Brooks Plumbing Co. Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Plumbing Repair’

Garbage Disposal Repair: Why is My Garbage Disposal Making Noise

Monday, July 30th, 2012

When you are looking for garbage disposal repairs in Olympia, call Brooks Plumbing Company. One of the more common service calls we get for kitchen plumbing repairs is a broken garbage disposal, particularly for “humming” garbage disposals. A humming garbage disposal can mean there are a few possible scenarios happening, but first, you’ll need to know what signs to look for.

A humming garbage disposal usually means that when you flip the switch to turn the disposal on, it doesn’t grind the food. Instead, it just makes a humming noise instead of the normal noises of a fully-functioning garbage disposal. This typically means that the blades are not working to chop the food waste. Here are a few reasons why this may have occurred and why you could need a repair service.

The first potential reason for a humming garbage disposal is a stuck flywheel. The flywheel is located just above the lower hopper chamber, and it is the device that turns the blades. The humming noise could mean that the blades are not turning because the flywheel is stuck. This is an easy repair that our technicians can take care of fairly quickly.

If the garbage disposal does not work after we fix the flywheel and reset it for you, the humming could be caused by a seized motor or a frozen bearing. In most cases, a seized motor or bearing means that the unit will need to be replaced. Before you try to repair or replace a garbage disposal yourself, it is best to call Brooks Plumbing Company to schedule an appointment.

Whether or not you need a replacement, Brooks Plumbing is the plumbing contractor to call for garbage disposal repair and replacement services in Olympia. If you decide that you want us to install a new garbage disposal, we can remove the old unit and replace your disposal with any number of new models to suit your needs and your budget. We carry a large selection of the latest models, and our technicians make it a priority to provide expert service for any plumbing job. Call today!

Continue Reading

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Plumbing | Comments Off on Garbage Disposal Repair: Why is My Garbage Disposal Making Noise

Plumbing Question: What Causes Low Water Pressure?

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Low water pressure in your Olympia home can make just about everything from showering to cleaning more difficult. It is frustrating, but it often seems like there is very little you can do about it. In fact, you may be able to improve your water pressure in a variety of ways, but the appropriate technique will depend on the root cause of your problem.

There are several different possible causes for low water pressure. If the problem is limited to certain areas or fixtures in the house, it may very well be because the pipes feeding that area or fixture are too small. Smaller pipes will only allow a smaller amount of water to pass through at once, making it impossible for you to get the force you are after.

Fixing this, of course, means putting in larger pipes, and that may be easier said than done. However, if the problem is on a small scale, you should not have too much trouble or need to pay too much to have a Olympia plumbing professional complete the job. A problem in a particular fixture can also result from small clogs or backups in the fixture itself, and this is a relatively easy situation to remedy as well.

A low water pressure problem that affects your whole house can result if the main pipes feeding into your house are too small. This could be the case if your house has been added onto since it was built or if you have more people living there now and using more water.

Replacing those incoming pipes is a big job, but it is often the only way to increase your water pressure and make it possible for the system to satisfy the water needs of the house. This is definitely something you will want to have a professional work on, and while it can be costly, it will be well worth it in the end. For more tips on how to improve your Olympia plumbing, give Brooks Plumbing a call!

Continue Reading

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumbing Question: What Causes Low Water Pressure?

Plumbing Guide: How to Stop a Toilet from Overflowing

Monday, June 18th, 2012

An overflowing toilet is a really unpleasant problem, and one you will undoubtedly want to correct right away. Toilets are reliable in that they tend to last a long time and not act up much, but when yours does start to malfunction, you pay attention right away.

To start with, examine the root cause of the overflow problem. There are three major causes of overflow: a clogged or blocked drain that does not allow your Lacey toilet to flush properly, an improperly adjusted float that allows the tank to overfill and a blocked vent pipe that replaces the air in the pipe after each flush.

Each of these requires a different course of action, so let’s discuss each individually.

If the drain is blocked, you will probably know right away. For one, water will overflow from the toilet’s bowl rather than the tank. For another, there will probably be quite a mess. Treating this type of overflow problem is straightforward—remove the clog. For simple clogs, a plunger and some elbow grease will get it done. Another trick is to stick the open mouth of an empty two liter bottle into the drain and squeeze. The blast of air can knock the clog free.

If your toilet is clogging and overflowing frequently, however, the problem may not be with the drain or with anything you are doing. It may be that the vent pipe is clogged. A vent pipe moves external into the plumbing system to replace the air that is pumped out with each flush. When it is blocked, the toilet can’t flush properly, which can lead to overflowing. If you have trouble with frequent clogging, call a plumber to inspect the situation.

