When to Call a Professional Plumber for Help

Does every plumbing annoyance you encounter in your home require the services of a professional plumber? The answer is no. A garden-variety sink drain clog, for example, can often be cleared with a common plunger and a little effort. Some minor fixes like replacing a toilet flapper valve are also within the skill set of certain DIY-ers. However, there are a number of plumbing issues that definitely aren’t DIY-friendly. You’ll save yourself money and time, as well as the risk of making a bad situation even worse, by getting professional help for scenarios such as these:

• Issues with main water supply lines. The water lines that distribute water throughout your house are under pressure averaging about 50 p.s.i. Due to the risk of catastrophic indoor water damage if work isn’t done to proper specs, repairs or replacement of these pipes should only be performed by a qualified plumbing professional.
• Sewage backups. Raw sewage backing up into your home is a toxic biohazard that should be avoided by unprotected persons. Often the cause is a blockage in the sewer line buried outside, inaccessible to the homeowner. These factors make sewer issues beyond the scope of the average homeowner.
• A drain that won’t clear. If plunging with hot water and a plunger doesn’t clear a drain, cut your losses and call a plumber. Using caustic drain opening chemicals may deteriorate plumbing and cause added expense. Renting powered snakes is often problematic, too, because they are hard on plumbing and untrained use may break drain pipes, requiring complete replacement.
• Water heater work. These projects combine plumbing connections with dangerous flammable natural gas, an open flame burner and even issues such as proper ventilation of hazardous combustion gases like carbon monoxide. A plumber is trained to fulfill critical safety requirements in all aspects of this job. The average homeowner isn’t.

At Sobieski Services, Inc., our goal is to help our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey learn more about energy and home comfort issues — especially HVAC and plumbing issues — so that they can save money and live in healthier, more comfortable homes.

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