Tag Archive for: plumbing

Can Hear Water Running But Can’t Find Leak

Imagine that you are sitting around the house and trying to relax from a long day. As you lie on the couch and attempt to fall off into a nap, you hear some water running. Immediately, you begin to think, this couldn’t possibly be true. There is no way that you have a water leak anywhere in your home. As a homeowner, you made a concerted effort to check all of the plumbing in your home. In addition, you have never experienced this before. At this point, you do what all homeowners would do. You call your home inspection company to come search for a leak. Can hear water running but can’t find a leak? The water running could come from a toilet issue, water heater leak, or even a worn gasket.

Let’s take a look below at the best way to determine what that water running noise is from.

A slow leak from your faucet can be a signal water is running.
A slow leak from your faucet.

How Do I Find A Leak

There are a few reasons why you can’t find a leak. Maybe the leak isn’t there as you were looking for. At the end of the day, you still need to find out why you hear water running and where the leak is happening. Always remember that leaks are not the easiest to find. You are likely going to call on your local master plumber. Most homeowners will test every faucet, and check on their water heater. If they still do not find out why it sounds like running water when every faucet is off, then they will likely call a professional.

Where Should I Look

There are a variety of areas to look at when trying to troubleshoot a possible water leak. Let’s take a look at those possibilities.

  • Water Meter – your water meter has a red dial that moves as the water flows. If your water running is a leak then your city water system will show a red dial moving.
  • Interior of the home – check your plumbing fixtures to make sure that no water is dripping. Check on your faucets and downspouts to make sure that water isn’t backed up and dripping. Also, check your toilets to make sure that water isn’t dripping through your toilet bowl and toilet drains. A bad seal could cause running water.
  • Water heater – make sure to check that your water heater isn’t leaking into your homes foundation.
  • Homes exterior – double-check the exterior of your yard to make sure your sprinkler system isn’t leaking and causing a drip sound.
  • Roof or Chimney – if you have a flat roof, heavy rains could cause water to collect and eventually create a slop drip. The dripping from your flat roof could cause a noise that most homeowners are not used to.

Other Recommended Maintenance

Now that you have read up on hearing water running but can’t find a leak. Consider, using a home inspection team that can locate a water leak inside a wall. Typically, the home inspection company can use thermography to detect leaks in the walls. Keep in mind that hearing running water does not always mean there is a leak, but it is a possibility.

Next, when thinking about water, making sure the water heater is working correctly is important. No one likes to take cold showers and you want to make sure you have warm water for washing dishes and clothes. If you find that the water heater may not be working, it may be the thermostat. To find out, you can test the water heater thermostat.

Lastly, you may start to notice calcium build-up on some of your faucets. This can be fixed by adding a water softener or by non-toxic methods such as white vinegar or a paper towel. Keeping these clean will also help the water to flow efficiently and allow you to get the most amount of water you can in the home.

Plumbing should be checked to make sure there is no leak.
Check all of your plumbing to make sure there is no leak.

When Do I Call A Professional

Trouble-shooting for any plumbing concerns might get tricky. If you hear water running and have checked all of the usual suspects, it might be time to call a professional. Not only can you break your toilet by mistake, but you could also damage pipes and connections on your water heater. Calling a professionally licensed master plumber is your best bet. Also, consider calling your local home inspection team. They can conduct some thermal imaging through your walls to detect any leaks in your pipes. Once they have completed their inspection, they can refer you to a reputable professional master plumber.

Conclusion

Avoiding any additional damage as you investigate why you hear water running when there are no leaks is key. Make sure that you hire a professionally licensed master plumber. Always remember that the master plumber can replace various damaged parts that could be allowing for the running water to be heard. Reach out to your local home inspection team to determine if you have basic plumbing repair needs, or if the problem lies deeper in the walls. As a homeowner, there are always worn parts in your plumbing that need repairs. The toilets are usually your first culprit. Call on your local home inspection team to conduct a full plumbing inspection. Home Inspection Geeks can take a look at your plumbing needs when we come out for a home inspection in the Cook, Lake, and DuPage Counties, IL.

