Don't Delay. Solve That Leak Today

By Author: Scott Rodgers
Total Articles: 14
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There's nothing more pleasant after you've spent a tough day than to finally relax, pour a refreshing drink, get the newspaper or a magazine and take a long, warm bath. All the annoyances from the day are soothed away and finally you can relax and life appears a beautiful thing.

Then you see a drip, just a minimal drip, but in the silence it becomes an annoyingly loud drip. Then your mind clicks into focus and you realise this could mean there's a problem. You attempt to ignore it, you just want to forget all your worries and relax, but that drip just keeps on loudly dripping.

This is the time when it is advisable to defeat your tiredness and take care you do something about this drip. At the least, it is wasting your water and water is getting more of a precious commodity in these times of global warming. Any opportunity to save water is going to assist everybody to preserve the planet. One little drip might not appear much, but if you times that by the millions of homes that have leaking taps, that's a significant amount of water. You are also wasting away your well-earned money, especially if it is hot ...
... water. And there is a serious risk from the impact of mould and rot on your dwelling.

So, depending upon your personality, it is likely that you will either grimace and resolutely get out of the bathtub, or you might yell and shout, or you might smile sweetly and view this as one of life's little challenges.

However you react, you do need to do something about the leak. Water has an amazing way of leaking inside places that can generate mould and rot and inflict damage upon various other things.

If there is just a drip as I have described, it is one of the easier issues you might come across in your dwelling's plumbing. The first thing to test is if it is a worn down washer.

If it is, switch off your water supply. Yes, it does seem too simple to even bother talking about, but you would be surprised at the amount of people who don't and are confronted with a flooded room as the water shoots up and out of the tap.

This might be merely frustrating in the summer as you can get dry easily, but it is downright not very pleasant have happen to you in the colder months as the water can be mind numbingly cold. So, switch off the water and once you have completed this, then remove the tap. It is probable that you will then quickly have the means to see if it is the washer that has worn away.

If it is not the washer, it might be the brass seat located in behind the washer. If you have the correct seating wrench and you know what you are doing, it is not too difficult to solve. However, if you have not done it before, telephone your trusted plumber. You might just make the problem worse by hazarding a guess how to solve it.

As I said, if there is just a leak in the tap then you are lucky. Even if you have to telephone the plumber it is not a large job. If, however, while you are taking a bath after a especially difficult day and you see that there is an unaccounted for pool of water somewhere in the bathroom, you aren't going to get happier in a hurry.

The leak from the bath might be from under the bathtub itself, but the pool of water is often located somewhat away from the bathtub. This is because the water is running along the pipes before dripping. It is advisable to call the plumber in to take a look immediately. Water has an frustrating way of creating more issues such as mould and rot and, if you ignore it for a period of time, you might require to have a drywall repair or substitute your floor.

Once the plumber has been in to have a look, take care you ask whether it would be less expensive to substitute the entire bathtub than fix it. This might oftentimes be true, and if you own a normal modern bathtub, it is a good possibility. You might, however, have an older designer bathtub which you especially love, probably because it is deeper and longer, in which case getting it fixed rather than purchasing a modern bathtub will more than likely be your preferred solution.

The plumber might advise that the bathtub repair charge will be more than you can afford at the moment. If this is true, do take care that you fix the damage to your dwelling caused by the leaking water. It is possible to do without a bath for a while, but leaving water damage can result in serious issues in the long ans short-term. This is especially true if your bathtub is upstairs. It might be that the water has caused your ceiling to crumble and crack and you will need to get in a contractor who has experience in drywall work. It is probable that you will also need to take care you get in somebody to get rid of any mould so you don't have any issues in in the long-term.

Delimited Author Bio Resource Box

Scott Rodgers has recently retired as a Los Angeles plumber and is an expert in bathrooms and plumbing. For more useful tips and information, visit Scott's website: http://eLocalPlumbers.com
Scott Rodgers has recently retired as a Los Angeles plumber and he loves to share his many years experience of baths and plumbing. For more useful tips and information, visit Scott's website: http://eLocalPlumbers.com