In both of those situations, the toilet bowl will overflow. Another possibility is that the tank overflows, which is a different kind of problem. This is often cause by the filler float being set too high, so the tank fills with too much water. You can fix this by simply adjusting the mechanism inside the tank that controls the level of the float.

Whether it’s one of these three, or something else entirely, when your toilet overflows, be sure to check it out and get it fixed right away. Call Brooks Plumbing for any plumbing repairs in the Lacey area!

Continue Reading

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumbing Guide: How to Stop a Toilet from Overflowing

Plumbing Repair Tip: Troubleshooting Drain Problems

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

It’s Saturday afternoon and you are preparing dinner for a number of guests. The kitchen is packed with groceries and you start to clean a lot of veggies for dipping. But there is a problem. The drain in your kitchen sink is “acting funny.” It drains slowly and is making a gurgling sound. In fact, it’s beginning to smelly funny, too.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Before you hit the panic button, let’s take a moment to troubleshoot the problem. Maybe there isn’t much of a problem with your Olympia plumbing after all.

First of all, is the problem confined to just the kitchen sink? There may be similar problems in other sinks, which would indicate a larger problem with the plumbing in your home. Hopefully, the kitchen sink is the only area you need to be concerned with.

Next, if you have a two-basin sink who should check to see if both sides are clogged or just one. Remove all dishes and utensils and run water on both sides. If water drains from one and not the other, there is a clog somewhere in the pipe leading to the union of both pipes. You have now centralized the drain problem. If both sides back up, the clog is further down the pipe. But it is still not a big problem.

One way to troubleshoot for drain problems is to simply run very hot water down the drain. This tends to break up clogs of grease by melting it away. The fix can also be as simple as running the garbage disposal long enough to dislodge any debris. You may even want to grind up some food you were planning to dispose of or take some lettuce greens and use the disposal on them. If this food takes a long time to grind or doesn’t at all, the disposal may be the culprit, leading to blocked drains.

And if you are preparing for your party by taking a shower and the shower drain is acting funny, don’t hit the panic button just yet. You may just have a build-up of hair or skin on the drain cover or screen. Use you foot to swish around the water and if water drains more quickly when you do this, the fix can be as simple as reaching down and picking up the debris. Having a plunger nearby helps, too.

None of this is brain surgery and quick fixes are easy to do. But if the problem persists and you don’t have the time or patience to work on your drain problem, call a Olympia plumbing professional such as Brooks Plumbing Co.!

Continue Reading

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumbing Repair Tip: Troubleshooting Drain Problems

Plumbing’s Tip: Detecting Leaks with Your Water Meter

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

When you notice a leak in your Tumwater home, you fix it right away, but what happens when you don’t notice a leak for days or even weeks? The damage it causes can have a profound impact on your water bill and the good repair of your home. To avoid hidden leaks – the ones that hide in your walls or your yard, keep a close eye on your water meter.

The Hidden Leaks

Obvious leaks are…well, they’re obvious. They pour water down the walls, leave puddles in your bathroom or create ponds in your backyard. Unfortunately, the majority of leaks are much less obvious. They result from small drips between pipe joints in your walls or a hairline fracture in your water main or drain pipes. They may not even appear where you can see them.

If this happens, it’s important to have a keen eye for the signs that a water leak has occurred. Specifically, look for jumps in your water meter readings.

Watching the Water Meter

Your water meter tracks every drop of water consumed by your family. To check for water loss, record the reading at the same time every day and watch how it changes. To be sure of a leak, you can turn off all the fixtures in your home and watch for the meter to move. If the meter moves despite the fact that no one in your home is consuming any water, it is likely a leak.

You can also compare your bills from one month to the next. If your bill rises suddenly, without any clear reason, check the meter readings and the rates. If the meter reading increased suddenly and the water rate did not, there might be a leak to blame. If that’s the case, call a professional to inspect your water lines immediately – what is hidden to you might be a relatively obvious, straightforward repair to someone else.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumbing’s Tip: Detecting Leaks with Your Water Meter

Plumber’s Tip: Bathtub Drain Clogs

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

When we think of clogged drains and plumbing problems, we most frequently think of toilets and kitchen sinks, but one of the most common drains to cause problems your Tumwater home is probably the bathtub. To avoid drain problems and to help fix any problems that might crop up, here are some tips for how to handle your finicky bathtub drain.