Why Does My Toilet Whistle

The unexpected whistling of your toilet can come about at the most inopportune time. Imagine flushing your toilet in the middle of the night and it happens to begin whistling at you. Clearly the result of some damaged parts. Unfortunately, the stores are closed and now you have a nuisance on your hands. Why does my toilet whistle? It whistles due to a worn down rubber gasket or damaged fill valve. Both items need to be replaced.

Let’s take a look below at the best approach to replace these parts.

Toilet valve may need replacing.

What Do I Need

Stopping by your local hardware store is a great idea at this point. You can purchase the parts that you need to stop your toilet from whistling. Pick up a fill valve replacement and the rubber gaskets that go with it. Let’s review the necessary steps for making this replacement happen.

Follow these steps to replace the valve:

  1. Shut off the water valves under the toilet tank and empty the remaining water from the tank.
  2. Unscrew the plastic nut from the old valve from the bottom of the tank.
  3. Make sure the new fill valve is adjusted to fill to the adequate water level and attach it to the toilet tank.

How Much Does It Cost

The cost to repair a whistling toilet can be rather inexpensive. If you know your way around a toilet bowl you can make the fix rather quickly. The cost of the materials is all you will come up with and that can range from $20 to $45 for the parts. All parts can be found at your local hardware store. If you are going to hire a professional plumbing contractor to make your fix, you are looking at paying $75 to $200 for parts and labor.

Other Recommended Maintenance

While you are taking care of the whistling sound from your toilet, also check around the base to make sure it isn’t leaking. Next, move to the t-bolts and make sure they are in place, and then check the wax ring.  Lastly, you may need to replace the toilet or caulk.

Next, take a look at the sink in the bathroom. If there is calcium buildup, you will need to take care of this. Calcium buildup can be caused by hard water so getting a water softener will be helpful. Also, you can use white vinegar to take the calcium off the faucet.

Lastly, if you find that your bathroom smells like sewage, there is an issue but you can fix it. It may be the toilet, sink, jacuzzi tub, or shower drain. Taking a closer look at these areas will help you find the cause and get rid of the nasty smell.

Toilet leaking water is a plumbing issue and needs to be tended to.

When Do I Call A Professional

Dealing with plumbing concerns is never a fun project. You can accidentally make a bigger mess with water leaks and spills that don’t otherwise need to happen. Accidentally breaking the porcelain of your toilet tank is possible if you don’t really understand the leverage of replacing your fill valve and gaskets. Calling a professionally licensed plumbing contractor allows you to save time and money on your plumbing projects. They will get the job done quickly and correctly. Consider calling on your local home inspection team to get a thorough home inspection, which can include your plumbing.

Conclusion

In order to avoid further damage to your toilet and bathroom, it is a great idea to contact a professionally licensed plumbing contractor. Your plumbing contractor can replace the fill valve and rubber gasket quickly and save you time and money. If for some reason you have other plumbing needs, they can complete these projects all at once. Contacting your local home inspection team to determine if you have other plumbing concerns is a great idea at this point. Consider the worn parts in your toilet as a way to remind you that everything breaks down eventually. Home Inspection Geeks can take a look at your plumbing needs when we come out for a home inspection in the Cook, Lake, and DuPage Counties, IL.

How to Prevent Calcium Buildup on Faucets

Imagine, you come home from a nice long weekend away, and you have invited some friends over to dine with you. You make it to the kitchen sink to wash your hands and begin dinner preparations. As you look at the faucet where the water is coming out to clean your hands, you notice a white chalky film on the faucet head.

Questions begin to arise and you begin to freak out. This faucet does not look clean at all. You are thinking to yourself, how to prevent calcium buildup on faucets? Well, installing a water softener system or spending time using non-toxic methods to remove the calcium buildup.

How Calcium Builds-up on Faucets

Well, all of this happens when you have a “hard” water source. So, regardless of your time away, the water will release minerals and calcium deposits that affix themselves to the faucet heads. Fortunately, prior to your guests arriving, there is a quick solution to the problem. If you have hard water and lime deposits, you can install a water softener system.

Simply put, the calcium builds up due to minerals in the water source. So, if you have well-water there is a high chance that you will have lime, copper, and calcium in your water source. If you do not have a “soft” water system connected to your water source, then you will likely notice a build-up around the water faucets in your business or home.

