Gainesville FL Plumber | Our Plumbing Blog

Plumbing Repair Ideas from Roto-Rooter

April 30th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

Homeowners are a different breed of people in this day and age. With more people turning to rentals, townhouses, condos and timeshares for the bulk of their living accommodations, homeowners remain the primary source of household maintenance. When the yard needs taking care of, there’s no landlord or condo service to take care of it for you, it’s all on your shoulders. With so many demands, you have to worry about, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone keep up on your plumbing? Roto-Rooter has been around since 1935 helping customers just like you solve their water issues and stay one step ahead of serious problems from even developing. To know more about plumbing repair in Gainesville, we’ve decided to share a little knowhow with you, our customer, in an effort to help educate people and enable them to handle the little things that come up now and again. After all, it is the out of control issues that arise from small things.

Clogged drains. They buildup as you go about your business and then all of a sudden are clogged. When this happens, don’t fret, there are a few little things you need to do to get things back to normalcy. First off, use a screwdriver to pull the crud free that is clogging the drain. In bathroom drains it is always hair, dirt, and soap scum that has clumped together to form a pretty gnarly situation. In kitchen drains, usually small food particles, grease, and soap scum have bunched together and stuck to the drain. After you get out as much as you can, use a little pipe cleaner available from Roto-Rooter to strip away anything else lingering. Do this every month or so and clogged drains will be a thing of the past.
Frozen pipes are a bit more serious as they are expensive to fix and can lead to serious flooding in your house. In the winter when the temperatures start to drop, exposed pipes begin to freeze the water inside. While that’s not a common problem in Gainesville, the fact is that our pipes here aren’t insulated as well as those in colder regions so when we do get freezing temperatures, the damage tends to be much more widespread. What most people don’t realize, though, is that the trapped air is what causes problems. As the water expands and presses on the trapped air pockets, the pressure eventually pushes the air hard enough to burst through pipes causing cracks or even shattering it altogether. To prevent that from happening this winter, make sure to beef up the insulation in your walls and also wrap any exposed pipes as best you can.

For more information about plumbing repair in Gainesville, give Roto-Rooter a call today.

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Find Your Main Water Valves, Prevent Plumbing Problems

March 13th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

Have you ever woken up in the morning to the feeling that something is just not right? When you investigate the cause of this feeling of uneasiness, you find that a pipe has broken in your home and water is going everywhere. These events cause great anxiety and, in many cases, the whole day is ruined. However, Roto-Rooter is always on stand-by to help with these types of plumbing problems in Gainesville. We are always ready to help and can be called anytime, day or night.

Plumbing is considered by some to be a task that is very undesirable. After all, some people just cannot bring themselves to dealing with sewer or drain problems or even broken pipes. Many of these types of circumstance require the response of professionals with years of experience in fixing and installing all kinds of plumbing.

Whenever a break occurs in a pressurized water pipe, there will be flooding. That is a fact that cannot be avoided. The amount of flooding will depend on a few factors. How quickly the problem is noticed and how quickly the water is shut-off. Also, whether or not the break occurs in a location where run-off goes into a place where no possible damage can occur, like into the yard or out a floor drain, for example. Because of the seriousness of possible water flooding, homeowners should know exactly where their main water shut-off valve is located. Even the children in the home who are old enough and responsible enough should know where the main valve is and how to turn off the home’s water supply.

If you do not know, call us and we will track it down for you. Our experienced plumbers will evaluate the layout of your plumbing and find the valve. It may be installed in a wall in the basement, in a utility room, or under a stairwell. Often they are hidden in out-of-the-way places to reduce the risk of a child playing with the valve and creating potential plumbing problems in Gainesville.

Another important valve homeowners should be familiar with is their sprinkler system’s stop-and-waste valve. This is a pressure valve attached to the sprinkler system’s main water source. When the valve is opened, water is allowed into the system to pressurize the sprinkler valves. When it is closed, all back-flow from the system is allowed to escape out of a small pressure release in the valve housing so all excess water can drain out, thus preventing freezing problems in the main water line during winter.

For any question or problems with your home’s water valves, call us at Roto-Rooter.

