We get an influx of certain types of calls once springtime comes around. These are some of the different types of issues that we hear people running into most often.
- Hose Faucets
First is hose faucets on the outside of the house. Most people have frost free hose faucets. If the hoses aren’t disconnected, if they’re installed improperly, or if the water was not shut off, they’ll tend to freeze. You won’t know something’s wrong until one day in the spring when you try to use the hose to pressure wash your car. Next thing you now, the hose faucet will start to spray. The reason why you don’t realize the burst happened is because it’s after the shutoff point. People often forget to take the hoses off, so they freeze and burst over the winter.
- Outdoor Plumbing
A lot of times around the lake area, outdoor plumbing can have a burst water line if it wasn’t winterized properly. It’s usually an outdoor kitchen, plumbing on the docks, or showers around the basement area. When you try to turn the water back on, it will spray and need to be repaired.
These problems happen most often with a second home. There are lots of things that tend to be forgotten. If any steps from the checklist are missed, you’ll have problems once you return to the lake house and get it ready for the summer season. That’s when people find issues and give us an influx of calls.
- Bigger Items
We have a lot of main water lines and sewer lines that tend to fail in the spring. The water lines fail simply because when the ground has frozen and then starts to unthaw, it causes settling and movement to occur.
Because the trees are starting to get their leaves back, they’ll be looking for nutrients. Root growth happens most during this time, so that’s when they might make their way into the main line pipes. (We talked about this in our last blog post about drain clogs.)
If you get an annual checkup from us, these problems can be avoided. We winterize homes and outdoor plumbing systems. If you want to do an annual checkup in the spring instead, we can get everything checked out before the season starts.
No matter if it’s springtime or another time of year contact us online, check us out on Facebook, or give us a call at (540) 685-0366. We’ll get your home on the right track so you won’t have these common problems at the worst time.
