Plumbing Repair: When to DIY and When to Call an Expert

Not sure if you need plumbing services or if you can do it yourself?

Think a small leak is too trivial to hire professionals? Most people, especially below the age of 35, prefer to go the DIY route to save money.

Face the facts, we are constantly interacting with the water system in our homes and sometimes they can get damaged, thus leading to the need for plumbing repairs.

There are moments when the handyman inside all of us steps up to take the role. However, how do we know if the problem is beyond our skills or not?

What Plumbing Repair You Can Do Yourself

For the people who have a hidden desire to be an overall DIY savant, seeing an issue in your home might cause you to grab the nearest toolbox and start taking a whack at the problem. If you find yourself in this situation, feel free to proceed if the following applies to you.

Clogged Drains

Whether it’s the kitchen sink or the shower drain that’s clogging up, plumbing issues like this seem to pop up frequently in households. When confronted with this problem time and time again, it may be easier to tackle it yourself and the following are ways to do exactly it.

  • Try home remedies like baking powder and vinegar to clear your drains
  • Grab some drain cleaners at your local supermarket and follow the instructions on the label.
  • Learn how to use a drain snake and rent one from your local plumber or hardware store for a DIY drain clearing.

If all else fails or you don’t feel comfortable with the task, don’t hesitate to call a plumber who can guide you through how you can do yourself the next time around. However, you may find that drains aren’t the only common plumbing problem in your house.

Shower Heads

In contrast with the previous plumbing problem, this deals with blockages of water coming in.

When there is build up in your shower head it can reduce the water pressure and requires little to no experience to fix. Here are ways that you can remove the shower head build-up in your bathrooms.

  1. Remove the blocked shower head from the pipe
  2. Take the shower head apart, piece by piece and place them into a bag.
  3. Go into your kitchen and grab some vinegar from your cupboard.
  4. Pour it into the bag and wait for a couple hours.
  5. Rinse thoroughly and reinstall in your shower

The longer you soak the shower head in vinegar, the easier it is to scrub the build up off your showerhead. After you’re done clearing your shower heads, it would also be smart to check the rest of your bathroom while you’re at it.

Running Toilets

As another plumbing issue in your bathroom, running toilets can leave you with large water bills if left unchecked. However, in most circumstances, people don’t realize that they have running toilets in their homes until it’s too late.

To avoid shelling out more money on your utility bill, tackle the problem through the following ways.

Go through your home’s bathrooms one by one and open the toilet tank’s lid.

Check if the flapper and the ball are tightly covering the water intake valve.

If there is a gap, reposition both the ball and flapper until there is no water running into the toilet bowl unless when flushed.

If the following steps do not fix the problem, you might need to replace the ball and flapper altogether. However, swapping out these pieces don’t require much experience in plumbing and can install easily when you know the steps and have the proper tools.

You can now solve all these problems through simple solutions with the confidence and peace of mind that you won’t damage your home. However, if there are complications that anyone can fix, there are also problems that require the expertise and experience in plumbing repair.

What to Leave to Professionals

If you want things done right, you have to do it yourself?

Well, this saying doesn’t apply all the time to situations, especially when it comes to your home plumbing.

Keep in mind that most accidents happen at home. Calling the professionals can help lower the risk of you or your family getting hurt.

There are times where you’ll need to step down and call someone who knows exactly what to do and following are situations are when you should do so.

Replacing Pipes

While you may think that this is an easy task, more often than not, people find themselves regretting not calling plumbing repair for this problem. When you replace pipes, making mistakes like choosing the wrong pipe size can cause a leak which can damage your property and is best handled by your local plumber.

Main Water Lines

When dealing with repairs in your home, there may be the need to shut down the main water line to prevent home damage while trained professionals fix the issue. To shut off the main line, your local plumber has the appropriate tools and can do the job without you having to worry.

Water Tank Installations

If you’re in an area where water supply can run low, you may be thinking about having a water tank installed to keep a reserve but doing this yourself can be difficult. This is because you would need to integrate it into your home water system.

While you’re ordering one for your home, you can contact your water tank provider to learn more info about why a professional should install your water tanks to save yourself the hassle of doing it yourself.

Home Remodeling

Even if it’s something as straightforward as tearing down a wall in your home, you should contact a plumber before you start making renovations. If you don’t properly deal with concealed water pipes or correctly route pipes for a new outlet for a fixture, you might cause damage to your home.

Understanding the need to call for someone to step in can be the difference between a fast plumbing repair job and a home catastrophe. With this guide, you’ll be able to avoid damage to your home that can cause you a lot of money in the long run by calling the local plumber, just when you need to.

Still Not Sure?

Learning what you can do to fix problems yourself is only half the struggle.

While anyone can fix problems like clogged drains, blocked shower heads, and runny toilets, sometimes there’s a need to call for plumbing repair. These problems include replacing pipes, dealing with main water lines, installing water tanks, or any sort of home remodeling that may have to do with your home water system.

Do you have any questions about problems that weren’t mentioned? Would you like to know more about what you can do to improve your home? Contact us today!