How To Find & Hire A Trusted Plumber In Your Area?

American homes have had indoor plumbing for almost a century. We’ve come to take running water in the home for granted. But as soon as the water stops running, that’s when we take notice. And when waste water starts backing up or can’t get out of your house, you are soon going to have a serious problem.

That’s when you hire a trusted plumber to come round and make things right again. But how do you find a trusted plumber?

Who is a Residential Plumber?

Residential Plumbing technicians (residential plumbers) are the men and women who keep the water in your home running, and who you call when there is a problem with the water going into or out of your apartment, or if a plumbing fixture or appliance becomes faulty or defective.

Plumbers are trained to diagnose any plumbing issue in the house and a qualified plumber also needs to have the right tools and equipment to resolve any plumbing issue that may develop in your house. Keep in mind that a plumber is not a handyman, although a handyman can do plumbing.

In order to be a qualified plumber the technician must obtain a C-36 Plumbing Contractor License. The requirements might vary from  state to another, but if you want to be called lets say “the best plumber in Downtown Los Angeles” you need to hold a California state plumbing license.

What are the features of residential plumbing and what are the main plumbing issues that a modern home might have that need to be resolved by a professional plumber?

The Features of Residential Plumbing:

Toilets: “When your Toilet Gets Clogged”

The toilet is the main place where problems develop that need the services of a plumber. A blocked or running toilet can cause a lot of headaches!

Toilet stoppages are often caused by people flushing things that should not go into the toilet. Only human waste and toilet paper should be flushed down the toilet.

Paper towels, wipes, and other unflushable items should go into a wastebasket that you should set up in your bathroom, and you should inform your family and guests to use the waste basket.

“My toilet is clogged: What should I do now?”

Simple toilet stoppages can often be solved with a simple plunger. If that doesn’t work, a cabling device is needed. These can be hand-powered or electric powered. You can often do plunging or cabling yourself. If not, call a residential plumber to take care of it.

Drains:

Drains are the next place where problems can occur. Drains can be in a shower, a tub, a bathroom or kitchen sink, or in a floor. Your drains must be clear of debris or they will clog up. A strainer should be placed over every drain to keep hair, soap, and other debris from going down into the drain and causing a stoppage.

The strainer should be screwed down, and you should clean the strainer frequently to enable water to go down. Chemical solutions like Drano can often clear a simple stoppage. If the stoppage is really stubborn, use a cabling device or call a plumber.

Fixtures:

When a faucet or a shower head becomes defective, it must be repaired or replaced. Turn off the water before you disconnect any faucet.

Replace washers frequently – a faulty or worn-out washer is the most frequent cause of faucet problems. Washers are cheap and easy to replace. If the faucet is really old, it must be replaced. New models of faucets all have a strainer attached to the spout to reduce the amount of water flowing out. You can attach a strainer to most older models of faucets to make them “low-flow”. If you’re buying a new faucet, use a name brand like Moen or Price Pfister, rather than the cheaper off-brand models.

Pipes:

The pipes in a residential home must be in good condition. If a pipe has a hole in it, it will leak and cause you problems with everything from low water pressure to costing you money and wasting water. Bad pipes must be replaced. A plumber can examine your pipes and replace either a part of a pipe or the entire pipe. Pipes are often behind walls or below the ground. A good residential plumber will have leak detection devices to accurately determine where a leak may be. And he will have video camera systems to camera the lines and see exactly what’s going on inside your pipes. A defective or leaky pipe must be replaced as soon as it is detected.

Water Pipes, Waste Pipes, Gas Pipes:

There are three kinds of pipes in your home – water pipes, gas pipes, and waste pipes. The water pipes bring water into your home from the city supply line. Waste pipes take dirty water from sinks, drains, tubs and showers and remove the water from your home.

Waste pipes include your sewer pipes, which take human waste from your home into the city sewer.

Gas pipes bring gas from your local gas company to appliances in your home, which may include your water heater, your stove, and your home’s central heating system. A gas leak can be very dangerous: if you smell gas leaking, call your plumber or your gas company immediately. Sometimes the smell of gas is caused simply because a pilot light has gone out. This can usually be resolved by re-lighting the pilot light. If the gas leak is caused by a leaky or broken pipe, it must be repaired or replaced immediately.

Pipe Installation, Repair and Replacement:

A residential plumber knows how to install, repair or replace any kind of pipe in your home. If you’re going to do it yourself, always remember to turn off the water or gas at the source before you begin working on the pipe.

