3 Plumbing Jobs to Leave to the Pros

Marcin from ExpressRooter, the official contractor for Mike Holmes, is here to address some of the common questions that many homeowners ask.

3 Plumbing Jobs to Leave to the Pros

A question that home owners often ask is, what plumbing jobs should I leave to the pros? Focusing on three major aspects of plumbing jobs that we deal with on a daily basis, there are a number of jobs recommend leaving to the pros. Although some home owners like tackling these jobs on their own, there are just some best left to the professionals. Some of these aspects include: electric snake and drain maintenance, video camera inspection, power flushing, as well as replacement of a main shutoff valve in a house.

Running an electric snake to clear draining and provide maintenance is something that homeowners attempt as home hardware stores do provide rental equipment. However the key thing is knowing how to operate it properly. We have previously been to a few locations where a homeowner has tried to tackle the problem on their own but has ended up actually damaging their electric snake and leaving it behind in the drain system after breaking it. After renting a video camera, we were able detect it on screen and remove it. Keep in mind, when using an electric snake, the purpose is to clear debris such as tree roots and grease buildup. However if the house is old and the drain system is made out of a clay material, you run a risk of chipping and damaging the clay pipe if there are offsets in the joints where some of the pieces are fragile. It is best for the professionals to deal with this as they know the proper attachments, what cable diameter to use and can address the issue better.

Another aspect is power flushing; if you power flush your sanitary line using rental equipment you run the risk of flooding your house if the proper water pressure and technique is not applied.

The third aspect is the replacement of the main shutoff valve that isolates the water for the entire house. If you are replacing or working on the valve, remember to always call the city ahead of time to turn off the water supply to your house. If you don’t call the city, you run the risk of flooding your house as flooding can happen very quickly.

If you have any questions, please call our office at 416-233-2660 or visit our website at expressrooter.ca.