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Finding the right Water Heater Repair Guy

March 9th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

Running out of hot water is not fun. When this happens you are going to need to know how to find the right company to do your hot water heater repair in Gainesville. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

First of all, we are Roto-Rooter and we do hot water heater repair. We would be remiss if we did not boast of our own talents. Of course we would like you to call us to come and do this for you. You can skip the rest of the tips as well if you call us.
Find out how soon any company can be there. Hot water is crucial to so many functions in our day to day lives. The right company is sometimes simply the company that can be there the soonest.
Do a little research on the internet to find out more about the different companies in the area. Study their websites and see if they list water heater repair as something that they do.
Look for online reviews to have a sense of what companies may not be good to work with. Of course, you need to remember to take any online review with a grain of salt.
You can ask around at the local hardware house who they would recommend. Talk to the other customers in the store as well. You would be surprised how willing others are to share what they think.
If you are buying a new water heater to have it installed, ask the people who you are buying it from who they would recommend.

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Plumbing Repair Ideas from Roto-Rooter

March 6th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

Homeowners are a different breed of people in this day and age. With more and more people turning to rentals, townhouses, condos, and timeshares for the bulk of their living accommodations, homeowners remain the primary source of maintenance that a house demands. When the yard needs taking care of, there’s no landlord or condo service to take care of it for you, it’s all on your shoulders. With so many demands, chores, and projects that you have to worry about, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone keep up on your plumbing for you? Roto-Rooter has been around since 1935 helping customers just like you solve their water issues and stay one step ahead of serious problems from even developing. To know more about plumbing repair in Gainesville, we’ve decided to share a little knowhow with you, our customer, in an effort to help educate people and enable them to handle the little things that come up now and again. After all, it is the out of control issues that arise from small things.

Clogged drains. They buildup as you go about your business and then all of a sudden are clogged. When this happens, don’t fret, there are a few little things you need to do to get things back to normalcy. First off, use a screwdriver to pull the crud free that is clogging the drain. In bathroom drains it is always hair, dirt, and soap scum that has clumped together to form a pretty gnarly situation. In kitchen drains, usually small food particles, grease, and soap scum have bunched together and stuck to the drain. After you get out as much as you can, use a little pipe cleaner available from Roto-Rooter to strip away anything else lingering. Do this every month or so and clogged drains will be a thing of the past.
Frozen pipes are a bit more serious as they are expensive to fix and can lead to serious flooding in your house. In the winter when the temperatures start to drop, exposed pipes begin to freeze the water inside. What most people don’t realize, though, is that the trapped air is what causes problems. As the water expands and presses on the trapped air pockets, the pressure eventually pushes the air hard enough to burst through pipes causing cracks or even shattering it altogether. To prevent that from happening this winter, make sure to beef up the insulation in your walls and also wrap any exposed pipes as best you can.

For more information about plumbing repair in Gainesville, give Roto-Rooter a call today.

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The Truth About Plumbers

February 24th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

Do you remember being in elementary school and how exciting it was when someone said that they had a secret and they would tell you at recess? Do you remember how excited you were to hear what that secret was and then you found out, sometimes it was juicy and fun and other times it was just bland? Well, how would you like to know the truth about plumbers in Gainesville?

Well, the truth is this – They are hard working men and women who can help solve your plumbing issues. Their homes are most often not any cleaner than yours. They understand what it is like to have a baby screaming when company is over. They know you rushed to clean your house before they arrived. They know how stressful it is for you to have them come when your budget tight and you don’t know how much the repair will cost. They know how inconvenient a plumbing problem can be, and yes, they can help.

Now, knowing what you know now about the plumbers in your area, you should feel comfortable enough to give them a call when experiencing a plumbing problem. They are courteous and understanding and are familiar with what you are going through when they enter your home for a repair.

There is never a good time to have a plumbing problem. However, they also know the odds of your repair bill increasing because you waited to call them also goes up with each passing day. Most plumbing problems can create additional issues if left unattended and unrepaired for long periods of time. They know you are going to be stressed about paying for a repair now and this is why they do not want you to wait. They know the cost will most likely increase if you allow the problem to get out of hand.

