heard, the specialist will go along the suspected course and, using the probe, will eventually reach the point of the leak.

Conclusion:

Underground water leaks are often tiny at start, and often go unnoticed. However, if left unchecked, such leaks can cause significant damage to not only your property, but also to your and your family’s life and health. This is why it is preferable to identify them as early as possible, so you can start focusing on the treatment, and minimizing any potential damage. A professional, with the right tools, proper expertise, and effective methods, will assist you in identifying the source of the leak and stopping it dead in its tracks, to make sure that  your home is left with no to minimal lasting damage.

A professional plumber uses tools like infrared cameras, sound tools, and other state-of-the-art equipment, along with other requisite material. He makes sure to diagnose and understand the problem without causing any damage to the flooring.

 If you notice or suspect a water leak in your home or commercial property, call Pipeline Plumbing Los Angeles to assess and fix the problem.  Our highly trained and incredibly skilled plumbers use the most advanced tools and industry-approved techniques to pinpoint seemingly hidden and hard to discover leaks and work diligently to get it fixed with utmost precision and perfection. 

The post How to find underground water leak appeared first on Pipeline Plumbing Los Angeles.

Many people choose to ignore to remedy a slow flushing toilet gurgling, regarding it as a small plumbing problem until the situation gets worse.

A slow flushing toilet can make living at your home, office or business very uncomfortable. A good functioning toilet is always a necessity. Because no one can really live without accessing toilet facilities.

For you to be able to fix a slow flushing toilet, it is important to first know how to troubleshoot the problem causing it. If you troubleshoot the problem correctly. Then you are towards getting the best solution options to fix the problem. Someone said you cannot give a solution to a problem until you understand how it operates. Therefore first thing first, is to keenly and thoroughly examine the toilet problem. Above all, the key thing to note is you don’t have to live with the problem, there is a solution to it.

If you are looking for solutions to a slow flushing toilet then keep reading. Because we are going to explain to you the possible causes of and how you can troubleshoot the problem and fix it successfully without much hustle.

What causes a slow flushing toilet?

There can be many reasons to the cause of your slow flow. The toilet outlet pipe in an older home our building can have years of buildups. Which only requires too much toilet paper to plug the sewage line. Someone who lived in your home before you may also have flushed something down that shouldn’t go down a toilet. On the other hand, the problem can be as simple as fixing your actual water tank.

Start at the back by checking the water tank

Slow flushing toilet can primarily be caused by two things, the bowl is not filling quickly as well as it is not draining quickly. In a scenario whereby you are dealing with the latter, there could be a possibility of clogged drains.  So if the bowl is not filling quickly or draining quickly there could be a problem with the reservoir tank. Therefore, the very first thing to do is to check whether the reservoir tank fills completely after each and every flush. Over time, minerals and other deposits could build up and causing the toilet float to turn off. Therefore, cleaning all that minerals and deposits buildups clogging the tank could be the solution for your slow flushing toilet. Also, you may have to replace some of the parts damaged by the mineral deposits and the problem is fixed just like that.

There could be a possibility of a clog

In most cases, slow flushing toilets problems are not caused by the reservoir tank but the toilet could be partially clogged. Therefore this problem can be solved at the basic level by using a toilet plunger. It is important to use a good toilet plunger one without holes and cracks to achieve the best results.  However, sometimes the problem may persist even after plunging for minutes, is such situations, you need to seek professional plumbing services. This is because there could be a bigger underlying problem such as blocked or leaking sewer lines and the like.

The bowl colon could be broken or leaky

The toilet flushing unit operates by pressure differences of the interior colon. The colon is supposed to be airtight for it to pump water to the drainage pipe. When the colon is broken, there is internal pressure imbalance thus making the flushing unit weak and the toilet will start flushing very slow. Toilet colons vary in their complexity and therefore it is always advisable to seek the assistance of a professional plumbing technician.

