November 18, 2016

Whole House Plumbing Repair

Plumbing Repair For Dallas Homeowners

Nothing lasts forever, including the pipes inside your house. Over the decades, the tubing gradually corrodes, rusts, and decays. Unless you replace plumbing, you’re eventually going to get leaks—and possibly a flood of water or raw sewage into your home that causes thousands of dollars in damage to your building and belongings.

Do You Need to Replace Your Plumbing?

Watch for Signs of Trouble

If your house is more than about 60 years old, make it an annual ritual to look at any exposed pipe—in basements, crawlspaces, and utility rooms—for telltale signs of trouble. Check the tubing for discoloration, stains, dimpling, pimples, or flaking, which are all indications of corrosion. If you find irregularities, bring in a plumber to do an inspection.

You’ll want to keep a watch for leaks too, of course. Even small ones that are easily repaired may be indicators that the time for whole-house replacement is approaching. After all, the original pipes in your home are the same vintage, they’re made of the same material, and they’ve been subjected to the same water supply and usage patterns.

“So if you’ve got sporadic leaks in some places, they’ll start showing up throughout your system soon,” says Philadelphia plumber Joseph Emanuel. “It’s time to change your water lines.”

Also, when you fill your bathtub, look at the color of your water—especially after a vacation when it has been sitting in the pipes for a while. If the water looks brown or yellow, what you’re seeing is rust, a sign of decay inside the pipes. Consider replacement soon.

Best Opportunities to Replace Pipes

Ultimately, you’ll need to rely on a trusted plumber to advise you whether it’s time for a pipe replacement. And it’s always good to get a second and even third opinion before you embark on a replacement project. But there are a few ways you can mitigate the cost and hassle of the job.

Replace what’s exposed. For a home with plaster walls, wood paneling, or other features that make it difficult to gain access to in-wall pipes, consider at least replacing pipes that aren’t buried in the walls. Although it’s a big job, replacing exposed pipes in a basement, crawlspace, or utility room is fairly straightforward, because the plumber can easily get at the pipes.

And depending on the configuration of your house, the plumber may be able to access the vast majority of your system this way. For a 1,500 square-foot, two-bathroom home, you’ll pay between $2,000 and $6,000 or more to replace just the exposed plumbing.

Replace when you renovate. Whenever you remodel a portion of your house, take the opportunity to inspect—and if need be, replace—any plumbing lines that you expose when you open up the walls and floors. This includes not only the plumbing in the kitchen or bathroom that you’re remaking but also any pipes passing through the walls to feed upstairs bathrooms.

Plumbing Repair Tips

Preparation for repiping is next big step in the entire process. We understand that most customers do not plan on having to repipe their entire home so they may not have budgeted for the repair cost. We do offer payment plans for qualifying homeowners to help them do what’s right and restore their water as quick as possible.

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