Also, don’t feel like your home needs to be spotless for a plumbing visit. Plumbers are not going to do a lot of looking around or judging the cleanliness of your home. Make sure they have a clear path to the problem and the area around your home’s plumbing is relatively clean, so they get their work done efficiently. The plumbers in Gainesville are not going to judge you. Just give them a call when you are in need of a plumbing repair, they understand!

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When Plumbing Problems Become Larger

February 18th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

When you have a plumbing problem in your home you may wait to call a plumber to handle those issues. However, when you wait to call the plumber to come in and take care of things then that problem will get even larger.

We deal with a lot of plumbing problems in Gainesville and we have seen it all. From the standard clogged toilet or leaky faucet to the complicated clog in the line somewhere way down the line, there is nothing we cannot handle or deal with.

One of the most common issues that we do see all of the time is small problems that become a lot larger because the home owner waited way too long to call us in to come and fix it. If you have a problem with the plumbing in the home, call us sooner so that we can deal with it and you can move on. We understand that money is tight for a lot of people. We also know that a lot of people have some unreal ideas of what the repair is going to cost. In fact, many people who have put things off for a long time are often very surprised t o learn how little it cost to fix the original plumbing issue. However, by that time there are other costs associated with the repairs and that is hard to swallow.

Plumbing issues tend to build on each other and get larger. One way to make sure that you are never caught in that situation, even if you cannot afford to fix it right away is to shut it off. If a kitchen sink has a leak and you cannot afford to fix it right now, then just do not use it. That ensures that a leaky faucet is all you have to repair on not replace an entire kitchen cabinet too. Of course, this may be incredibly inconvenient and it is amazing how we can all find a way to make things work out financially when we have to make it work.

Not only do we deal with plumbing problems in Gainesville, but we also handle plumbing issues in surrounding towns. Of course, Roto-Rooter is a national chain and we are located all over the country. That kind of experience is invaluable in being able to serve our customers with fast, efficient, and high quality plumbing repair.

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Faucet Repair or New Faucet?

February 17th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

When you find that you have a leaky faucet and you are considering the fact that you need to have it repaired you may want to consider getting a new faucet all together. You certainly do not have to get a new faucet to make sure the issue is fixed. Faucets can be repaired and work just fine. However, if you have pondered wanting a different faucet now would be the time to make that move. Rather than putting money into repairing a faucet, why not just make the move now to get a new faucet and have that installed?

If you do decide that you are going to go ahead with the repair, you can have confidence in our abilities to repair it. We have done lots of faucet repair in Gainesville and we guarantee our work. We know what it takes to make sure that the repair is done in a way that will ensure that it works like a brand new faucet.

When working on doing a faucet repair one of the things that a typical home owner would miss if they were doing it themselves is using stem grease on the O Rings and in other places where there is contact between parts that need to move. Like any moving part in anything else needs grease or oil to keep them moving smoothly and easily a faucet is the same way. Making sure that stem grease is used to ensure this is something that most do it yourself homeowners miss. This will lead to potentially difficult movement of the faucet and premature wear and tear on the internal parts, causing a leak to return much sooner than it should to your repaired faucet.

Another common mistake do it yourself homeowners make in their faucet repair is using the wrong O Ring for the repair. It is crucial that the right size of O ring is used in the repair or it will not work. This can be a very frustrating experience for those who attempt to do this repair on their own.

We know what we are doing and we are happy to do your faucet repair in Gainesville for your or to replace your faucet all together if that is what you would like. Give us a call to get some estimates on both of these options so that you can make the best decision for yourself

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The Mess Before Water Heater Repair

February 11th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

You hear of people who have had a need to have water heater repair in Gainesville all the time, but do you know what that really means? Do you comprehend the mess that they have had to clean up, at least in some cases?

In some instances when a hot water heater goes out is drains all of that water onto the floor. For many different reasons this can happen and when it does it can cause a real mess. Most times the hot water heater is in a room that is not carpeted, but the hallway and adjacent rooms are carpeted and they tend to become flooded as well.

