Plumbing

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We’re not sure what Einstein meant by that, but we think we’re flattered.

You don’t have to be a genius to be a plumber, but you do have to be smart about it. Of all the projects home owners decide to take on themselves, plumbing seems to get them consistently in the most trouble. 

You might think others taking our trade so lightly would make us resentful, but actually, it makes us feel petty good – especially come Monday mornings when we get all those phone calls to come fix the weekend projects that never quite made it.

The Lost Weekend

We see it time and again: a home owner takes on a project that seems simple, say, a slow-draining sink. He reasons there may be something stuck in the drain pipe, so he decides there’s no need to turn the water off.

Then he figures it might be easier to clean out the pipe if he removes the trap. As he pushes mightily on his monkey wrench, the trap fitting gives way and the wrench handle hits a soldered connection on a pipe a few

He can’t stop that leak by tightening the connection because there are no threads. Now it’s time to shut off the water at the turn-off under the sink, but it won’t budge, because it hasn’t been touched in years and it’s seized up. He runs to the garage for some penetrating oil, runs back and begins Phase Two.

And It Gets Worse…

Before he knows it, Saturday morning turns into Saturday afternoon. No time for the kids’ ball games because this job is too important to leave.  

After he gets the water shut off under the sink, he consults his handyman book about how to sweat a soldered connection.

Then he discovers he needs a torch for that job, and he doesn’t have one, so he makes his first trip of the day to the Big Box Handyman Store.

Get Home Protection as a Preferred Berkey’s Customer

You can learn plumbing later.  Go to your kid's ballgame today!

You get the picture. If you think this is far-fetched, believe us, it isn’t. In more than 32 years serving the communities of Grapevine, Southlake, Colleyville and Flower Mound, Texas, we may not have seen it all, but we’ve seen more than enough to convince us we are needed.

Our thousands of regular customers know they won’t get into predicaments like this. Once each year we check out their household plumbing systems as part of our Universal Protection Plan. This plan covers all the bases – plumbing, heating and air conditioning – with three separate on-site inspections by licensed and certified Berkey’s professionals each year.

Reclaim your time!

For your convenience, we schedule appointments with a four-hour window, so you won’t have to sit around all day waiting for us to show up. With the Universal Protection Plan you get priority scheduling in case of emergencies.

A bad vacuum breaker on an outside faucet could allow outside water to be sucked into your home's drinking water.

When we inspect your home plumbing system, we emphasize prevention and routine maintenance. We make certain the emergency shut-off valves under your sink will work if you ever need them. When we find bad ones, we replace them with ball valves that need only a one-quarter turn to go from full-on to full-off – and they don’t seize up.

We check your drains to make sure they’re working right. We will replace the pressure and temperature valves on your hot water heaters every other year, as recommended by the manufacturers.

 We’ll check the vacuum breakers on your outside faucets to make sure you won’t get a reverse flow that could suck water from a puddle in the yard into the pipes in the house – the ones that carry your drinking water, for example.

For More Plumbing Tips…

Also on our site be sure to read how the newest technology in water heaters can save you money and aggravation, why having only licensed plumbers work on your home’s plumbing can be vital to your family’s safety and the pitfalls of dealing with non-licensed “home handymen.” For immediate results, call Berkey’s now, or schedule an appointment with one of our licensed plumbers.