Tag Archive for: Clogged Drains

Four Red Flags for Plumbing Problems When Buying a Home

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Prospective home buyers have a lot of factors to consider before making the final decision to purchase a house. Ideally, the building offers move-in condition, allowing the new owner to take up residence a soon as possible. One important step to take before purchasing a home is to check the plumbing system to make sure that everything is in order. Four situations provide red flags that something is amiss and a professional inspection is needed.

Faulty Water Flow
If you turn on one of the faucets and the water flow is minimal, it is an indication that the plumbing system needs maintenance or repair. If the problem exists in more than one area of the home, it might be a serious issue that you should avoid by looking at different properties and giving up on the one that you are looking at currently.

Faulty Black Water Lines
One of the best ways to evaluate the plumbing system’s ability to remove black/grey water is to flush the toilet. Observe how easily the water goes down and take note of any seepage around the base of the toilet. You should also fill up one of the sinks and watch it drain. Be sure to walk around the perimeter of the basement as well as the outside of the home in search of wet spots.

No Hot Water
If you turn on the faucet that is supposed to deliver hot water and you don’t get any, it’s time to check all of the sinks, showers, and bathtubs in the house. If you can’t get any hot water at any of these locations, it is possible that the hot water heater is broken. You should request that repairs or replacement be handled and are made a contingency of any offer that you provide.

Leaks
Minor leaks can usually be repaired with the simple replacement of a washer. However, multiple leaks are indicative of a more serious issue, particularly if they create puddles or wet spots on the walls, floors, or ceilings.

If you are buying a home, it is important to check out the plumbing system to see if it is in good working order. Whether you try out the faucets and flush the toilet on your own or you bring in a professional plumber for a thorough inspection, an evaluation of the plumbing equipment should be a part of your decision-making process. If you aren’t in love with the property, continuing your search might be the wiser choice to make.

 

Hiring a Plumbing Company – 6 Essential Points to Consider Before an Emergency Strikes

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Plumbing is one of those unglamorous but essential services that everyone needs to call on from time to time. With luck, most your dealings with a plumber will be planned in advance, but it’s almost certain you’ll face an emergency at some point.

When you’ve got water gushing down your walls, you don’t want to be scrabbling for a good plumbing company to come to your rescue. It pays to do your research first, so that you have a number to call without delay. Here’s what to look for when finding a good plumbing company.

 

Availability

Does the company offer a 24-hour call-out service? Are there any charges for attending your home at unsocial hours? Will they guarantee to fix the problem on their first visit, or at least to make it safe and prevent further damage? In an emergency, you need help straight away, so make sure you know the answer to these questions in advance.

Experience and Qualifications

It’s vital to ask how long the plumbing company has been providing their services, and which qualifications the individual plumbers possess. Is the company as a whole regulated by any trade association or official body? These questions are particularly important if the work involves gas or electrical components, when safety is absolutely crucial.

Who’s Actually Doing the Work?

Is the person you speak to the one who will be carrying out the work, or will it be an employee or even a subcontractor? Any of these options can be perfectly acceptable. For your own peace of mind, however, you may want to first meet the person carrying out the work, especially if the job is inside your home.

Liability Cover

Is the company properly insured? If something goes wrong, you need to know that you won’t lose out financially, and so it’s essential they have a comprehensive liability insurance policy in place.

Warranty and Guarantees

It’s also a good idea to ask what will happen if you’re unhappy with the work for any other reason. What’s the procedure if you’re not satisfied with the job that’s been done? For how long will the parts they’ve used be under warranty, and will they replace them without a call-out charge if needed?

Prices and Payment

Although the exact prices will vary depending on the details of the work, you should ask the typical costs for a range of common jobs so you can get a rough idea of the expense involved. Also, is payment required upon completion or partly or fully in advance? Are installment terms available?

Plumbing work is often needed in an emergency situation when you have no time to waste. Asking these questions of a company in advance will ensure you can get quick and efficient assistance when you need it most.

Hydro-Jett: How It’s Done

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Our new Hydro-Jett Clear & Clean service blasts through built-up soap scum, sediment, sand, scale, grease, mineral, leaves, hair and roots in even the most troublesome commercial lines and grease drains. How do we do it?

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1. Hose insertion. Our Poole’s Plumbing technicians insert the Hydro-Jett hose with its cleaning head into your clogged line. This cleaning head will be what provides the powerful blasts of water that will eliminate your problem.
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2. Initial inspection. Our technicians use our video camera to inspect the initial state of the clogged line in question, allowing us to quickly take stock of the exact situation and the severity of the clog within your drain. This camera equipment is already attached to the end of the inserted Hydro-Jett hose, and as always with Poole’s, you’ll never pay extra for our camera services.
3.  Activation of the cleaning head. Once we feel initial inspection of your backed-up line has been sufficiently performed, we activate the Hydro-Jett system’s cleaning head. At the end of the hose is a cleaning head which delivers the power-packed cleaning punch desired: A 3500 PSI stream of water that attacks the build-up in your drain at a variety of angles.

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4. Advancing the hose. We run the hose along the drain, taking extra care around areas with particular amounts of build-up. We may make several passes using the high-pressured streams of water in order to completely clear your clogged line. Unlike cable or “rooting” services in the past, use of the Hydro-Jett in this manner ensures that not only is the clog in your drain removed, but that the drain is completely cleared and the walls of the pipe are cleaned. It’s a full service that we’re so confident of we offer a 90 day warranty following the Hydro-Jetting process.
5. Final inspection and removal of the hose. We again use the attached video camera to perform a once-over of your drain following Hydro-Jett cleaning. Once we confirm that all build-up and debris have been removed and that your drain is operating at its highest possible capacity, we remove the Hydro-Jett hose from your line.

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Hydro-Jett Clear & Clean versus Cabling-Clear & Flow Service

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Poole’s Plumbing’s use of the innovative Hydro-Jett Clear & Clean service to annihilate stoppages in residential and commercial drains is a leap forward for the industry. The Hydro-Jett service blasts through built-up soap scum, sediment, sand, scale, grease, mineral, leaves, hair and roots via powerful, 3500 PSI streams of water directed at different angles. How exactly though does this procedure stack up against more traditional cabling/“rooting” services such as the Cabling-Clear & Flow Service offered by Poole’s, and what are the specific advantages?

With a traditional cable clear service, a rotating cable equipped with a cutting head is mechanically fed down into the drain pipe. The cable’s cutting head moves through the drain stoppage, cutting until the stoppage has been cleared. Poole’s uses our attached video camera equipment to ensure the stoppage is cleared; however, build-up does remain around the walls of the drain pipe in question, and a warranty on the rooter machine service is not provided.

Poole’s new Hydro-Jett Clear & Clean service harnesses the power of water to not only cut a hole in the build-up, but to forcefully blast the walls of the pipe clean, removing all of the gunk inside the drain pipe instead of just a portion. The Hydro-Jett doesn’t just remove the stoppage, it cleans the entire pipe, whether it’s located at an apartment complex or is a commercial grease drain at a restaurant.

The Hydro-Jett isn’t a short term fix. Instead, it’s a compete solution that leaves the pipe in a nearly new condition. Poole’s is so confident in the power of this solution that unlike the Cabling-Clear & Flow Service, we offer a 90 day warranty on your line, guaranteeing it’s clear from stoppages for at least three months.