DIY Plumbing Repair - You Have Homeowners Insurance, Use It!

Since most home owners insurance policies don't cover the cost of repairs few people think to check with them when plumbing problems occur. Although they may not cover the repair, they will usually cover the value of damaged property including cleaning up after the repair. The scope of this type of project is typically not a diy plumbing repair project so you will want to find any way you can to help pay for it.

A few years ago I had the misfortune of finding water seeping through a wall in my basement one spring. First this was blamed on a very wet season. Next, when dry weather came around and the leak was still there a basement waterproofing contractor was called in. It was no suprise when this contractor informed me that I had ground water and needed their expensive services. Since the company had a vested interest in me believing this they did not seem to feel the need to offer any other possible explanation. Based on the fact that the remaining 95% of the basement walls had no such problem a third opinion was in order.

Based on the proximity of the leak to the primary kitchen drain pipes a third contractor was called. After a short examination, the plumbing contractor was able to determine that the kitchen drain pipe was leaking (not where we could access it easily of course but behind a cinder block wall under a concrete slab).

The plumbing contractor then made an unexpected suggestion - call my insurance company before starting the repair. That was when he explained that the company would not pay for the repair, but they would pay for the cost of jack hammering up my living room, hall, and/or office floor to find the leak and cleaning up afterwards. He was also able to suggest an alternative solution that was cleaner and much less expensive and present it to the insurance company.

Two repair scenarios were proposed.

The first project would involved having the plumbing contractor find the leak under the living room slab, repair the drain pipe, and then replace the concrete and flooring to clean up after the project. As would be expected the estimate for this repair was on the high side ($4000+ by the time all the cleanup work would have been completed).

The second repair was considerably less intrusive - they would cap off the existing drain line (kitchen only) and re-route it through the joist's in the basement and re-connect it to the main line outside the house. The only "heavy" work in this proposal was cutting a 6 inch hole in the exterior wall and digging a trench to run the new pipe to be reconnected. The remainder of the work amounted to a fairly simple plumbing repair. The net cost for this repair was about half the first proposal

With both of these proposals on hand, the insurance company had no problem in justifying payment for the FULL SECOND OPTION (less deductable of course). The insurance company saved money, the home owner saved money, and the repair was accomplished within 2 days with a minimum of cleanup required.

This entire project demonstrated the value of a good plumbing contractor. They were able to quickly identify the problem, propose multiple solutions, and help justify the payment by the insurance company.

This repair also demonstrated the value of a insurance company. The insurance company was willing to accept and pay for an alternative solution as well as inform the home owner of all the expenses that should be recorded for reimbursement.

Ray Breitenbach writes for SimpleHomeRepairs. Please visit for more information on how to perform you own basic home repairs

Basic Plumber Tools To Keep Around

You never know what kind of emergency might pop up unexpectedly around the house. That?s why everyone has some basic tools in the home to be prepared. For the same reason, it is important to keep around some basic plumber tools for any of those minor repairs you may need to do. You don?t have to be an expert on plumbing, but you need to know basic repairs to at least hold off until the expert shows up.

Items To Keep In Your Plumber Tools Kit

The most commonly used of the plumber tools are the water-pump pliers. Sometimes these are also called plumber?s pliers or even channel-lock pliers. The serrated teeth on the pliers help you hold on tight to the pipe. The are necessary because any other tool would make it near impossible to hold on well to the pipe.

Another of the plumber tools that needs to be available is the adjustable open-end wrench. This tool can sometimes be all you need when there is a leak, because the problem could just be a loose nut-bolt. So the job of the adjustable open-end wrench is to tighten any loose nut-bolts. Since the nut-bolts can be various sizes, you will need a few different sizes of the adjustable open-end wrench to accommodate them.

Tightening the pipe can be done using a pipe wrench. Keeping this with your plumber tools is nice because the pipe wrench can place a lot of pressure on the pipe without changing the pipe?s shape. Without this tool, you could end up damaging the pipe and creating an even bigger problem. Since one of the main reasons for owning plumber tools is to save money by doing it yourself, making a bigger mess would defeat the purpose and cause you to pay a lot for someone to come in and make repairs.

If you have ever tried to loosen or tighten nuts and bolts under a sink, you know how difficult it can be. That?s why you will need to add a basin wrench to your plumber tools. The basin wrench makes it easier to loosen and tighten nuts and bolts because of its convenient shape.

If you are looking to do more than minor repairs, you will want to consider having a pipe cutter, reaper, and emery cloth in the mix of your plumber tools. A pipe cutter can make precise cuts in the pipe, while a reamer can get rid of the residue in the pipe. Then you can use the emery cloth to clean the pipe. Just make sure that if you plan to do these repairs, you follow directions to the letter and follow all safety rules.

Other helpful things to add to the plumber tools kit are washers, threads, pipe cleaning tools, joint compound, Teflon tape, nuts and bolts, etc. After you have combined all the plumber tools mentioned in this article, you will have spend about $100-200. This isn?t bad for a home owner, especially considering the money you can save by doing your own repairs.