  • How the Bathtub Drain Works – A bathtub drain works the same as the other drains in your home with a simple trap that ensures the safe transfer of water out of your home and blockage of sewer gasses from getting into your home. The drain itself is frequently open with a small crack – roughly a quarter inch – beneath a larger drain plug that can be lowered when you fill the tub. While the space is not large enough for objects like a bar of soap to enter, it is plenty large enough for hair, soap scum, and other small objects from a bath or shower to enter and start clogging that trap.
  • Cleaning the Drain – To cut down on how much hair and gunk actually gets into the drain you should take off the entire drain mechanism once a week and remove any excess hair. You should also use some form of wire device like a bent coat hanger or scrubber to reach in and remove any hair you can reach. There are specific plumbing devices to help with this as well, but a hanger works just fine assuming you do not have a heavy clog. It is also a good idea to run boiling water through your drain once every week to clear out any soap and hair build up. While most soap is water soluble, it can create a thick, greasy clog when combined with hair. Hot water can help to remove it before a clog occurs.
  • If a Clog Occurs – If a clog does occur, you should use the hot water method along with a plunger to try and clear out as much of the clog as possible. Avoid chemical use at all costs. Bathrooms are usually small rooms and even with the fan on, the fumes can be dangerous and the chemicals caustic on your pipes and tub. Baking soda and vinegar often help for small clogs, but otherwise, you should move on to a snake for physical clog removal.

If you have a clog deeper than the snake can reach or that you simply cannot affect with the tools listed above, it may be necessary to call a Tumwater professional who can track your clog into the pipes and find where the root of the problem is. It might be just too deep in your drainage pipe or it could be a completely different area of your plumbing system.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumber’s Tip: Bathtub Drain Clogs

Plumbing Repair Guide: How to Unclog a Floor Drain

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

It is never fun to wander down into your Lacey home’s basement only to find that your floor drain has backed up. This is not a situation that will take care of itself and you want to get it under control as quickly as possible. While there are certainly plenty of things you can do to try and unclog a floor drain on your own, there are quite a few potentially complicating factors to consider as well.

First of all, you should make sure that no one in the house turns on any running water for anything until the drain has been unclogged. The floor drain in your basement is usually the last stop on the line for all of the water used in your house, and so any running water anywhere above will only cause more water to back up in the basement. Of course, if you cannot use any running water anywhere else in your house, it is even more imperative that you are able to unclog the floor drain quickly.

If you happen to have a snake on hand, this may be the best option to try first. However, it can be a bit difficult to get the snake to make the sharp turn typical of these types of drains not long after the pipe descends below the floor. That is not to say that it cannot be done, but you should be aware that you need to make sure the snake turns the corner before it will be useful to you at all.

If you do not have a snake of your own, you may still be able to take care of the blockage without calling in a professional plumber. But first you have to find it. Depending on the layout of your drainage system, this may be easier said than done. You can also make a pretty big mess if you open up various sections of pipe looking for the blockage, so be aware and make sure you have something in place to catch the runoff and debris that may come out of the pipes when you open them.

You may also run into trouble if the blockage is actually outside of your house in the larger sewer line that runs to the street. Unclogging a drain with this type of problem is generally a job for a professional and there is very little you will be able to do on your own.

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumbing Repair Guide: How to Unclog a Floor Drain

Plumber Tip: Common Plumbing Tools and Their Uses

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Every contractor has his tool chest, and an Olympia plumber is no different. To the novice eye, some of these tools may seem alien and complicated, but in fact the most common tools are quite simple to use. They are specialized to the job they perform, but they are all in all pretty simple.

Below are some descriptions of the most common plumbing tools and their uses.

When many people think of plumbing tools, they think of that big orange iron wrench that plumbers on TV and in cartoons always carry around. That is a pipe wrench, which is a powerful adjustable wrench specifically designed to loosen and tighten plumbing fixtures like pipes. (Hence the name.)

Perhaps the most common plumber tool that people already have on hand is the versatile plunger, which is a lifesaver for clearing up most simple clogs. For stubborn clogs, a pipe snake can come in handy. Essentially a snake is just a length of sturdy but flexible metal or plastic with a spring on the end for snaring clogs, like bundles of hair or debris.

For tighter spaces, there is a basin wrench, which is specially designed to loosen and tighten connections under sinks and basins. A pipe wrench usually cannot reach these spots, so a basin wrench is called for in these situations.