When carpet becomes this wet it becomes a matter of sucking up all of the water that you can out of the carpet and then pulling it up and running large fans on the carpet and the sub-floor underneath to make sure that all dries out so that there is no mildew problems. This is time consuming and a real mess to deal with. The next time someone talks about having to have their water heater repaired or replaced, do not take that lightly. There is a good chance that they have had a huge mess to clean up over the last several days.

Once the mess is cleaned up the old water heater must be replaced or repaired. While there are plenty of companies who can do water heater repair in Gainesville, in most cases where there has been a mess like this it will require a whole replacement in order to solve the problem.

Water heaters, even when they cause a problem like this, are still worth every last penny that we spend on them. It is hard for any of us to imagine living without hot water so readily available to us like it is. There are people living in other countries that do not have hot water without heating pots of water over a fire stove where a fire must be started to make it warm.

When you reach that time in your life where you have a water heater go out on you, remember that as much trouble as it is to clean up the mess, it is a blessing to have a hot water heater in your home to create hot water for whenever you need it. Keep things in perspective and keep it light. You will be back to normal before you know it.

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Why Call the Plumbers?

February 10th, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

“There is no need to call the plumbers”, your husband may say. He may say that he has things under control and that he can fix it and not to worry about finding plumbers in Gainesville. However, you may think otherwise as you watch him trying to figure it out. So, if this is the case with you, what will you do? How do you handle a situation like this? There is really is no good answer to this. However, my experience is that most wives have a great way of convincing their husband to make the call to the plumber eventually.

Plumbers have a great understanding of what the men in the household that they are working in tend to think. No matter how cordial they are they know that the men, in their hearts and minds are thinking that they should be doing the repair and how much they do not like the fact that they are spending money to have a plumber come in and do something that they feel they could have done. However, to make peace with their wife they usually will swallow the ego and call the plumber.

So, in all reality, why should you call a plumber when you feel like you can fix it yourself? Of course there is the obvious, as stated above, to keep peace with the wife. However, there are some other reasons why that makes sense as well. Here are few of those:

They have all of the tools that they need to make the job a very quick one.
They have the expertise and will be able to be more certain of their own diagnosis.
They likely have the tool on hand and that also will make the repair go much quicker.
Their work comes with a warranty most of the time. When they come into your home and make a repair, you know that you will not have to pay for the repair again if something goes wrong. If it were you there is no guarantee.
A peace of mind. When you know that a professional plumber has done the work there is a sense of a peace of mind. When you do the repair there is a lot of stress hoping that you have done it right.

Stop dragging your feet on this issue in the future and just resolve to find and hire plumbers in Gainesville to help with the plumbing repairs in your home.

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Are Gators To Blame for Plumbing Problems?

February 3rd, 2012 by Roto-Rooter Bloggers

When you live in Florida you learn that you can blame a lot of things on the wild alligators. The plumbing problems in Gainesville are no exception. It is possible that a gator has somehow gotten into your plumbing, particularly the babies alligators and caused some damage and wreaked havoc on your plumbing.

When living in Florida you have to learn how to live with these guys and it is not an option to ignore them and the trouble that they can cause. The only way to get away from this is to move away all together from Florida.

As much as it is possible that a gator could cause problems with your plumbing the odds are certainly not in your favor. Chances are the problems are caused by a lot more normal cause that is far less exciting to share than a gator stuck in your plumbing.

If you are experiencing plumbing trouble you may find it best and easiest to hire a professional plumber, like us, to come in and take care of the problems. It will certainly save you some time and effort to have us handle the issues and if you fixing them yourself will mean you are losing money elsewhere then we are saving you money as well. There is no real decision to make other than to have us or another professional plumbing company handled the problems and get them resolved as quickly as we can.

When we dive into the issues we will certainly be sure to let you know if we find a gator in the plumbing causing the issues. Of course, the likelihood of this happening is not a good thing, but nonetheless we will let you know if that is the case.

Plumbing is something that we all want to think that we can handle and that we can fix to save money from hiring a professional. However, the reality is there is a lot more to remember with plumbing than you might think originally. When you are finding the professionals that handle the plumbing problems in Gainesville be sure that you learn as much as you can about each of them to know which one you should hire. While it may be tempting to just choose one and move on with it, the fact is that type of snap decision generally comes back with bad results and one that you regret down the road.

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