Mike Walker is SEO of plumbinggreat.com, his goal is to give latest Plumbing info including plumbing contractor and diy. Learn and print all about plumbing, from plumbing contractor to DIY.

Water Problem At 3AM: Call A 24 Hour Plumber

When you get woke up at the early hour of 3AM, There's no water! this is the time many often first consider a plumber at all. It seems many problems show there heads at of all times: when you are asleep! Of course a 24 hour plumber doesn't come to mind immediately. Often what comes to mind is What? You may get further elaboration, such as the basement is flooding, or maybe it's just no hot water.

Regardless you probably leap to your feet and go investigate a little further. And then you need to assess the situation, and as of now, you may be thinking you need a 24 hour plumber.

What's the problem? Is it a water supply problem, a leak, or maybe the hot water heater is providing 30 or 40 gallons of cold water? What can you do at an hour like 3AM? The choices are limited as you can either fix it (if you know how) in an hour or two, or you can call a plumber, however not all plumbers are available. Many are home asleep not to be bothered. You may now need to consider a 24 hour plumber.

While known simple things may be able to wait till daytime, how often do we get that lucky? It's very possible you now need to call a 24 hour plumber. You will want to consider a few things, and if you aren't really in this situation right now, you might want to consider looking over your plumbing to be sure it's sound and won't introduce itself to you this way at 3 in the morning.

The 24 hour plumber remains on call at late times in the 24 hours of a day, why? Because there is less competition, and of course they can charge a lot more for the 24 hour convenience. It's quite possible that they will charge double that on weekends, and maybe even triple on holidays. If your fix is quick you might get lucky on an hour minimum charge, though maybe you won't.

Of course in the middle of a plumbing emergency, you may have no choice but to flip through the yellow pages to find a 24 hour plumber. Depending on the area you live in, you will have varying numbers of choices. If it's not too urgent (downstairs furniture already floating upstairs) you might be able to do some quick shopping for the best price.

One way to avoid such costly repairs is to be on top of your plumbing in the first place. Many today take the do it yourself approach as well to keep things up and less likely to wake them up at the wee hours of a holiday on a weekend. At the same time knowing your choices in advance may at least help you contain the bills a little in the event you aren't able to avoid the need for a 24 hour plumber.

In the end, you will find that plumbing can be a fun thing when you are using it as expected or a major headache when you are unable to use it. Today might be a great day to prepare for a 24 hour plumber.

You can learn much more about finding an emergency plumber by visiting the House Plumbing Site which provides comprehensive and up to date help and advice on all plumbing issues. Clive thoroughly recommends this site so make sure you check it out today here: - http://www.houseplumbingsite.com

Never Rely on Your Plumbing Expectations

We in the 21st Century living in a developed Country are totally, totally spoiled. Just ask anyone who lives in a developing Country.

Better still; try living in one yourself for some time rather than just passing through as a tourist living in 5 star luxuries.

It was 20 years ago that I lived in Malaysia for 3 years. I loved living in Georgetown on Penang Island. The people were beautiful, the scenery breathtaking and the food from the Mukan stall’s delicious and cheap.

Some of the backstreets though where the poorer people lived and survived were not always so delectable or pleasant. The open “Mony drains” were either so deep you would think they were dug out by a miner, or so shallow they were virtually useless. Mony drains were short for monsoon drains due to the tropical downpours that came through every 3 months as the monsoon passed over on its way south then on its way north again.

Now this is where I really appreciated plumbing. We, of course, being among the blessed elite, had ‘normal’ plumbing in our house with running water.

The difference was that this water was released into our outside “mony drain” that ran around our house and into a larger drain which ran into a larger drain etc until it ran out to where ever was the great meeting place for all mony drains.

Every week our wonderful, cheerful gardener came with his tin of ‘goodies’, hard scrubbing brush and scrubbed our drains for us.

There was one outside tap for use in the garden and it was located at the front of our house. On this tap we had a long hose that reached around the back of our house. Yes, you’re right, Nothing unusual about that.

We lived in a cul-de-sac with 3 houses. The last house had a really beautiful garden with a very attractive spirit house out the back. If I had been an ancestor, I would have been honoured to have lived there but I was a neighbour instead.

But as neighbours, we had a problem that went beyond different languages.

Their gardener raked the leaves off their perfect lawn and burned them in front of our house. Often long after our Amah Devi had put the washing on the line to dry.

Because it ‘got smoked,’ she used to bring it in and re-do it, which really wasn’t remotely fair.

We asked nicely, we asked again, and again and again. We spoke with the owner of the house, his wife, the mother-in-law grandmother, the gardener many, many times. We even had a solicitor write a letter to them in Bahasa requesting that they stop causing us this problem.

But they continued to light the fire to burn the leaves directly out the front of our house.

