Introduction
Water undeniably makes up an intricate component of our lives. It’s all around us, and in fact, the human body is 92% composed of water. So we are water.
All living mammals share the same water percentage number. So is it any wonder that’s so much effort goes into the water systems that are woven throughout communities?
We need water for our homes and businesses that, just like ourselves need it to remain standing. But the irony of it all is that water is difficult to contain.
Whatever you put it in, it wants out, and it is a determined adversary. Eventually, it will have its way if given enough time. Therein lies the need for services like residential water leak repair in Pittsburgh. Pipe damage repair and drain clog removal in Pittsburgh.
We need to have the drain lines for removal because once we are done with the water, it needs to be sent on its way. Once you think about it for a moment, it is quite surprising by the number of industries related to the acquisition, transportation, delivery, and water services.
Once we’re through with it, there’s another group of businesses revolving around that. That is draining away and the subsequent treatment of water.
Water Line Repair in Pittsburgh is Better Done Early
Water lines were first used by the Romans., They developed a vast system of aqueducts to deliver fresh water to their cities and towns. They recognized early on how important it was for maintaining a civilized society.
So fast forward now to the city of Pittsburgh where the need for fresh water has not diminished. What has changed, though, is that water lines in Pittsburgh are no longer made out of lead.
Lead is highly toxic, so today Pittsburgh water lines are made of a variety of safer materials.
So it’s not hard to imagine that water line repair in Pittsburgh is a big business. There are a lot of homes and commercial buildings in and around the city of Pittsburgh, and they all have a system of water lines coursing through them.
Just like anything else in a home, though, water pipes have a service life. So they don’t last forever and that has given rise to the need for residential water line repair in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
The need for water leak repair in Pittsburgh didn’t happen all at once either. In most cases, water leaks happen gradually. A pinhole leak begins to create minimal dripping.
Given enough time, though, it will eventually develop into a more significant water leak repair in Pittsburgh scenario. What has changed in recent years, though, is that people are becoming increasingly more aware of the hazards of toxic mold in their homes.
Toxic mold can’t exist without water, and even minor water leaks are all too often the source of that water.
Connecting Foundation Damage and Residential Water Leak Repair in Pittsburgh
Have you ever wondered why the foundations in buildings develop cracks? Occasionally it’s cracking on inside cement floors that you see. But most often, visible cracks in the foundation caused by settling are to be found on the outer stem walls.
If you stop to think about it, too, those cracks are most often found near corners. Then if you make a point to do some research, you will find that outer stem-wall cracks in foundations are a relatively recent development. They were relatively rare a century ago, and there is a good reason for that.
The reason for this is that the uptick in foundation stem wall cracks can be directly traced to the advent of the popularity of landscaping irrigation. One hundred years ago, it was only food crops that were irrigated.
Today though, it’s common to have a system of water pipes around homes installed for the sole purpose of watering plants along the edge of a house.
They’re popular now, and once they develop water leaks so too does the risk of foundation settling and resulting cracks.
So now, residential water leak repair in Pittsburgh keeps Pittsburgh plumbers busy searching out and repairing leaks in home irrigation systems.
Persistent water in the ground around a home also makes for perfect termite habitat. It’s something that your exterminator isn’t going to tell you about.
Termites eat wood, but they need water too. In fact, termites don’t even live in a home; instead, they live in the ground and prefer a moist environment.
The home or commercial building only provides their food in the form of wood. All too often today, though, the water is supplied by a pipe leak. Just ask Pittsburgh plumbers, and they will tell you pipe damage repair in Pittsburgh of this type is all too common.
What’s Wrong with Iron and Steel Water Pipes?
There was a time not too long ago when water pipes were primarily made out of iron or steel. First, it was iron, but that was in the early part of the twentieth century.
But then steel began to replace iron as the preferred choice for plumbing in Pittsburgh. There’s a reason for this, and that reason is that iron rusts more readily. This is something everyone knows.
So, steel is less resistant to rust. Copper is more expensive than iron and steel, but the price difference was substantially higher a hundred years ago.
Fast forward to today, and it’s residential water leak repair in Pittsburgh that can be credited for the complete switch from iron and steel to copper for water pipes in homes. Copper easily has ten times the service life when used for water supply pipes.
It’s the solder that connects the joints that, in many cases, tends to degrade to the point of water leaks in Pittsburgh before the actual copper wears out.
But in some older homes, old rusty steel pipes are still in use. Old pipes that provide a steady source of Pittsburgh leak repair work for plumbers in Pittsburgh.
