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Even in a hot market, home buyers and sellers want to know the state of the home’s plumbing. It’s also not uncommon for a long-term homeowner to want to assess their property’s plumbing condition even if they plan to continue living there. At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Fort Worth, our plumbing service can check your Mansfield, TX home’s plumbing, either as a whole-house inspection or for specific issues. Common concerns include sewer line inspection, water heater condition review, and leak checks for problems in the walls and under the slab. Our plumbing service team can also provide repair quotes and help you plan for future upgrades and renovations. With the information in hand, you can have a more solid idea of what’s going on inside the plumbing of your family’s housing investment.

Sewer Lines Are On Every Property Owner’s or Buyer’s Mind

Sewer line repairs are typically a one-time thing under normal circumstances, with sewer pipe materials lasting up to 50 years. Other situations can arise such as crushing of the pipe from heavy equipment driving above, earth movement from seismic events or floods, and of course tree root intrusions which can make quite a mess of a sewer pipe, slowly but forcefully. In general, though, the passage of time and decay or corrosion of the pipe material is what lead to a need to call our plumbing service for replacement. These days, though, with the advantages of video inspection tools, we can examine the pipe to determine exactly what’s going wrong. The homeowner may notice backups, foul odors, sewage rising to the surface in the yard, or over-fertilizing the lawn in a stretch above the pipe, but we see the details. With that visible information, our plumbing service in Mansfield, TX can identify specific issues and, these days, choose from a variety of repair methods in addition to replacement.

Repair materials and strategies provide solutions that typically last about as long as pipe replacement, so homeowners can avoid the disruption of digging up and replacing an entire pipe. Full replacement also may bring with it the costs of a new connection to the public sewer line under the street, including pavement repairs, detours, and even a police presence to indicate the detour. When our plumbing service can patch, reline, or burst and replace the pipe with a minimum of disruption, it’s definitely a good option to consider. Video inspection also gives us a chance to see if the problem is just a huge clog, which does happen at times in sewer lines. Food, non-flushables, and other material, compounded by grease and chemicals, can lead to sewer line blockages. Our plumbing service can break up the giant clog and get it moving on, using tools like our powerful hydro jet equipment. Once the flow resumes, backups and other messes inside the home can be resolved as well. In the end, video inspection also provides a record of the state of the sewer line, helpful in answering that important question: “how’s the sewer line?” When asked by buyers, insurance companies, and even the homeowner.

Water Lines and Leaks

A water line leak can persist for a long time if it’s stable, slowly draining precious water into the soil instead of carrying everything you’re paying for into your home. Your water pressure may be affected, and even small breaks in the line can allow material in the soil to contaminate your water supply as well. If the leak is near the house, you may have water pooling around your foundation, resulting in cracks and even water entering your basement. How do you notice water line problems so you can call our plumbing service for repairs? Pressure and water quality can be clues, and signs that parts of your landscaping over the water line are benefiting from the extra water are good clues. You may find an area has gone “boggy,” with the soil saturated with water when you check it closely. Your water bill is a possible indicator, and water meter movement as well. Typical causes of water line problems in the run between the city water supply and your house are similar to those of sewer line issues, various forces that crush the line, corrosion and pipe decay, or other natural forces. Construction work that digs near your water line can also cause disruption. Video inspection for water lines is a good diagnostic tool, and our plumbing service team can use leak detection methods to identify a problem, often without having to dig down to the pipe. There are a variety of repair and relining solutions available, and you may be surprised at the restoration of water pressure and water quality once the work is done.

Leaks Inside Your Home

In the past, a plumbing leak in the walls or other spaces of your home was difficult to find. Typically, slower leaks cause gradual damage inside the walls, with water dripping along wires, pipes, and wood until it gathers in a puddle and possibly drips to the surface where you can see it. You might also smell a musty odor as mold grows inside, or notice the presence of insects or vermin that are gathering to take advantage of the dark, secluded spot with plentiful moisture. Defects in your wallpaper, plaster, or other materials can be traced to water soaking in from behind, and the warping of wood can be an indication of nearby water leaks. The actual leak may be some distance from the problems you identify, so Mansfield, TX plumbers have had to cut into walls to visibly locate the source of the problem. The amount of cutting required varied according to the experience of the plumber in leak hunting, and there was a fair amount of luck involved as well. Now, ultrasonic leak detection, video pipe inspection tools, and even infrared imaging techniques can be used by our plumbing service to determine exactly where the leak is occurring, and with video, the nature of the leak as well. If we notice damage from wear, such as a pipe that has been vibrating against another pipe for years as your washing machine cycles on and off, it’s a simple pipe repair. When our plumbing service team sees that the leak is a breakthrough from extensive corrosion in your pipes, we may suggest that further inspection be performed to see if other leaks are about to occur elsewhere as well.

