No one wants to have a leaky toilet or a dripping faucet in their bathroom. Plumbing services, whether minor or major, are a nightmare for homeowners. However, a sudden water burst or a broken pipe requires immediate assistance from emergency plumbing services.
Homeowners need to categorize the plumbing services as maintenance or emergency depending on the structural and property damage. To ensure your family’s safety, it’s best to identify emergency plumbing incidents and call professional plumbers on time.
Any plumbing hazard or issue which has the potential to damage your property and compromise the safety of the inhabitants is a plumbing emergency. Most homeowners fail to identify a plumbing emergency until it has already caused severe damage to the basement, ceiling, walls, toilets, or main sewer pipes.
Here are aspects to consider when deciding whether the plumbing problem you have encountered is an emergency.
Always Consider the Weather
If it's freezing cold and your water heater breaks, don’t wait to call emergency plumbing services. Conversely, water heating system repair in the summer can usually wait until operating business hours to call the plumbers.
Plumbing Waiting Cost
You must evaluate the total cost of waiting to fix a plumbing fixture, leaky faucet, broken toilet, or a dripping shower. For instance, you can weigh the total cost you need to pay in the hydro bills while waiting for a leaky faucet to be fixed.
However, if your ceiling is leaking or there is standing water on the bathroom floor with no evident sign of a leakage point, it’s an emergency. At this point, you absolutely have no idea how many cracks there are in the plumbing distribution pipes.
If you see any damp areas around the home, waiting to call a plumber can lead to a water pipe burst, costing you more than fixing the plumbing issue right away. All of the above are some incidents where you can trade off the cost of waiting and declaring a plumbing emergency. If you can continue using a faucet or toilet flush without flooding, it's probably not an emergency.
Conversely, if the shower is blocked, the ceiling is damp, or the basement is flooded, don’t wait and call the emergency plumber immediately. If you face a situation where your toilet is clogged at night, you can wait for business hours to contact the plumber if you have another toilet.
Let’s discuss an overflowing toilet in detail, as it’s a tricky plumbing situation. Toilets overflow for several reasons, such as:
Besides plumbing emergencies, an overflowing toilet can spread infections, germs, bacteria, and other viruses, severely affecting your health. Call emergency plumbing services if the overflowing doesn’t stop even after closing the valve or the main water supply.
Types of Leaking
If you can see water dripping from the faucet or shower, it can wait until the morning. Don’t forget to turn off the main water supply to minimize water waste. However, water leakage from the floor, walls, or ceiling is a plumbing emergency, as the damage has already been done to your property. Also, you don’t know about the leaks or cracks in the plumbing pipes at this stage.
Homeowners shouldn’t ignore damp areas or corners around the home, even if there isn’t any leakage. These offer an ideal habitat for mold and mildew growth that can lead to respiratory issues. To make things worse, moisture and water can spread to the electrical outlets and wires, making it a safety hazard for the family members.
Switch Off the Fixture
If your faucet or the shower is leaking, it’s a plumbing issue. Nonetheless, it doesn’t qualify as an emergency if you can turn it off.
It’s best to turn off the faucet as bathroom leakage can waste up to 20 liters daily. Also, dripping fixtures can significantly contribute to higher water bills.
All you need to do is to follow these steps before calling the professionals to fix the plumbing fixtures:The situation becomes adverse if you are unable to detect the leak and see standing water on the bathroom floor. That’s an emergency plumbing situation. You should rush to turn off the main water supply and call plumbing services.
Emergency Plumbing Services
Besides overflowing toilets, damp areas, and undetected leakage, you must consider the following plumbing issues as emergencies.
The key takeaway of the above guide is to list all the plumbing emergency incidents that should alarm the house owners. After assessing a plumbing emergency, call our professional plumbers, available 24/7. The primary purpose of calling us is to address the emergency and ensure damage control.