Do You Need A Sump Pump?

February 15, 2025

If you plan to finish your basement or use it for storage, the last thing you want to worry about is flooding. Water that seeps into the basement during heavy rainfall can be devastating. Not only can you lose your belongings to water damage, but it can seriously affect your home’s foundation and structural integrity. Having us install a sump pump can eliminate these worries. What Is a Sump Pump? A sump pump is a device that removes water from your basement and sends it outside. It carries it far enough away from your home so that it won’t be able to cause any damage to your foundation. The typical sump pump sits in a pit, or basin, just below the level of your basement floor. It has valves that detect rising water levels and increasing water pressure. When the water level reaches a specific point, the sump pump automatically turns on. It carries the excess water out of your basement through a drainage line to a specific area outside. This drainage area is far from your foundation, so it won’t cause damage. How a Sump Pump Works Sump pumps are equipped with a float switch. When the pump detects...

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How Do You Completely Clean a Drain?

November 19, 2024

At , we get a lot of questions from San Antonio, TX, homeowners about the correct process of cleaning their drains. Often, they have tried some DIY method that they heard about from a friend or online, only to have it not work completely or even exacerbate their problem. Sometimes, they have even caused damage to their pipes, taking the problem beyond a simple cleaning job to requiring a professional drain repair. We want to ensure you don’t make these same mistakes, so let’s explore everything you need to know to clean a drain thoroughly. Why You Might Need Drain Cleaning There are several reasons why San Antonio homeowners might opt to clean their drains. Slow Draining One of the most common reasons homeowners want to clean their drains is if they notice that their water drains slowly. In bathrooms, this can come from too much hair, soap scum, dead skin, or other debris working its way down your drain. In the kitchen, this can happen from things like food scraps or F.O.G. (fats, oil, and grease). Quite often, it might not simply be one of these things but an accumulated combination of many items over time. A slow drain...

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How Long Should A Water Heater Last?

April 28, 2024

Water heaters don’t last forever. There will come a day when you must replace the unit that is currently in your San Antonio, TX, home. However, there are multiple maintenance tasks you can carry out to stretch the lifespan of your water heater. Learning how to make your unit last longer will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Traditional Heater With a Tank Water heaters with a tank use a heating mechanism located at the base of the tank to heat the water. As the water gets hotter, it rises to the top of the tank. A pipe carries the heated water to a hot water faucet once someone turns on the tap. When the water heater is not in use, the water stays heated in the tank. The inside of the water heater features several layers, including an inner layer that can store up to 40 gallons of water and insulated outer and top layers. These insulated layers keep the water hot. Tankless Water Heater Tankless water heaters provide on-demand hot water without storing it in a tank. Cold water makes its way through the unit, and a heat exchange process warms it...

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What Is The Best Leak Detection Method?

March 23, 2024

Plumbing leaks are a serious problem that has the potential to do lots of damage and/or lead to major mold issues. The issue is that most leaks can be extremely difficult to detect and locate since most of a home’s pipes are hidden. That is why plumbers use specialized equipment and advanced leak detection methods that make the process of locating the leak much easier and less time consuming, and this guide will explain what the most effective options for professional leak detection are. Thermal Imaging Some types of plumbing leaks will quickly result in certain telltale signs that make it fairly easy to determine exactly where the water is coming from. If there is visible evidence of a leak, such as yellow or brown stains on a sheetrock wall or ceiling or wet spots on the sheetrock, a plumber may be able to at least narrow down the possible location of the leak. However, you really don’t want to have to cut out more of the sheetrock than is absolutely necessary since more work will then need to be performed to redo everything once the leak has been fixed. This is why plumbers will often use a thermal imaging...

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What Is The Best Thing To Clean Your Drains With?

March 11, 2024

A slow, clogged or dirty drain could cause numerous problems for your home’s plumbing system. However, using the wrong products to remedy the problem can lead to additional damage or hazards to your health. Fortunately, the products that you do need are readily available and can be safely handled with gloves, goggles or other basic items. Why You Don’t Want to Use Chemical Cleaners It may be tempting to skip the natural remedies and go straight to chemical drain cleaners that promise quick results with little effort. However, there are a number of reasons why you don’t want to use chemical cleaners that you see at the grocery or hardware store. First, they aren’t any more effective than borax, baking soda or other natural materials that you can use. Therefore, you are risking serious damage to your drains with little or no added benefit. Next, one of the primary goals of cleaning out a drain is to improve indoor air quality. Pouring caustic chemicals may harm indoor air quality because they release fumes as they pass through a pipe or drain. In the event that a chemical cleaner can’t get rid of material in the drain, it will simply flow...

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