Steel pipes can look just fine on the outside, while on the inside, they’re often choked up with rust nodules. This will inevitably happen, and it wouldn’t be a problem if not for the water leaks that develop; as a result, diminishing water volume at faucets and showerheads.
There are just too many obstructions in the way in the form of rust nodules growing on the interior older steel water pipes. There’s nothing that can be done about it, too, other than a complete replacement.
Everyone Hates Drain Clogs in Pittsburgh, so They Have No Friends
It’s challenging to label residential drain clog repair in Pittsburgh. This is because there are so many different types of drain clogs. Of course, they have similarities in that they are stopping the water from flowing through, but they have far more differences.
There are two types of water pipes installed in homes. The first type is referred to as high-pressure water pipes. The other type is referred to as low-pressure water pipes. High-pressure water pipes bring the water into a home, and low-pressure water pipes carry it out.
There’s no pressure involved, so the water that drains from the bottom of your sink simply flows out. There’s no pressure to push it along, which means there is a high probability of cogs developing.
Something that most people are entirely unaware of is that there’s a required slope in all water drain lines installed in homes and businesses. Plumbers in Pittsburgh refer to this as the fall of drain pipes.
Required fall is not that steep, so it’s not hard to imagine that problems would develop when a building starts to lean.
Perhaps you have already been in an older home and noticed that the floor had developed a slope, and you maybe noticed how unsightly it looked.
What you couldn’t see, though, was how that slope was negating the slope of drain lines contained in the floors and walls. It’s a common problem in older homes.
Leaks in irrigation lines near houses are also commonly linked to a settling foundation. That, in turn, causes the building to lean. That, in turn, eliminates the slope in the water drain pipes contained in the home.
That causes a drain flow problem because we all know that water doesn’t flow uphill.
Sewer Line Repair in Pittsburgh is No Glamour Job
If you were to stand outside a local high school to interview students who pass by on their chosen career path, it’s safe to say that none of them would respond that they want to be a Pittsburgh plumber specializing in sewer line repair in Pittsburgh.
It just doesn’t happen. Repairing a broken sewer line in Pittsburgh, for the amateur, is the stuff of nightmares. It just doesn’t happen. There’s just no such thing as DIY sewer line repair in Pittsburgh.
So plumbers in Pittsburgh are kept busy doing this type of work because sewers have a well-earned reputation for being problematic. It’s not that they develop clogs any easier than other water drainage systems.
In fact, comparatively speaking, a sewer line in your home has the largest diameter of them all.
Instead, it’s the stuff that people put down them that, more often than not, is the source of the drain clogs. In restaurant bathrooms, toilets, all too often, pull double-duty is trash cans for stuff tossed into them. Empty cigarette packs, tampons, paper towels, you name it.
Plumbers in Pittsburgh will tell you that they’ve seen it all caught up on the end of a pipe snake when they pulled it out of a restaurant sewer line.
Something else to point out here is that long after copper became the preferred choice for indoor high-pressure plumbing, cast iron was still being used for sewer pipes. Cast-iron develops rust nodules that, in turn, function to snag as much odd stuff that people throw down toilets.
Is Trenchless Sewer Line Repair in Pittsburgh the Final Answer?
Pity homeowners in decades past who completed a yard improvement job that included a brand new driveway and a patio, only to be informed that it all had to be torn out to repair a damaged sewer line.
The scenario reads like something straight out of a slapstick comedy show, but it’s not.
It happened to people all the time back then. In fact, it was a rarity for the sewer line can be dug up and repaired without having to dig the trench right through something of value around a home or business.
Trenchless sewer line repair wasn’t introduced as some sort of gimmick. Rather plumbers in Pittsburgh now make it available so home and business owners can have the option of not having to rip up their landscaping or destroy a perfectly good concrete flatwork to do sewer line repair in Pittsburgh.
In simple terms, trenchless sewer line repair is just what it sounds like. It’s a new method of sewer line repair in Pittsburgh that does away with having to dig the trench.
Instead, trenchless sewer line repair in Pittsburgh is accomplished by excavating a discreet access point at each end of a sewer line. Then it’s from these access points that the sewer line is opened they cleaned out. The next step is to pull a new rubber casing through the pipe to form a new inner lining to breathe new life into the sewer line, as the old damaged casing functions as an outer lining.
There is also a method that uses a plastic composite sleeve impregnated with a polymer resin to accomplish the same results. With this type of trenchless sewer line repair in Pittsburgh the polymer resin-soaked plastic composite sleeve is pulled through the line from one end to the other and inflated with air.
The air pressure functions to force the sleeve up against the interior surface of the damaged sewer line, so it can cure in place and function as a new line while the older damaged line assumes duty as a further outer lining.