Frequently Asked Questions
Many things can cause your water to become discolored, including minerals, metals and deposits in your pipes.
But the most common reason for brown water is rust from inside the pipes.
Older homes were built using galvanized iron pipes. Iron rusts over time, and there is no way to avoid it. The rust goes into the water and makes it reddish brown. Sometime the iron tank in your water heater can rust, and this will also cause your water to become brown.
If your water is discolored by the presence of minerals or other substances in the water, you will need to add a filter to the incoming water. This should solve the problem. But if the discoloration of your water is caused by rusted iron pipes, they need to be replaced.
There is no other choice. Rusted pipes will only deteriorate and get worse, eventually causing potential health problems.
Today, you can choose between PVC Plastic piping or copper piping. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
PVC piping costs more, but it won’t rust or be susceptible to mineral buildup. Copper piping is cheaper, but you won’t get the water pressure you can get with PVC pipes. Note that PVC pipes cannot be cleaned out by most commercial chemical solutions.
Low water pressure can be a major inconvenience. If you have low water pressure, it might be caused by a variety of reasons, and you will need to check for the true cause.
First, check the strainers on all the faucets: make sure they are not blocked. Aerators and strainers must be removed once a year to see if there has been any accumulation of minerals or other substances inside openings.
This must also be done whenever someone performs any work on your plumbing system. It is important to check the main valve coming into the home: make sure the valve is not stuck in a half-open position. You should check the meter valve: see if it is really open. The valve can get stuck in the closed position even if the handle continues to turn.
If the piping in the house is galvanized iron, your low water pressure could be caused by a buildup of calcium and mineral deposits. Older homes all have galvanized iron plumbing. After thirty years, calcium has leeched out of the water and become attached to the inside of the water pipes.
It can take many years for this to happen, and when it does, it can coat the entire length of the pipe. The calcium builds up on the inside of the piping and reduces the internal diameter with pebble-like growths until water has difficulty flowing. The calcium deposits are brittle, like the bones in the human body, and are difficult to remove.
In addition, there is no safe tool or liquid you can legally put into calcium-blocked pipes to clean them out and then be able to safely drink the water.
If your piping is of the galvanized kind, you are going to have to replace your piping. It is a good idea to replace not just the horizontal sections but all the piping.
People often make the mistake of only replacing the horizontals, but half the cost is the tear-out: it doesn’t take any more time to tear out the entire piping system. Set-up time and demolition time is for both jobs is the same, and if you do them both simultaneously, you only have to pay once.
The average length of a factory warranty on most brands of water heaters is about five years. So you should expect a water heater to last about ten years. If your water heater starts leaking from the top, there is a chance it can be repaired and you won’t need a new one.
However, if your water heater is leaking from the bottom, it is almost always a sign that it will need to be replaced. If you have a problem with your water heater, call us.
Our master plumbers can fix it if it can be fixed. If it needs to be replaced, we carry a large range of quality water heaters in all sizes from the leading manufacturers. We are certified distributors and installers of the leading brands, including Rheem and Bradford White.
Most people are happy with a water temperature set at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. You can set the temperature yourself on your home water heater. Gas models can be adjusted by a dial on the front. Electric heaters usually have a panel on the side.
The panel must be removed to access the controls. Be sure to turn off the power to the heater before you open the panel, because there are high voltage wires inside. If your water heater is new, it is probably already set at 120 degrees as this is now the default that manufacturers set at the factory.
We always offer coupons for discounts on our professional plumbing services. We reward our loyal customers with discounts on future visits.
We have plumbing service discount coupons and promos for new customers, which they can use anytime – even on our first visit. And we have coupons for homeowners, business owners, property managers and Home Owners Associations for discounts on regular maintenance programs to keep pipes, drains and grease traps etc. running smoothly throughout the year.
Visit our Coupons page or call our customer service team for more details about how you can save money on our quality plumbing and rooter service and maintenance plans. Or ask your Mr. Speedy plumbing technician on his next service call to you. He can give you a coupon that you can use right then and there to get a discount off the service call he is making for you right now.
Or, you can choose to use it on your next visit. We provide have discounts on plumbing service and/or drain repair and cleaning for first time customers and to reward our loyal return customers. We also offer plans for homeowners, property managers and homeowners associations to receive discounts on regular maintenance programs and services over the year to keep your water, sewer and gas lines flowing freely and smoothly all throughout the year.
Our paperless office makes us more efficient. In business, efficiency means cost reductions. And we pass on those savings to our customers in the form of better rates.
But we are always able to supply you with any printed documentation that you might need.
Property managers, Home Owners Associations, and corporate facilities managers usually require printed copies of things like Invoices or Work orders, Purchase Orders, receipts, warranties or other documentation. We are always happy to send these to you, either by Fax or by US Mail, or even an overnight delivery service if needed.
Just call our great customer service team, give them the details, tell them your requirements, and we will have your required documentation sent to you immediately.
When your sinks, showers and tubs start backing up, you have a sewer line obstruction. This can be caused either by tree roots or by extensive build up of material like food, paper towels, or toilet paper.
When we come out to investigate, the first thing we do is to camera the line. This shows us exactly where the obstruction is and exactly what it looks like. We show you the video and the exact extent of the obstruction.
Once the camera shows us the details of the obstruction, we can begin to examine the options. The best way to blast away a sewer obstruction is to jet it away with a powerful blast of water from the Hydrojet machine. This machine generates a water jet with a force of up to 2,000 lbs per square inch. This jet of water can blast away even the most stubborn obstructions in the line.
After we have blasted away the obstruction, we again camera the line to make sure we have done the job right. Then we run and flush all drains, sinks, showers and toilets to make sure everything is running smoothly again.
We have the very latest electronic devices that can detect and pinpoint the source of a leak anywhere.
We can detect leaks behind walls so we don’t have to tear away dry wall to find the leak. We have equipment that can detect a leak beneath a concrete slab, so we only have to dig into the concrete where we know exactly where it is. And we can detect a leak as deep as thirty feet underground.
No matter where the leak is, we have the equipment o find it and pinpoint the exact location. The reduction in the amount of digging or wall removal we have to do is drastically reduced by this wonderful equipment.
We also have equipment to detect the presence of gas leaks into the air, such as chlorine, ammonia, or leaks from refrigerants.
“Trenchless technology” is the coolest thing to happen to plumbing in years. In the ol days, if you had a problem with your underground pipes, there was no alternative but to dig up the place and inspect the pipes.
Today, we do much less digging: first, we can camera the line and take a good like inside the pipe to see exactly what’s wrong inside.
When we have identified the problem and it turns out the pipe needs o be replaced, we bring in our PermaLiner equipment and replace the pipe without needing to dig up the old one:
we simply reline the old, damaged pipe or we literally “burst” it while we insert a new pipe inside the old one.
When the job is done, we again camera the line and make sure we have done the job right. Trenchless technology means we don’t have to dig up the whole yard to replace a pipe. This saves a lot of time, trouble, and trees.