How To Remove The Calcium Buildup

The easiest ways to remove the calcium buildup from your faucets are typical, simple home remedies. Here are some of the following items needed so that you can remove the calcium buildup from your faucets.

  • Use a white vinegar in water mixture
  • Paper towels or a rag of sort
  • Plastic bag the size of a sandwich
  • Rubber bands
  • A sponge, textured cloth, or magic eraser

Using these items will allow for easy removal of your calcium build-up around the faucets in your home or business.

Use non-chemical products when you can to clean the calcium buildup.

Steps To Achieving A Clean Faucet

Always use non-chemical products when you can. They are better for the air you breathe and often do an amazing job!

Here is a list of steps to accomplish your goals.

1. Read the CLR bottle (or vinegar) and make sure it’s compatible with your faucet material. We also recommend spot testing the CLR before beginning.

2. Use gloves and fill your Ziploc with 1 part CLR (or Vinegar), 1 part water.

3. Secure it on your faucet spout (shower head) with a rubber band and leave it for at least 3 hours.

4. Use a sponge (Magic Eraser) or paper towel and rub the buildup off.

5. After step #4 it should look just like new!

Invest in a Water Softener System to Prevent Calcium Buildup on Faucets

Do you live in a place where municipal water or well water is high in minerals? What could you do to fix this? Well, the softer the water, the less likely it is that you will experience calcium build-up on your faucets. Water softeners remove minerals such as calcium salts from your water. Removal of these minerals softens the water and reduces the production of calcium and lime build-up around your faucets.

When you are cleaning the areas where a faucet is present, it is best to check where the water comes out of the faucet. You will see if lime or calcium is building up around that water spout and screen locations.

Check out this video on how to clean the calcium off your faucets.

Water softener system can get rid of the hard water and calcium buildup.

Problems Caused by Hard Water

As we have learned, it is difficult to prevent calcium buildup on faucets when you have hard water. It can lead to a lot of different problems so this is why having a water softener system is a good idea. Some of those problems are:

  1. Clothes look dirty and wear out faster
  2. Shower heads will clog
  3. Soaps scum on tubs and showers
  4. Damage to glass shower doors and plumbing fixtures
  5. Water pipes will clog

Maintenance in the Home

When you are taking a look at the calcium build-up, you will want to make sure you focus on a few other areas as well. One of those is to check to see if you have cloudy tap water. Cloudy tap water happens when you have hard water. Just like with the calcium build-up, you need a water softener. Also, if you have bubbles, you need to get rid of those and also test your well if you have one. You can also use a sediment filter to help make the water cleaner.

The hard water will also cause soap scum and water spots on the shower doors. Most people use a squeegee to get the water off, but it does not always work when you are dealing with hard water. You can also use baking soda, vinegar, borax, or lemon juice to clean the spots from the door.

We know that hard water can wreck havoc on the home so another area you will want to take a look at is the piping in your home. What if you think while looking around that you may have polybutylene pipes? Well, here is an indication:

  1. Stamped with the code “PB2110.”
  2. Flexible and sometimes curved.
  3. Not used for waste, drain or vent piping – only supply lines.
  4. Usually grey in color, but they can also be white, silver, black, or blue.

Knowing what type of plumbing you have in your home is important.

Non-toxic Ways to Clean the Calcium

A water softener system is not cheap and averages about $1500. However, if you don’t want to add one to your home, then there are ways you can clean the faucet heads with a simple less toxic solution such as baking soda. Many over-the-counter products produce a gas that can be harmful to the person applying the chemical. It is best to start with simple soap and water to clean the area. Moreover, you might consider a Mr. Clean “Magic Eraser” as well. Lastly, if none of the over-the-counter products work to your liking, you will want to call a professional to install a soft water system.

When Do I Call a Professional

You would think that a professional would be needed to help with preventing calcium buildup on faucets. As unfortunate as it might be, it is fairly easy to clean the deposits off of your faucets. We realize that you might not have time to clean regularly, and in many cases, the build-up happens quickly and to multiple locations. These locations could include the showerhead, the sink faucets, and the bathtub faucet.

