Property Headaches: How You Can Save Time and Money by Watching Out for These Three Plumbing Issues | Tips from Your Mansfield, TX Plumber

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For the average home owner/amateur plumber, you’ll find the causes to common issues to be parts breakdown, and lack of maintenance over time. While these can be pretty simple to fix, you’ll find more sudden problems to be more difficult to handle if you notice them too late. For residents of Mansfield, TX, common environmental problems such as invasive tree roots, hard water build up, and slab changes are the common cause of major repair jobs in the future. For a plumber with years of experience however, you’ll find the early treatment, and prevention for these issues to be quick and easy in the long run.

Invasive Tree Roots and You

Large, ranch style properties are the pride and joy of many Texas home owners, but you’ll find that the ancestral oak tree in your backyard may cost you more in expensive plumber visits than you first think. Because tree roots are constantly searching for nitrogen rich nutrients you find in human waste, you may find tree roots growing toward the break due to a small break already existing in your sewer line.

Many of the trees native to the South Western United States have shallow, wide reaching roots to survive droughts, so regardless of how far a tree is from your property, don’t be surprised if a plumber‘s suddenly cutting out a healthy sized root from your main sewer line.

Prevention & Treatment

To prevent tree roots from creating an expensive, hard to fix repair job, Mansfield, TX, residents will find either chemical or physical prevention to be the best fits for them. To inhibit the growth of tree roots and other plant life, you’ll find slow-release growth inhibitors to be an easy inexpensive solution. Every six months, you can apply copper sulphate to the areas near the pipes you’re most worried about, and flush small doses down your toilet itself to cycle it through the water, and reduce any pipe invasion already occurring.

If you’re concerned about any damage to the plant life on your property however, a physical barrier will work too, either a metal or wooden board installed around the pipe will prevent any tree roots from being attracted to the sewage.

If you know a tree root’s the cause of any breakage in your sewage lines, a plumbercan come down and use a specialized camera to locate, and diagnose the problem. While it’s possible to just unclog the drain or remove the roots from your pipes yourself, neglecting to maintain your property or call a plumber in the case of major repair can cost you thousands of dollars down the line.

Water Hardness: The Silent Clogger

According to the Annual Water Quality Report, Mansfield, TX, residents will have their home’s average water hardness at between 90-120 mg/l which puts it at the higher end of moderately hard water. This level of water hardness will cause various problems over time, including scale build-ups in pipes, mineral deposits in water heaters, shortening their lifespan, and the lesser problems of less effective washer/drier units and difficulties using soap in the shower.

While some of these problems are treatable in the short term by having a plumber replace the afflicted pipes or physically removing the deposits from joints or water heaters, the minerals are endemic to Texas being an arid state, so the only long-term solution is installing a water softener in your home. Due to advances in water softening technology, the average home owner will have access to a variety of water softening systems that can suit a number of needs.

Choosing Your Whole House Water Softener

The most popular water softener sold for homes is a salt water softener. A salt water softener sends water through a resin tank, this attracts the minerals that cause scale build up, and replaces them with sodium ions. The resin tank is replenished with salt from a brine tank, and the cycle is maintained as long as the brine tank has salt.

These models typically come in single, or twin-tank varieties, twin-tank water softeners have an additional resin tank, so while one tank is being used, the other tank replaces the sodium ions, allowing for a higher capacity of soft water, whereas the single-tank will regenerate it’s resin tank without a backup, meaning your home will be without soft water for a brief period of time. Needless to say, the decision of which system to use comes down to a lower upfront cost with the single-tank, but a constant supply of soft water with the twin-tank system.

While the main issue with these systems is their cost and the small amount of salt added to drinking water, these systems are the most direct solution to softening water. You can also consult a plumber for alternative systems such as reverse osmosis and water conditioning systems.

Slab Changes: Water Bills to The Moon and Back

For Mansfield, TX, residents whose homes sit on a poured concrete foundation, you’ll find that the plumbing in your home is simply integrated through the concrete. While this is fast and makes for cheap and easy work for plumbers, it also makes it intensely frustrating to find those hidden leaks in the pipes beneath the foundation of your home. The symptoms for leaks beneath your foundation include the sudden appearance of mold on your property, and dimpling or bumps appearing on the floor of your home, indicating the presence of additional water. Slab changes can be caused by soil shifting, extreme weather periods, and corrosion in the foundation from chemicals in the ground. While the previous problems can be rectified partially on their own by do-it-yourself skill, fixing pipes that leak due to foundational shifting should only be solved by professional plumbers with specialized tools, and turning off the water as soon as you see the symptoms that there’s a leak beneath your home.

Contact the experts at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing today!