There are all kinds of repair sitatutions that you may come across as a home owner or tenant in Saskatoon. Toilet’s clogged, but it’s not the end of the world? Grab the plunger. Faucet leaking a little bit? Grab your wrench.
But there are certain dire situations where you may be a bit out of your depth and calling a plumber is your best bet. We’ve outlined a few of these situations below.
You have a water supply line leak and your house is flooding
Uh oh. This isn’t good. If there was ever a crisis that causes people to call a professional plumber faster, it’s a leak in your home’s main water line, causing flooding – and fast.
Before you go running for your phone, try to turn off the water supply and stop the flooding first. Find a cut-off valve near the leak, if possible, and shut it down. Even if you have to turn off the water supply to the entire house, it’s better to do that than risk turning your basement into a skating rink in the winter — something we have seen a few too many times during prairie winters!
Once the water is turned off, get on the phone to a plumber to start the repair process.
Your toilet and/or pipes have backed up and overflowed
High on the list of homeowners worst nightmares: you go downstairs and you find your downstairs bathroom (or worse, your entire basement) has become an apocalyptic sewer hellscape. You might have gotten off slightly easier and just have to deal with a backup causing a flood of water. Either way, this is a job for a plumber.
Often times the sewer line from your house out to the street will get clogged, slowing the flow of wastewater. This can be caused by roots sneaking into the pipe, damage to the line, or heavy rain and flooding from storms.
You may have to call a specialist to deal with the cleanup in addition to a plumber to deal with the pipes themselves. It’s not always a simple task to solve this problem, so consulting with a professional may be your best bet to having it looked after properly.
The water has stopped flowing and you don’t know why
Usually when you notice that water has stopped flowing in a sink or shower, the problem can be isolated to that specific area or fixture.
If you have discovered that more than one fixture is not receiving water, double check that the problem is with both hot and cold water. If it’s just a problem with the hot water, then we can be relatively sure that your problem is with your hot water heater.
If you still cannot get the water to run, you may have a serious problem. It is possible that the buried water pipe leading from the streetside water meter to your house has burst or has been severed, diverting water intended for your house. Or the leak may be centered around the water meter.