You didn’t do anything different, but all of a sudden the garbage disposal is smoking and water is backing up in the sink. Is your plumbing possessed? Should you just set the whole house on fire and run? The answer is almost certainly no. What you may have, though, is a plumbing emergency on your hands. After all, that sink is pretty important and the reasons it’s backing up could be many.
But how do you know if you need an emergency plumber to save the day?
There are plenty of plumbing issues you can DIY. After all, plumbing is just a set of fancy tubes that connect in a logical way to move water around. It’s not magic. It is, however an incredible inconvenience to have indoor plumbing sometimes. Certain issues like minor leaks, problems with your toilet tank like a flapper that doesn’t quite seal or a handle that won’t flush, and household clogs are often entry level homeowner difficulty.
With the right tools, you can totally handle that! Bigger problems, though, require bigger guns (and more experience). Don’t be ashamed to call a pro in if you don’t think you can handle a plumbing issue. Here are some signs to look for:
When you encounter a plumbing issue that feels like you might be able to fix it, given enough time, ask yourself seriously how much your time is worth. The thing that many homeowners neglect to figure into the equation is how long that job will take to DIY. If you’re going to have the kitchen torn apart for days because you’re working a full time job and also you’re following instructions from the internet that you have to keep referring back to, maybe it makes more sense for the plumber to come and knock the issue out in an hour.
It’s not that you shouldn’t do your own plumbing, just that it’s often not really worth it when you juggle the extreme inconvenience of not having functional indoor plumbing. This is the line that homeowners have to walk every time their house needs work. Do you call someone or do you try to fix it yourself?
When you need a pro, they’re just a click away inside your HomeKeepr community. It doesn’t matter who you need, your Realtor has already made some professional recommendations and you can request more if you need a specific type of expert. From plumbers to bankers, pool installers to gardeners, they’re all here. At HomeKeepr, we believe in recommendations, not reviews!