10 Signs Your house has a serious plumbing problem

Your home’s plumbing is far from the list of things that you’d usually worry about daily. But unless your house was recently built in the last ten years or had the plumbing wholly replaced, there’s always the chance that your pipes are outdated and have taken significant damage over the years of use. This stands true for all types of piping, whether supply lines that carry water, faucet lines frequently needing repairs, and especially outdoor drain lines, which often are heavily damaged from external factors like weather.

Even if you discount external factors like the weather that can have different effects on your pipes, most materials pipes have weaknesses and a time after which they’ll need to be replaced, except PVC pipes. Copper pipes and cast iron pipes, two of the most commonly found metallic plumbing, are both excellent materials offering more than 50 years and 70 years of use, respectively. But the fact is, at one point, they will need to be replaced.

While immediate problems like leaks will need the services of a capable emergency plumber in Lake Forest, most long-term plumbing problems show telltale signs. These signs can be anything, from slightly discolored water to freezing pipes and even the frequency of faucet problems. These can have different effects on the piping in your house. Some of these can reduce the water pressure in your faucets, while issues like leaky pipes can even cause health hazards like mildew. If you want to get into specifics, consult the guide below to know what are the worst dangers about ignoring your plumbing problems or call for emergency plumbing service in Lake Forest:

Mold And Mildew From Leaks

It goes without saying that you call prominent plumbing services in Lake Forest when your pipes spring a leak. Unless you’re able to plug the leak by yourself, it wastes a lot of water, and until it’s fixed, it affects water pressure around your house. However, the risks of leaking get only worse when the damaged pipe is hidden or even behind a wall. The leaks are impossible to spot, and the steady drip of water can promote health hazards like bacteria, fungi, and mold. Even a single sniff of mold can be very harmful to the human respiratory system. Mold causes problems like sneezing, coughing, and immediate shortness of breath. Difficult mold situations can even be life-threatening!

Water Damage To Your House

Depending on how long the pipe has been leaking, your house could be in immediate danger of flooding. There’s apparent damage to the house’s structure if you have wooden walls or plastering on your walls. A steady water leak will rot wooden walls and floors and create discoloring on cement or stone surfaces. If there are rotted floorboards in your attic or the area over the basement, you could even fall through and injure yourself. Flooding can also cause problems with your house’s electrical systems.

Contaminants In Your Water

Metal piping like copper or cast iron pipes are made to last long, but they do need to be replaced after a point. This point comes even faster for people in humid regions with a lot of rainfall, where your pipes are in constant danger of rusting. Rusty pipes not only leak water through them but flake off the rusted metal into the water, which can be a massive health hazard. Rather than taking the chance, it’s a good idea to replace your older metal pipes with PVC piping from a reliable emergency plumbing service in Lake Forest.

Bad plumbing doesn’t take long to turn into a full-fledged nightmare. Leakages, pipe rusting, and even small dangers like freezing pipes can quickly turn your calm day into a difficult situation, with water flooding everywhere and people panicking. Rather than play with risk and chance being thrust into those situations, consider calling an emergency plumber in Lake Forest immediately if you see any of these signs:

1. Water Leaking From Your Faucets

A slow and steady drip from your faucets is one of the most ignored warnings that your plumbing system needs attention. Whether it’s a slow tip-tap late at night or a steady stream of water, it’s vital to call a plumber and have them assess the situation. A simple loose-fitting can be tightened up, but it could just as quickly be a length of damaged piping that needs to be replaced.

2. Low Water Pressure In Faucets And Showerheads

Unless under exceptional circumstances, proper plumbing should always give you good water pressure. Water pressure depends on the steady flow of water in your pipes, and if you have low water pressure, it usually means you’ve sprung a leak somewhere. If you notice low pressure from a single showerhead or faucet, check if it’s present throughout the house to gauge the problem, then take appropriate steps like calling a top plumbing service in Lake Forest.

3. Visible Puddles Of Water

Spotting a puddle is a clear warning sign in bold letters that your plumbing needs help as soon as possible. Older pipes in rooms like your bathroom and kitchen especially are likely to spring a leak that creates a puddle of water. You could also find a pool from water dripping down your walls. While this already points to a plumbing problem, it also causes damage to the house’s structure.

4. Sinks Draining Especially Slowly

As you might expect, slow draining in sinks is due to clogging or blockage. You can use various cleaning products to get rid of a backup, but calling a professional plumber to check out your pipes is the ideal option if it happens multiple times.

5. Pipes Freezing In the Cold

Colder US regions know this problem well. In the frosty winter times, exposed pipes can freeze on the outside, and while this looks harmless, frozen pipes can burst at the slightest nudge. Entire lengths of exposed pipe could be damaged in winters with sub-zero temperatures and need to be replaced entirely by a repiping service.

6. Pipes Making Unnecessary Noise

Sometimes, you might hear strange rumbling noises from your pipes, whether they’re exposed or hidden behind walls. Instead of calling a professional to have your pipes checked out, you might attribute it to something like ‘the house settling’ and ignore it, only to later find your living room flooded. Please pay attention to any sounds from your pipes since they are likely to get caused by leaks or damaged pipes.

7. Discolored, Brownish Water from Faucets

Regardless of your location or what kind of piping you have, your water should always be crystal clear. If renovations or repairs are going on, you might have a few hours of discolored water, but that’s it. If you find your water in strange, deep shades like brown, orange, or yellow, that’s a sign of rusted bits of pipe flaking off into the water. Call an emergency plumber in Lake Forest immediately to check the extent of the damage and replace the damaged pipeline.

8. Visible Corrosion On Your Pipes

Of course, sometimes it’s not as risky as having to witness brownish water. If your pipes are older metal pipes like copper, brass, or cast iron piping, they might have rust on them. Even light discoloration on the outer part is a warning sign since metals in your water can cause many severe health problems like hepatitis A, diarrhea, and dysentery! If you notice rusting, you might want to consider changing your metal piping system to a polyvinyl-chloride piping system.

9. Frequent Problems With Piping

There’s no more precise indicator of faulty piping than having to perform maintenance constantly. Whether the problem is frequent leaks or blockages, the first step to having a healthy piping system is getting a professional plumber to assess your home’s plumbing.

10. Aging On Your Pipes

Suppose you have no problems with your older metal piping. The pipes haven’t rusted yet, and leaks and blockages are infrequent if any. Everything seems perfect, except for a small caveat, metal pipes have an expiration limit. After a time, the chance of a dangerous accident becomes impossibly high, and you should always consider replacing copper, brass, or cast iron pipes with newer PVC piping.