As plumbers, one of the things we always stress to customers is how much more affordable it is to hire us to assess and troubleshoot issues proactively versus having to hire a water damage company after a plumbing system has failed and flooded your home. The typical troubleshooting call for us is around $300, assuming we have to make a few minor repairs. The average cost of water damage services, meaning just the drying out phase (not including the expensive work of actually reconstructing the home is around $3,000.

Some water damage isn’t covered by insurance

Our plumbing technicians have seen a lot of different water damaged homes over the years. We’re called in after the fact and work in concert with the water damage contractor to fix the home. And while we aren’t party to the conversations with the insurance adjuster, we’ve been in homes when the homeowner got the bad news: their loss isn’t covered. This is a shock to homeowners because they’ve always paid their insurance on time and they assumed it was for this very purpose. No one actually ever reads through their policy so they’re caught completely off guard. How could this happen? Well, insurers have clauses in their policies that allow them to deny water damage claims if their adjuster determines that the event could have been prevented by regular maintenance.

What plumbing maintenance should I perform?

It is recommended that at least once a year you have a complete plumbing inspection performed. During this inspection, a plumber will have a checklist of dozens of systems, pipes, and fixtures they will thoroughly check. These inspections many purposes:

1. regular maintenance prevents many plumbing issues from occurring
2. maintenance prolongs the life of your plumbing systems by insuring they are always running at peak performance
3. proactive maintenance is cheaper than the repairs necessary to fix the problems after they’ve happened

What systems are prone to failure?

While a plumbing inspection will surely identify any plumbing systems nearing failure, there are some things we notice that cause the great majority of problems that lead to water damage events. Here’s just some of those:

Toilets – specifically, the supply lines that service your toilet. Make sure you check these about every 3-4 months for any signs of wear and tear. If you notice cracks or folds in the line, replace them. It’s really cheap and easy to do!

Water heaters – water heaters are under a lot of pressure. Holding a lot of water, ejecting a lot of water out of their bellies, running on an incredibly hot temperatures. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they fail. Especially older models that have exceeded their useful lifespan (roughly 10-12 years).

Washing machines – perhaps no appliance is a bigger nightmare when it comes to water damage to homes than a washing machine. The three most common occurrences are the supply lines to the system coming loose, the drain hose doing the same, or the knob getting stuck in between cycles and continuing to let out water until it’s manually turned off.

One thing that is vital to any response to a plumbing issue is speed. Without it, you’re risking your home’s health and the health of its inhabitants. Do not underestimate the impact a fast response can have when hiring a professional plumber. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some things you need to know about emergency plumbing services.

Emergency plumbing service in Corona CA!

Everybody says they offer it but so few actually do. Don’t believe us? Just call and around and see how many actually answer their phones. Of those, how many can respond immediately? Most are probably going to tell you they’ve got a couple of crews that are busy but they can get there later in the day or possibly in the next few days. If that’s the kind of response you get to an emergency service need, yikes!

Why does speed matter?

Even if you don’t think your plumbing problem is an emergency, it could be. Too many people take their issue too lightly and it ends up hurting them in the pocket book…and in extreme instances, it can actually cause physical pain. Speed matters when it comes to plumbing services because every second an issue persists is more time for the issue to grow in strength and ultimately cause more damage.

Take a small pipe leak. Even a pin size hole can end up spewing thousands of gallons of water into your home if not repaired immediately. If you can’t locate the shutoff valve to your home and you rely on a plumber’s assistance, every minute they aren’t there could end up costing you a ton of money.

Is my plumbing issue an emergency?

It just depends on what you’re dealing with. Is it a leaky pipe? Then yes. Is it an overflowing toilet? Then yes. Or do you just need your water heater tuned up? Then that isn’t an emergency. Probably the best thing to do is call us and talk through what your service need is. If it’s an emergency then we will notify you of such and dispatch a plumber. If it’s not, we can discuss next steps and the timing for those steps!