For the tricky nuts, or spots where neither a pipe wrench nor basin wrench will do, a pair of slip-joint pliers is a necessity for plumbers. These pliers are adjustable and have sturdy teeth for gripping hexagonal nuts, such as those attaching a toilet to the flange in your bathroom.

While a professional plumber will have a much more comprehensive selection available to him, these pieces make a good starting toolkit for tackling most common DIY plumbing repairs and other jobs around the house.

Generally speaking, if you have a plumbing need that can’t be met with these tools and your know-how, it’s probably time to call a real plumber and avoid any mounting headaches or damage.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Plumber Tip: Common Plumbing Tools and Their Uses

Emergency Plumbing Tips

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

When you have a plumbing emergency in your Tumwater home, the last thing you want to do is make the problem worse, but if you don’t act fast, that’s exactly what might happen. To help you take the right actions and avoid the wrong ones, here are some quick tips for how to handle a plumbing emergency.

  • Shutting Off the Water – If a pipe bursts or you have standing water somewhere, the very first step you take is to shut off the water. Cleanup is pointless if more water pours in. So, we need to stop the flow. Usually, this water valve is located outside, but it can be found under an access panel or in the basement in some cases.
  • Flooding Toilet – Watching the water slowly rise in a toilet, dangerously close to the rim, can be scary. But, there are tricks to slow or stop the flow until the plumber arrives. The first is to turn on your sink faucet to slow down the water flow to the toilet. If you can reach it, turn off the cold water supply to your toilet as well. As soon as the tank is empty, no new water will enter.
  • Turning Off an Appliance – Sometimes the problem isn’t a house-wide problem but a specific appliance overflowing. If your washing machine or dishwasher is about to overflow, turn off the supply valve immediately. It could be several gallons of water per minute if you don’t.
  • When Electricity is Involved – If your basement floods, don’t go down there until you can be sure there is no electricity flowing into the water. That much water with live electricity is incredibly dangerous. If you can’t be sure, get a plumber out there fast.
  • Gas Leaks – Sometimes, a plumbing problem is really a gas problem. If this is the case, don’t try to fix it yourself. Get everyone out of the house and call the gas company immediately.
  • Hot Water Leakage – If you notice that hot water is leaking somewhere in your home, turn off the main water supply and then turn off the hot water heater’s energy source. There should be an emergency shutoff valve on the hot water heater for gas and a switch on the device if it is electric.

In each of these cases, the very next step you take should be to call a plumber, but if you act fast you can hopefully mitigate the damage.

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Emergency Plumbing Tips

How to Prevent Bathroom Water Damage: A Guide

Friday, November 18th, 2011

Water damage. Even the mere mention of potential damage from excess water your Olympia house is enough to send a chill down your spine. However, there are a number of things you can do to avoid such damage, especially in the bathroom.

The Bathtub

The biggest single contributors to water damage are the shower and bathtub, where gallons upon gallons of water are distributed every day. You can minimize damage by doing the following:

  • Tiles – Check for missing or cracked tiles and replace them immediately. Supplement the tiles with grout that is properly sealed and check for any potential leaks.
  • Keep it Dry – There is a lot of water in your bathroom. Keep it off the floor by drying it up after a shower, hair washing or any other moisture producing activity in the bathroom. Make sure you minimize the risk of excess water by placing bathmats on the floor outside your shower.
  • Exhaust Fan – Water builds up in a bathroom because there is no moving air. Humidity can be just as damaging as actual wetness, especially if it settles in cooler temperatures. To avoid this happening, install an exhaust fan attached to the light switch to draw out any moisture after a shower.

Sinks and Fixtures

  • Check Under the Sink – Look under the sink and make sure there are no drips from the faucet and no leaks from the trap. You may simply need to check and clean the trap once every month or so.
  • Seals – Check sink seals on a regular basis for cracks or leaks and replace them when necessary.
  • Speed of Drainage – If the sink drains slowly, the drain may be clogged. Check the trap and if that doesn’t help, pour a mixture of vinegar and baking soda down weekly.
  • Upgrades – Upgrade your fixtures to save water. Toilets eat water to the tune of 40% of your annual consumption and your shower head can be made almost twice as efficient without cutting into your comfort level. If you notice a drip, crack or leak from any of these devices, simply upgrade them and you’ll save a lot of water (and reduce how much of it could leak if a problem occurs in the future).

There are a lot of ways to avoid water leaks in your bathroom. Keep a close eye on things and it will be much easier than if you waited for a full blown problem to develop.

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on How to Prevent Bathroom Water Damage: A Guide