Many plumbing repairs can be performed on a do-it-yourself basis. When your water pressure is low, you can clean the shower head, inspect the water meter valve, or do a number of other easy repairs. When the trap under your kitchen or bathroom sink leaks, you can tighten up the existing trap or buy a brand-new, affordable trap. But with many plumbing repair tasks easily within your reach, how do you identify when should you get a professional plumber?

You Have a Rapid Water Supply Line Leak

It’s the classic incidents that activates a plumber’s visit: a water line bursts and triggers major flooding throughout your home. While not common, this does occasionally take place. When it does, you would want to be prepared to act fast.

Initially, look for any intermediary water supply cut-off valves situated close to the leak. If you are lucky, you might locate either a knife- or knob-style cut-off valve that shuts down water to the leakage alone and not to the whole house. Failing that, find your home’s main water shut-off valve and turn it off. After shutting down the water, find a plumber that can come immediately.

You Have No Water in the House

In instances when water stops flowing within your home, it is localized around one location, such as a restroom sink or shower. But hardly ever will water stop running to your whole house.

Inspect all water outlets within your house to verify that none of them are getting water. Make sure to inspect both the hot and cold water supplies. Typically, if there is an issue with the hot water heater and warm water is no longer being provided, the cold side is still operable.

If you still can not get the water to run, you might have a major issue. It is possible that the buried pipes leading from the streetside water meter to your home has burst or has actually been severed, diverting water that is suppose to be for your house. Or the leakage may be focused around the water meter.

You Have a Rapid Drainage Line Leak

If your kitchen sink or restroom sink leaks from the trap right underneath the counter, that is a relatively common problem that most house owners can repair with simple tools and products. Just turn off the water, get under the sink, and change the trap. In cooking areas, the leakage may be originating from the waste disposal unit. In this case, repair or replace the garbage disposal.

But drain lines extend far beyond the sink cabinets and are not always so accessible. When a drain line is actively dripping and is sealed up behind a wall or under flooring, you have to take immediate action. Calling a plumber is the most practical way to fix this problem and prevent more damage to the drywall, paint, subfloor, or flooring.

You Have a Sewer Line Leak or Gaseous Odors

A broken or blocked drain line typically manifests itself in your yard in the form of slowly building up pools of murky, stinky water or mushy soil. Or strange occasions occur inside your home, like toilets filling when you run the sink or bath tubs filling with wastewater. You can always excavate the sewage system line, find the damaged or stopped up drain pipeline, then repair or change it. But this type of do-it-yourself fix can take, at the least, a number of full days of back-breaking work.

The drain line is the only line that carries all of your home’s wastewater out of toilets, sinks, showers, tubs, dishwashing machines, and laundry machines. Your house can not work without this line; all activities are disabled until you can fix this.

This is why it is so important to employ a professional plumbing company for this repair work. The plumbing contractor can do a sewer line video assessment through the drain line clean-out entry point. Augering out the sewer line with a motorized drain snake might fix the issue. If the line is irreparably blocked or broken, it needs to be dug up and changed.

Your Water Heater Has a Natural Gas Leak

When you smell natural gas in your house, it might be attributable to an apparent source such as a range that is turned on however is unlit. If you can not locate the source of the gas or you can find it however you are unable to turn it off, first open windows and doors before reaching out to a plumber. For natural gas odors near the gas meter, call the gas company. Gas companies tend to prioritize this problem and will respond quite fast.

Sometimes, the source of the gas leak may be from your gas water heater. On most of the newer designs, the hot water heater’s thermocouple, or flame sensing unit, is heated up by the pilot light, signaling to the heating unit that all is well and to keep the gas operating. If the pilot light snuffs out, the thermocouple shuts down the gas. This prevents gas from building up due to the dead pilot burner.

So if you smell gas around the hot water heater area, this is not correct. The thermocouple may have malfunctioned or there may be leaks in the pipes going to the heating system. These leaks might be in the couplings or the pipes themselves.