Conclusion

After all is said and done, the worst issue with calcium build-up relates to water and minerals. Both are areas that you cannot control as a real estate owner. You get no say in how the municipality treats your water source or how the water from the aquifer/well is created. Your only hope in having a relative stress-free water faucet scenario is to install a water softener system into your water source. Home Inspection Geeks will take a look at your water and plumbing system during a home inspection in Chicago Metro Area.

How to Identify Polybutylene Pipes

Polybutylene is a plastic material that used in homes for piping from 1978-1995. They were used in about 10 million homes in the U.S. because they were flexible, cheaper, easy to install and freeze resistant. However, production stopped in 1996 because of many reports of pipes bursting and causing extensive damage in homes. Do you wonder how to identify polybutylene pipes? Well, there are several ways, including a stamp on the pipe, they are flexible and may be curved, gray in color, white, black, blue, or silver. It will depend on the part of the U.S. as to what color the pipes are. Lastly, they are about 1/2 inch to 1 inch in diameter. They were mostly installed in the mid-Atlantic, Sun Belt, and Pacific Northwest states.

Let’s take a look at why you need to know how to identify polybutylene pipes, where they are found in the home, how to identify them. how they fail, lawsuits, why replace the pipes, and when to call a professional.

Why You Need to Know How to Identify Polybutylene Pipes

It is important for you to be able to identify these pipes as you will need to have them replaced in the home. You will want to replace them before they cause a disaster and thousands of dollars of damage.

Where The Pipes Are Found in the Home

While they are routed throughout your home, inside walls, attics, and crawlspaces, you can look in common areas to see if you have polybutylene.

Interior

From walls that connect to sinks and toilets

Across the ceiling in unfinished basements

Near the water heater

Exterior

Through the basement wall entering the home

At the water meter

At the water main shut-off valve

How to Identify the Polybutylene Pipes

There are a few ways to identify these pipes:

  1. Stamped with the code “PB2110”.
  2. Flexible and sometimes curved.
  3. Not used for waste, drain or vent piping – only supply lines.
  4. Usually grey in color, but they can also be white, silver, black or blue.

How the Polybutylene Pipes Fail

The plastic that is used for the polybutylene pipes is cheap and not sturdy. It starts to degrade over time and develop small holes in it. As with anything that develops holes, the holes grow bigger, and then the pipe breaks and water escapes. Thus, causing extensive damage and repair bills. It is also said that the polybutylene reacts with chlorine and other things added to the water, thus causing it to leak at the connections. This can lead to leaking inside walls. Do you know where the leak is in the walls? Maybe, but this is when you need to call a professional who uses an infrared camera to help locate it.

Lawsuit in the Sunbelt States

The manufacturer of the polybutylene pipes states that the leaks are where the joints and union connect and is an installation issue, however this does not seem to be the truth. In 1978, builders in the Sun Belt states were using this pipe in homes until 1996. The failure of the pipes wreaked havoc on homes and thus a Class A lawsuit was filed against the manufacturers. In the end, $1 billion was awarded to the plaintiffs.

Why Replace the Polybutylene Pipes

Leaking can happen without warning and then this causes flooding. We know then it is a domino effect: the water gets into the walls and the flooring and then mold develops. Replacing the pipes with copper or another material is a good idea and will last a long time. Copper can last up to 70 years! There are professionals that can help you with the decision.

Insurance

Homeowner’s insurance will either charge you higher premiums or not cover a home that has this type of piping. This is because everyone in the insurance world knows they leak and cause damage. It is also not a secret about the lawsuit against the manufacturers. Thus, if you are wanting to buy a home with this type of piping, you should negotiate the price due to needing to replace all of the plumbing.

When to Call a Professional

Call a professional to positively identify the pipes. You don’t want to assume that you have polybutylene until a professional checks it out. Also, if it turns out you do have them, the professional can recommend what your next step is.

Conclusion

Polybutylene is not something to mess around with and finding out if your home or the one you are wanting to buy is essential. This will save you from a mess and damage down the road. We look at the types of pipes in the homes during home inspections in the Chicago area. Do you have concerns about the piping in your home? Or do you have a home with Polybutylene pipes? Comment below! We would love to hear from you!