5 Most Common Plumbing Emergencies

Functional plumbing is something most of us take for granted. When we turn the tap, the water is just supposed to flow and then disappear down the drain. Out of sight, out of mind. But sometimes, what is supposed to happen just doesn’t, and in those situations, you’re suddenly in need of a plumber to address your emergency plumbing repair needs. At what point do your run of the mill plumbing needs become a more pressing need for emergency plumbing repair service? Today, Superior Plumbing and Drains, LLC will talk about five of the most common situations when your plumbing emergencies mean you should call in an emergency plumber professional.

No Running Water

Running water is critical in a home. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention elaborate: “Basic water and sanitation services are important to overall health. Having in-home running water and flush toilets help to keep people healthy. These services reduce the spread of infectious diseases.” Caitlin R. Proctor and Andrew J. Whelton of Purdue University and William Rhoads of Virginia Tech further explain: “When water isn’t flowing, organisms and chemicals can build up in the plumbing… These organisms and chemicals can reach unsafe levels when water sits in water pipes for just a few days.”

So if you turn your tap and no water comes or flush your toilet and the bowl doesn’t refill, that is a big problem that should be addressed with urgency. A lack of running water that otherwise should be running could be a sign of a pipe leak or something else that could be wreaking havoc inside of the walls of your home, or it could be a red flag warning of another even greater imminent problem like a clog that could cause a pipe to burst entirely.

If the water isn’t flowing when you know it should, it might be time to seek emergency plumbing repair service.

Water Heater Failure

In only a moment’s notice, most of us could step into a hot, relaxing shower to let the stress and the dirt and grime of the day seemingly melt away. When you step into that shower eagerly anticipating that warmth washing over you and all that comes out is frigid and cold, it’s almost enough to make you jump out of your own skin.

Why is the lack of hot water a potentially serious symptom of a larger problem though? While the most immediate consequence of a failing water heater may be a lack of hot water, the other possibilities of this plumbing emergency are much more sinister.

The North Carolina Consumer Council lists water heaters among their list of major sources of carbon monoxide poisoning. While fire and/or explosive events are less rare than carbon monoxide leaks, when they do happen, they can cause much broader damages to property all around the water heater as was the case in Mission, Texas where a water heater explosion sent one person to the hospital and damaged two homes and several nearby automobiles.

Possibilities like these pose the kind of potential threat that anyone would recognize as an emergency that would justify seeking immediate help from a 24 hour plumber.

Stopped Drain

If your drain is stopped up, you can just dump some drain cleaner in and voila, it’s fixed, right? Well, no. Unfortunately, handling this particular emergency is a bit more complicated than that.

Let’s say you were to load your drain with chemical drain cleaners and then nothing happens. Now what do you do? You can’t use a plunger without the risk of spewing the caustic chemicals you dumped in the drain all over yourself or your bathroom or kitchen. And now, even if you call for plumbing service and repair, your emergency plumber will be forced to contend with the same risks while they work to address the underlying problem.

A stopped drain can be annoying, and it might induce anxiety for you. In those moments, it can be easy to talk yourself into taking what appears to be the quick and easy route with drain cleaners, but ultimately, these chemical cleaners can fail to address the root causes of your drain issues, damage your pipes, and even threaten the health and wellbeing of you and your eventual plumber.

Sewer Backup

When sewers backup into your home, it’s more than disgusting; it’s dangerous! When your sewer backs up, the waste that you’ve flushed away from your home rushes back up your pipes and into your home once more.

According to a report issued by the State of Indiana, sewage exposure can result in a bevy of diseases including but not limited to campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis, E. coli, encephalitis gastroenteritis, giardiasis, hepatitis A, and leptospirosis.

A backed up sewer requires immediate service in order to both stop the problem from worsening and to allow the homeowner to immediately begin the process of cleaning up after their sewer backup.

Burst Pipe

There are pipe leaks, and there are pipe ruptures. There are a number of reasons a pipe might burst – corrosion and age, freezing, tree root infiltration, water pressure issues either due to or independent of pipe clogging, etc. – and the reason for a pipe burst might directly affect the way the repair is treated. However, what doesn’t change is the potential damage a burst pipe can wreak on your home.

Any source of water that is pouring into your home unabated poses a direct threat to your home itself and everything within it. Left unaddressed, a flood of water from a burst pipe can destroy a structure in surprisingly little time and dangerous mold growth is inevitable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that there is “a potential link of early mold exposure to development of asthma in some children (and) interventions that improve housing conditions can reduce morbidity from asthma and respiratory allergies.”

The best way to avoid mold exposure within your home is to avoid plumbing leaks within your home, but in those unavoidable emergencies where a pipe simply bursts, take swift action in seeking your emergency plumbing repair service.

What Do I Do When I Encounter A Plumbing Emergency?

Easy! Contact us at Superior Plumbing and Drains, LLC, and let us help you today. We are the 24 hour plumber for the Charlotte area, and when you need an emergency plumber, we’d love to help. Superior Plumbing and Drains, LLC is your superior choice for emergency plumbing repair service!