There’s a real chance that Jacksonville buyers, scared off by the housing collapse of 2006 and 2012, will be going back to the market. Mistakes are apt to be made if purchases are made when you’re giddy with glee, perhaps at being able to finally realize that most substantial aspect of the American Dream; a home of your own. There are several strategies that can help you avoid future disappointment, among them knowing how to identify plumbing issues before calling in plumbers in Jacksonville FL to carry out inspections.
Indoors
In bathrooms, white stains or lifted floor coverings around the base of toilets, sinks, shower stalls and bathtubs probably indicate water leaks. In advanced cases, the floor may feel soft around the fixtures, indicating a long-established leak has caused the wood to rot.
Equipment wears out. The older it is, the more likely it is to fail, and the less likely it is to operate efficiently. Checking the ages of appliances is easy; the first four digits of a water heater’s serial number, for instance, indicate its month and year of manufacture. Anything more than a decade old is not likely to give you the best return on your fuel spend, and anything older than fifteen years may be assumed to have a short future service life.
Check for leaks around garbage disposals, dishwasher connections and laundry machine supplies and drains. If the bases of cabinets are warped, it may be a sign of water damage. Any indication of ponding water is a disastrous sign; it could be a small thing, such as a broken or corroded pipe, or something substantial like a damaged sewer line that’s allowing waste to escape and back up. Whatever the cause, standing water is very bad.
Other warning symptoms to look for include:
• If faucets splutter, it may be an indication of more than a little air in the pipes. The ‘coughing’ could be a sign that there’s a crack in a supply pipe somewhere that you can’t inspect.
• Where hot water pipes run through cold air, such as in a basement, condensation can occur. A few drips per hour could be caused by this phenomenon, but anything more probably indicates that a pipe or joint has become unsound.
• Slow drainage from a sink could betray worse problems than a clogged “S”-trap. Sluggish waste water escape could point toward serious blockages beneath the floors or in the walls, the rectification of which by plumbers in Jacksonville FL may be both costly and inconvenient.
Outside
Turn on the water at several points of use, perhaps in a bathtub, at a kitchen appliance such as a dishwasher, and at a sink in a second restroom. If a noticeable reduction in water pressure occurs, it’s an indicator of calcium build-up in the exterior water lines. Restricted flow is more than simply irritating; it is a harbinger of future problems becoming worse (and for ‘worse,’ read ‘more expensive’). Although problems before the meter are probably the responsibility of the utility to fix, the digging up of lawns and interrupted service aren’t desirable moving-in gifts.
If possible, check around the slab — the concrete raft that’s poured before walls and roofs are built — for signs that water has leaked, or is leaking, from beneath. Indications can include small spaces where subsoil has been moved away from the cement, or staining. If moisture has flowed out from beneath the building, this indicates that either the inbound main or outbound sewer pipes are less than sound. Professional plumbers in Jacksonville FL should be able to conduct a video camera inspection to reveal any flaws, but, in general, unless you’re really in love with a prospective home (and the seller is willing to drop their price considerably), this should be a reason to walk away from negotiations.
In Conclusion
What may have been just a red flag when you first looked at the house may turn into a money pit very swiftly. In the same way that you would use a professional appraisal service to survey a car before buying, it’s often advisable to have professional plumbers in Jacksonville FL survey a prospective home purchase. Choose a local company who knows what to look for, one that has a reputation for outstanding customer service and efficiency, with whom you’d wish to establish an ongoing relationship. After all, if you buy, you may need their services in the future, for everything from a clogged sinks or busted pipes to emergencies.