The problem could get worse

A slow-moving or flushing toilet requires immediate fixing to avoid more damages and expenses in the future. If the problem is not solved early enough, it may lead you to replace the whole toilet system. Therefore, seek services of a plumbing expert as soon as you notice some weird behaviors with your toilet such as slow flushing. Also, for those homes with old iron pipes require regular monitoring for they have a lot of age-related problems such as rusts. PVC pipes are the ones commonly used nowadays.

How to fix slow flushing toilet

If your toilet actually need repair because it’s cracked. We recommend you to contact a professional plumber. If you need to replace parts, look at the back of the toilet water tank or the inside to find out the model number. However, if you think the problem is clog related. Try the following things to fix your slow flushing toilet.

Plunger

A good plunger will solve most clogs that are slowing down the flush. It is good for clogs that are close to toilet bowl. However, it may not help with clogs further down the sewage line.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

Vinegar is a good and natural problem solver. Start of heating up two cups of water. Poor down a cup of baking soda in your bowl. Thereafter, poor down a mixture of two cups hot water and two cups of vinegar. Let it sit for around 30 min. Then flush.

Muriatic Acid

We discourage the use of muriatic acid to unclog a toilet. Especially if you’re on a septic tank. It can also cause damages to pipes and dissolve any solder.

Plumber

If you find yourself stuck with a slow flushing toilet. Then contact us. We will help you in an affordable and environmental friendly way to solve your toilet problem!

The post Slow Flushing Toilet appeared first on Pipeline Plumbing Los Angeles.

Sewers are one of the most neglected issues of our home. But, it can cause a huge havoc in your life if you tend to neglect it continuously. Most of the times, due to the aging, sewers trigger backups and as a result of that, your house becomes flooded and you have to lose a lot of hard earned money due to this. Now days, sewage pollution is a very big issue to deal with. Many of us are struggling daily due to sewer related problems. Due to this, we have to face many problems like damaging of walls, floors, furniture, electrical systems and home appliances as well. To tackle all these, let us discuss about some tips to prevent sewer backups:

1. Floor drain plug

Floor drain plugs are the simplest preventive solution, which you can look for to avoid sewer backups. They are a bit expensive, but one cannot question their efficiency. To avert water from backing up, these grain plugs need to be installed below the floor drain grates. Once the conditions of the sewers come back to normal, the special float is deactivated to let the water arrive again through the opening. While using these plugs, make sure that the float mechanism is free from any wreckage or else the proper function will be damaged.

2. Standpipe

Another simple way to avoid sewer backup is to use standpipe. The work function of this pipe is very simple. Surrounded by a watertight rubber tube, basically, it is a simple pipe which is stuck in the floor drain. If the backup is deeper than 3 feet, then the pipe will not work as the water will flow over it or else, this pipe is capable of holding the water coming out of your drain so that it doesn’t touches the ground. Once the flood condition is out of threat you can remove this pipe from the drain and allow the water to spill into the drain.

3. Overhead sewer

If you want an ultimate protection from the sewer backup, nothing is as good as overhead sewer. But, it is the costliest remedy in the list. To install an overhead sewer in your house, you will need a building permit and a licensed plumber as well. If any overflow happens, after installing this, the water will be stored in a place called sump. From there, the water will be pushed to the overhead pipes, which will drain the water to main sewage line of the building. So, if you have enough money you should go for this process as it is the best possible option that you will get.

4. Back water valves

Also known as a back flow prevention valve, this is another costly yet efficient method to stop the sewer backup. You have to install water back water valves in the basement, which is present at the exit point of your building or you can also install it to the underground pipes, which attaches the sewer lines to the closest manhole. Most of the times this sewer backup protection is used to get rid of the basement flooding. Make sure to consult an experienced plumber before installing back water valves. Although, it is a costly process, but it can save a huge amount of money of yours by providing you the protection from sewer backups.

Sewer backups are one of the most common household problems, which we have to face very often. As a result of that we lose a lot of money and time tackling with this problem. To fight the sewer backups, go through the above written article very carefully and protect your house from sewer backups.

The post A guide to prevent sewer backups appeared first on Pipeline Plumbing Los Angeles.