With the much-awaited season of spring finally in sight, you are probably planning all of the wonderful things you have put off doing during the freezing cold temperatures. As the grass finally begins sprouting, birds return to your yard, and flowers creep up slowly.
While all of this beauty starts to “spring”up, behind the scenes lurks a danger to your home that you need to watch for diligently: the annual end of winter, beginning of spring plumbing problems.
Living in a four-seasoned climate has amazing perks. The changing of the seasons is often gorgeous and awe-inspiring, but they also bring with them their downsides. The end of winter is one of them as snow turns to slush and water, making things brown and muddy and blah. Not only does the world outside tend to get quite messy this time of year, but so can your plumbing if you are not careful.
The end of winter plumbing issues can cause major damage for the unsuspecting homeowner going about their business. Everything from sump pump failure to clogged drains can be a nightmare, especially when the temperatures are still cold. To avoid these problems now that spring is in the air, here are some helpful tips for the three most common end of winter plumbing problems.
Bringing Spring Without the Sump Pump Damage
Just about every home that has a basement has a sump pump waiting for action. Sump pumps are used to take out the excess water from abasement, ultimately preventing flooding during times of heavy rain and inclement weather. The problem happens when your neighborhood gets a lot of snow.
The snow itself is not necessarily the issue, but those warm almost-spring days when the sun is finally shining and the snow begins to melt carry with them a silent danger. As the snow melts into the ground, the ground becomes saturated and the water eventually makes its way into your basement, just like with heavy rains.
But if your sump pump hasn’t been used recently, it might not be working right, and your basement can flood easily. This can also happen with heavy rains, but the end of winter brings with it the specific problem of the melting of literally tons of snow in your yard.
To prevent this problem, check your sump pump at the beginning of winter and occasionally throughout the season. Don’t just assume that because it worked the first time, it will be fine all winter. You don’t want to be caught unprepared with a flooded basement and a broken sump pump.
A simple way to check to be sure it works is to pour water into the crock to see if the pump gets activated. If not, you’ll want to call your plumber quickly before the next rain or snow hits. In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth thousands of dollars in flood damage.
Clogged Drains Can Be a Drain on Your Pocket
When your family naturally gathers inside the home more instead of going out and about on cold days, your plumbing usage increases. This extra use is also common during the holidays with get-togethers as your family and friends come over to visit. Between this extra use and the harsh weather swirling debris into storm drains, it’s quite common that your pipes end up clogged.
Clogged drains create major back-up in your plumbing, and if it gets bad enough, that back-up can end up in your home as a nasty flood of toxic water. If the weather is bad enough, you may not be able to get a plumber out to your house to fix the flood, either, and more damage will ensue.
You can avoid this by getting an annual drain cleaning by a professional plumber before the busy winter season hits. Cleaning your gutters regularly and clearing your yard of debris like leaves and sticks can also help you prevent this major plumbing issue.
When Your Water Heater Fails, It’s a Cold, Cold Time
A nice, cold shower on a hot day can be refreshing and just what the doctor ordered. But during the winter, we get enough of the cold just by doing our daily deeds. A hot shower or bath is often what our bodies need to warm up and relax, but the winter is the most common time for your water heater to fail.
After a heavy season of lots of hot water use to help people warm up from the freezing temperatures, it’s not uncommon for your hot water heater to break down. It’s working extra hard and it’s not used to it. Not only is it being used more, but in order to keep the hot water in the tank at the right temperature, it has to work hard constantly.
To prevent this and avoid the cold shower hypothermia, get your water heater assessed prior to the winter season. A professional plumber can check for faulty parts, clean out sediment and minerals from the bottom of the heater that make your heater work harder to stay warm,and ensure that it is properly insulated to avoid unnecessary overwork.
Tis the Season of Plumbing Problems – Unless You Plan Ahead!
The harsh seasons weren’t just hard on you – they were hard on your plumbing, too. But knowing what to look for can help you to avoid plumbing issues that could easily cost you thousands of dollars in damage.
If you haven’t lived in a climate where you have a cold and warm season, you might not know what to expect and how to prepare. But once you have gone through the transitions at least one time, it’s easy to see how these plumbing issues can happen.
GM Plumbing Corporation suggests you plan ahead and be proactive to avoid the end of winter plumbing issues that can end up costing you your possessions, thousands of dollars in damage, and your enjoyment of the beauty that comes with being lucky enough to live in an area that has seasons.