The beginning of a drain blockage can be seemingly harmless. The water might start bubbling up in the sink and/or drain slower than normal. It may even back up into another sink or bathtub. And you might have to experience a small domestic drama with a plumber. Here is how plumbers tackle a clogged drain.
If your home is not ready for winter, cold temperatures can harm your plumbing system and lead to costly damage caused by burst pipes. So you should take certain measures to protect your plumbing system from winter weather and avoid costly burst pipes issues. Learn how you can prepare your home and your plumbing for winter and prevent plumbing damage from freezing.
It’s the first step that you should take. Inspect all your pipes and check them for possible leaks. In winter months, even the smallest leak can cause serious problems. If the temperature drops, the water in your pipes can freeze and swell and lead to bursting pipe around the leaky section and spread to surrounding pipes which can be expensive and time-consuming to fix. If you notice any signs of leaks, you should have all leaks repaired early because that can save you unnecessary work in the future.
Water pipes in your crawl area, garage, basement or attic are more vulnerable to freezing when the temperature drops. Insulation is the first thing you should do to prevent leaks, cracks and burst pipes in these unheated areas and it will be wise to protect pipes in closets or under sinks as well. Wrap all exposed pipes using heat tape, insulation foam or insulation sleeves and do not leave any gaps.
Turn off outdoor faucets and taps and drain water from them. A good idea is to turn off the water supply to them. Disconnect and drain water hoses and store them indoors in winter.
Give your water heater a tune up. You should drain and maintain your water heater to get rid of sediments at the bottom of the tank but as it’s hard to do it yourself, you should call a qualified professional for this task. He will do a professional check and repair to keep you from making an emergency call to a plumber in winter.
Leave cabinets doors open under sinks in your bathroom, kitchen or basement to allow warm air to circulate and insulate the pipes to prevent them from freezing.
Make sure your heating system is in good order and do not turn off your furnace even if you are going away for winter holidays. You should keep the thermostat set at least to 55 degrees to avoid thousands of dollars in water in water damage from a burst pipe.
It’s vital to invest your time and take care of your plumbing system before the winter sets in so you don’t have to worry about frozen pipes or deal with any plumbing emergency in winter when you need your pipes the most. If you want to get a professional plumbing system inspection, contact our team of certified plumbing experts at Tornado Plumbing. We will gladly help you prepare your plumbing for winter. We also provide emergency plumbing services 24/7 and offer competitive rates.
Moulds are parts of natural environment but they can become a serious problem if they begin growing indoors. Moulds grow in your house in places where is moisture – around leaks in roofs, windows, pipes or in basements and if left unaddressed, can spread indoors and have potential risks to human health because they produce allergens and irritants. Moulds often release spores into the air and have a negative impact on the indoor air quality because mould spores are so small that people can actually breathe them in.
Exposure to mould environments can lead to a variety of health effects on people who are sensitive to mould. It can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, nasal stuffiness, coughing or wheezing, symptoms of asthma, skin irritation, and allergic reactions.
No matter what type of mould is present, the best practice is to remove it and take measures to prevent its future growth to make your home a healthy environment. Removing black mould is a complicated and time-consuming process that requires specialized services that can be rather expensive and disruptive to your home life or business operations. If you want to avoid that, you should take measures to prevent mould growth.
To prevent and stop mould growth and improve housing conditions, you need to eliminate factors that moulds need to survive – water intrusion and moisture. So you should control moisture in your house and fix water leaks. Water can come into your house by leaking or by seeping through basement floors. That’s why waterproofing your basement is an essential step in preventing these unwanted issues that can damage your property and present a number of health risks to people. Waterproofing solutions for wet basements include exterior waterproofing, interior waterproofing, French drains, and sump pumps which can also be used as combined methods.
Tornado Plumbing offers high-quality waterproofing services to property owners in Toronto and GTA. We use the latest waterproofing technologies, tools, materials, and techniques. We will identify all factors that need to be addressed to ensure that your property is protected from the water damage and will offer you effective solutions that meet your needs and budget. Contact us and find out how we can help you.
On average a property owner will need to replace sewer lines once in a lifetime. Pipes are not supposed to serve forever and the older the sewer pipes are the more likely homeowners are going to have problems with them. Although modern PCV pipes are supposed to have a lifespan of over 100 years, temperature drops may cause sewer pipes cracks. Cracked sewer pipes are not just a costly repair —they can result in extensive and pricey damage to your property and lead to serious health risks. It’s important that drain line repair and sewer line replacement tasks should always be performed by certified, professional plumbers
A homeowner from North York contacted Tornado Plumbing team because he had persistent drain issues. The house was built in the late 1980s and he had a clay sewer line. This material can only last for 50 or 60 years and the homeowner was recommended to replace clay pipes because these problems would only get worse over time.
Tornado Plumbing team are fully trained in the use of state-of-the-art equipment and technologies to replace damaged sewer lines. We use new trenchless methods that lead to less damage to driveways and yards than commonly used traditional repair and replacement methods. Besides, these methods are more cost-effective.
In this case, we used the minimally invasive pipe burst method which eliminates the need for digging long and deep trenches and is now widely used in place of traditional sewer line replacement. The entire sewer line replacement was done in a day. We made small holes to access the places at the beginning and at the end of the damaged clay pipe. After that, we pulled a new plastic pipe through the existing clay pipe which burst the old damaged pipe into small pieces while simultaneously laying new pipe.
The old clay pipe was seamlessly replaced with a new plastic pipe and we had the drains running quickly again.
