Plumbing Inspections Show When Pipe Dreams Become Nightmares

Most of us can manage to unclog a toilet, retrieve a wedding ring when it falls down the drain, or pour some Drano in that slow-draining tub, but most plumbing problems are beyond the scope of the average homeowner. Too often, when we decide to call a plumber, it’s way past the time when we should have called a plumber. These are a few issues we have discovered during plumbing inspections.

Leaky Tub

Because plumbing problems often start where we can’t see them, it’s important to pay close attention as a homeowner. Here are some small problems that became big over time.

Above is a picture of the inside of the wall and ceiling immediately under an upstairs bathroom tub, after the sheetrock has been pulled out and viewed during the plumbing inspection. There had been a small leak around the tub — no big deal, just put a towel down, it’s just a little water. Cut to years later and the sheetrock on the wall below is soft to the touch. You’ve got rotted wood and generations of mold in the walls.

Ancient Plumbing Cleanout

A cleanout is a section of pipe with a removable cap on the outside of your house that gives you or a plumber access to your pipes. Do you know where yours are? If the part you can see is literally disintegrating, it’s probably time to get those cast iron pipes replaced.

Dishwasher Overflow

Your dishwasher has a handy system to keep it from overflowing when the wastewater gets clogged. Normally, the wastewater flows through a hose to the air gap under the sink, but if that fails, this happens:

Slow Toilet Leak

Nobody likes to spend a lot of time checking out the toilet, and it’s easy to see how a small leak like this could be missed. Also, if you’re selling a home while no one is living in it, make sure you have someone to maintain it – run the water, HVAC, etc. periodically, and look out for problems like this one.

In summary, plumbing problems are nothing to laugh at, but here’s a plumbing joke anyway: