With the holidays just around the corner, your home may be filled with family and friends and that is not a good time to have a plumbing problem. With today’s Tips of the Toolbox, Penguin Air, Plumbing & Electrical General Manager Jay Kline discusses why now is a good time for a plumbing inspection.
Plumbing 101
It’s a great time for a plumbing inspection because our busiest time of year is around Thanksgiving. People have their families in and they’re doing a ton of cooking, they’re in the kitchen, and things back up.
What do you do in a plumbing inspection?
It’s a plumbing safety inspection. We test the water pressure coming into the home because if the pressure is even a little bit high, it can be really hard on all of your fittings and cause pipes to burst. We’ll go through some of the basic parts – the angle stops and kitchen faucets, etc. We also flush your hot water heater, which is important, because a lot of companies charge around $100 just to do that. We actually do that as a part of your tune-up.
How long does something like that take?
We’re very thorough, so we like to spend some time with the inspection. Usually, it will take a good hour or so to get through everything checked out.
That hour can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars later. What are some of the other plumbing devices you check out during an inspection?
We check out angle valves, which shuts off the water to the sink or to the toilet. Say one of your hoses burst that goes into your kitchen sink, and the valve is corroded or not working because it’s never been shut off since the house was built. So now, you have a leak but you can’t shut the water off.
You check all of those things to make sure things are working properly in case of situations like that.
Yes, if your shut off valves are working, you can shut off water real quick and only have a towel’s worth of water instead of a flood. One of the things we do is exercise the valve – we take them all the way in and all the way out because that’s where they get stuck. We also check other shut-off valves, such as one at the water heater and the main one outside that shuts off water to the whole house. We check all of those things that can help you avoid a big disaster later.
How much should a plumbing inspection cost?
Ours are $79 because we are very thorough. There are a lot of companies that charge less, but we go in and check everything out and we don’t want to go in and sell you something. If everything looks good, we want to be able to tell you that you’re good to go.
A complete plumbing safety inspection is $79 and can help make sure your holiday is disaster-free. Call for more information or to schedule an appointment!