This particular day I came back from walking the kids to the school bus and they were out the front about to light the fire again. I approached them and asked them not to and pointed to the washing hanging on our line. It was the grandmother and the gardener and she was telling the gardener to ignore me and light the fire. He continued to hesitate because he was a kind hearted man and knew he was causing extra work for Devi.

I pointed to the tap in front of our house and went and got the hose. I turned the tap on full-bore, kinked the hose to hold the water back and hauled it through the front gate to where the fire was now burning.

I unkinked the hose expecting to see the usual gush of water sprout forth and it went drip…drip…drip…

I couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing and laughing and the grandmother joined in. The gardener didn’t quite know what to do but his grin said it all.

The grandmother came over and gave me a kindly pat on the arm, told the gardener to put the fire out and whatever else she said but we never had a fire lit there again.

Now that was probably the only time in my life I have been grateful for bad plumbing. jan@constructingprofits.com http://www.constructingprofits.com Showing contractors how to make more money ~ working fewer hours

Don't Get Flushed by Plumbing Problems

There are several plumbing problems that the do-it-yourselfer can fix with little effort and a lot less money than calling a plumber. Remember the DIY motto is to only call for professional help when absolutely necessary. Now there is nothing wrong with hiring a professional because we cannot possibly do every project ourselves but there are many projects that we can do.

Some common plumbing problems include problems with the hot water, problems with the toilet, and problems with drainage in the sink of tubs. With hot water sometimes you may find that there is not enough hot water. This is especially true for larger families. A common cause for this may be that the thermostat on the water heater may be set too low. A fix for this is to adjust the water heater thermostat upwards. This will allow less hot water to be used to still get the temperature that everyone wants.

A common toilet problem is when the toilet does not flush completely. This of course is evidenced by remnants remaining in the bowl after the toilet is flushed. The most common cause is that the ball in the tank is not being lifted high enough. The solution is to adjust the lift mechanism so that it lifts the ball higher in the tank.

A common sink drainage problem is the grease clog. In the case of clogs, the best thing to do is to try to prevent them in the first place. A good way to prevent grease clogs is to pour about a half gallon of boiling water down the drain every other day. However if you already have a grease clog, try pouring some hot vinegar down the drain and letting is set for about 20 minutes and then follow it with boiling water after the 20 minute vinegar soak.

Plumbing problems are one of the top reasons that professional help is sought. However, many of the plumbing problems that you will face can be solved as a DIY project. So make sure that you determine that you are not equipped to solve the problem before you call the plumber.

Are you hungry for more Do-it-Yourself home improvement ideas? Try visiting http://www.home-improvement-know-how.com, a popular website that provides home improvement ideas, advice, and tips for your plumbing projects.

Overview of the Training Necessary to Become a Plumber

 

Do you actually know what a plumber does? It’s not just about unclogging toilets or stopping leaks. Think you might have what it takes? It is not an easy job, but if you will put all your dedication to it, you can fulfill the requirements and earn yourself the title.

Plumbers do the job of installing and repairing gas. They also put up water and waste systems for commercial, residential and industrial clients. They install residential plumbing fixtures and appliances to newly built homes also during renovations. You might never know that plumbers are paid at a high income. Although plumbers are well-paid, many people shy away from this job opportunity because or the hard labor or long hours.

If you want to be a plumber, you need to be in a good and healthy condition. There are some steps you need to understand and practice if you want to be a good plumber.

Just because the title of plumber is not as prestigious as that of a doctor or lawyer, doesn’t mean that you don’t need special education. You will need to complete high school, take up a math, science or shop course if you may possible take it. Vocational courses are helpful such as plumbing and blueprint reading.

If you wish to find a job with regards to plumbing, you can ask a guidance counselor about the different plumbing opportunities in your local area. If you want a broader search, you can search the internet so you will gain a lot of information.

There are a lot of plumber’s unions, and if you wish to be a part of them, you need to apply for a four year apprenticeship which involves approximately 2,000 hours of training and a little as 216 hours for classroom work. This is where you can enhance your plumbing experiences and knowledge. You will also be able to apply your knowledge in it.

If you wish to go out alone with your own training, you can enhance your plumbing skills through applications and a little comparative work like fixing your own leaks at home or your friend’s. In this way, you will be able to fine-tune your abilities and prove that what you are doing is correct.

There are many trade schools that offer plumbing courses. The advantage of joining trade schools is that you will often be receiving job-placement services if you have qualified for the completion and requirements of the course.

Now if you are free, you can check out all the small plumbing problems in your area or neighborhood but you have to make sure that you have already the proper knowledge because your performance will reflect on your reputation. So if you are still a beginner, make sure that you will handle the plumbing problems properly. If the people in your area have proved that you are a good plumber, they will recommend you to other people and this will be the start of your career.

Jo Williams has an interest in Home & Garden and Plumber Training, for more FREE information and articles please visit Plumber Training Resources