Ultrasonic leak detection is an amazing tool that listens for the sound of even pinhole leaks, and can perform calculations that indicate the distance from the test point to the leak itself. That means our plumbing service experts can test pipe runs from a limited number of test points, find any leaks or even perform a preventive care inspection, and follow up with video inspection and appropriate care in a fraction of the time and disruption that the process used to require. Heat imaging can be useful in finding leaks, especially major ones, by tracing the temperature changes due to hot or cold water flow or lack of it, and any dispersion of the water from the leak point. These techniques can be extremely helpful in avoiding further water damage and reconstruction, rewiring, or even mold remediation and disinfection when wastewater lines are involved.

Leaks Under the Slab

Along with sewer lines, leaks under the slab have been some of the most costly plumbing service repairs for homeowners in the past. Like water lines, these problems can occur for a long time before they’re discovered, with water pooling near the foundation, foundation cracks occurring, and water seeping into the basement. Plumbing run under the concrete slab during home construction can also include hot water lines, which often results in warm spots on the basement floor from hot water gathering below. You may find that there’s less hot water available for your showers, your water heater is using a lot more energy since it’s heating water that’s leaking out under the slab, and of course, your water bill can increase significantly. Many times, hot water slab leaks are found during a water heater repair call to our plumbing service. In general, slab leaks that occur in water distribution lines run under the concrete can be the result of shifting soil due to earth movement or major flooding, or corrosion of the pipes. In fact, if our plumbing service professionals find that leaks in your walls are caused by corrosion of aging pipes, we’ll often suggest that your incoming water line and pipes under the slab be checked as well since they’re usually made of the same material and of the same age.

Slab leak repairs can be performed in a variety of ways, including cutting through the concrete floor and digging under the slab. Thanks to video inspection and leak detection, we can check the sources of the leaks and determine the overall situation, recommending a solution that will resolve your slab leak problem rather than just address a single leak at a time, since the access methods are so time-consuming. We may suggest pipe repairs, pipe replacement, or rerouting of plumbing from under the slab so that it goes through your basement instead, often a more economical solution. Our plumbing service has the experience and technologies to give you options!

Drains Don’t Just Clog, They Make Costly Leaks

Aging wastewater lines can have a lot of material accumulated in them, and very slow running drains. Our whole house drain cleaning service can make a big difference, using a variety of techniques to clear the drains and the pipes that connect them down to your sewer. We can remove problems that have been leading to recurring backups and overflows, and deep clogs that slow flow and allow other clogs to form. Our plumbing service uses video inspection to locate and identify clogs so we use the right equipment to remove them, and that can sometimes mean power blasting with hydro jet equipment that leaves pipes nice and clean. When our Mansfield, TX plumbing service professionals notice aging or corroded pipes, though, we go carefully to protect the pipe integrity, and we can make recommendations for repairs as well. As you may know, overflows and backups can be costly to clean up since the water damage is unsanitary as well. Leaks in your drain line can be especially costly, with widespread damage, so it’s good to be informed when your pipes are nearing that point in their service life. Our plumbing service can clear your drains so that you won’t be hung up on a simple flow test where someone opens a faucet, notices how slow the drain is, and be concerned about what condition your plumbing is in. By the way, having our expert plumbers clear the less-obvious problems in your home’s plumbing can be very helpful. If you’ve been troubled by backups, sewer odors, and clogs you can’t clear very well, especially in the upstairs bathrooms, we may have an unusual solution. The plumbing vent on your roof provides an exit for sewer gas and relief of the suction from water going down the drain, and if it’s blocked by debris or even a bird’s nest, you can have lots of plumbing problems that can’t be fixed by a plunger. Our plumbers have the experience to take good care of your home’s pipes, no matter what happens to or inside them!

Your Plumbing Service Experts in Mansfield, TX

At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Fort Worth, we can inspect your Mansfield, TX home’s plumbing using our experience and modern technologies, checking for leaks, damage, corrosion, sewer issues, and other concerns that could affect the value of your property or its daily use. With modern diagnostic and repair techniques, resolution of plumbing problems is often easier than in the past, so it’s definitely worth finding out what shape your home’s plumbing is in and what we can do about any issues. Call us today for help!

Photo By gpointstudio at Shutterstock