You also need the right tools and replacement parts, and you need to know what you’re doing. You can buy the replacement parts or pipes yourself at your favorite home repair store like Lowes or Home Depot, and then have a plumber install it if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Re-piping A Residential Home

Sometimes a home needs to have its entire plumbing system repiped. This is true especially in older homes, where pipes wear out or develop too many leaks to be repaired. These pipes can be behind walls or are underground. Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, do not attempt to repipe a home yourself.

A good residential plumber should be called in, will do the job right, and should usually provide a warranty on the materials installed and on his work.

Repairing or Replacing A Home Sewer Line

If your sewer line is broken, it will need to be repaired or even replaced. Especially in older homes in Los Angeles, the sewer lines can be damaged by the intrusion of tree roots, or decay with age, or have been damaged by earthquake activity.

Older galvanized pipes under homes in Los Angeles are now starting to decay, and residential plumbers in Los Angeles are real busy these days replacing those old sewer pipes.

Water Pressure Problems In The Home

Water pressure is another issue that can affect your home’s plumbing. Your water pressure can be too high, meaning you’re using too much water which is costing you money, or your water pressure may be too low, so you don’t get enough water out of your faucets or into your appliances. Adjusting water pressure is a difficult thing to do: call a good residential problem to resolve this issue if it happens in your home.

Residential Appliances Which Use Water.

Your home has several appliances which use water. The main ones are your water heater, your dishwasher, your garbage disposal unit and your washing machine. Some homes have additional appliances such as ice-makers and drinking fountains. A good residential plumber knows how to install or repair most of these water-using appliances. Sometimes you may need to call a serviceman to repair a device like a dishwasher or a washing machine. But if the problem is with the water or gas going into or out of the appliance, a residential plumber is the person to fix the problem.

Using the Latest Plumbing Technology

Today, there are a variety of high-tech devices that a good residential plumber will have at his disposal to help you resolve any plumbing issues in your home If you call a residential plumber in Los Angeles, make sure he has these tools to resolve your residential plumbing issues:

Video Cameras:

Today there are high-resolution video cameras which are attached to the end of a stiff cable which is then inserted into a line. The plumber can then see what the issue is, exactly where a stoppage is located and the nature of that stoppage. He can show you the video and you can see exactly what the problem is. After he has repaired the pipe or cleared the stoppage, the plumber then again inserts the camera into the line and can show you that the problem has been resolved.

Hydro jet Machines and Hydro Jetting Process: 

The Hydro jet machine is one of the most wonderful plumbing inventions of the last fifty years. The hydro jet develops a powerful jet of water that literally blasts away almost any obstruction in a water or sewer line. Hydro Jetting also scours the insides of your pipes and cleans them almost like new.

Before hydro-jetting a line, a good residential plumber will usually camera the line to locate the exact location and nature of the obstruction. After hydro jetting away the obstruction, the plumber will reinsert the camera into the line, and can show you that the obstruction has been removed and totally washed away. If you are a homeowner you should consider a regular maintenance schedule to keep your drains clean and free of stoppages.

Electronic Leak Detection Devices:

A good plumber in Los Angeles should have the latest electronic leak detection devices to locate leaks. The newest devices can detect the exact location of a gas or water leak wherever it is – behind a wall, under the ground, or even beneath a concrete slab.

Trenchless Technology:

Another incredible invention that helps the plumber in Los Angeles better service the residential homeowner is called “trenchless technology”. Using this incredible technology, a Los Angeles plumber can replace all or part of an underground sewer pipe with minimal intrusive digging. This prevents your lawn, your yard, and your mature trees from being damaged.

Trenchless technology can be used to replace a pipe using a method called “pipe bursting” or it can reline an old pipe with a new plastic pipe which is inserted into the old pipe.

GPS Direction Devices:

A good plumber in Los Angeles will have a GPS device in his vehicle so he can find your home easily. There are also apps available so the plumber’s office staff can see on a map exactly where any of the company’s plumbers are at any time.

This helps the plumbing company in two ways: by knowing exactly where the plumber is, the company’s customer service people can let a customer know exactly how far away the plumbing tech is from the customer’s home and exactly when he will be arriving at your doorstep. It also helps the dispatcher, who can see where the nearest plumber is when a new call comes in to the office.

If the call comes in from a Beverly Hills customer, the dispatcher can see that he has one plumber in West Hollywood, and can send him to Beverly Hills after he has finished the West Hollywood job rather than dispatching the plumber who is now working on a job in Malibu or Orange County. This saves time and brings the plumber to your door a lot quicker.

Mr. Speedy Plumbing & Rooter uses the new FieldSurf field service management software system to quickly locate and efficiently dispatch Los Angeles plumbers to their destinations.