Terry Overacker Plumbing Blog: News & Updates

It’s hard to tell right now if we are going to have more freezing weather or not. So it may be a little early to turn on your outside faucets, also known as a sillcock. If you really feel the need to turn them on now, there are some things to think about.

First you want to take some precautionary measures to assure you don’t have any breaks in your pipes from a possible freeze over the winter.  These kind of leaks can be very subtle and cause a lot of behind the wall damage before they are even noticeable.  A few minutes of your time to test can possibly stop a very costly problem later.

The easiest way to test it is to put a spray nozzle turned to the off position on your hose attached to the sillcock.  Then turn the water on and listen for the water to run inside your basement or inside your house near where the sillcock is. The water flow should run momentarily and then stop. If you continue to hear the water running, you could have a leak. Or, if you see that it is dripping on the outside of your house, you might want to get it repaired or replaced.  This can not only save water but also ensure that it doesn’t run into the inside of your walls of your house, which you might not notice until it’s a real flood.

If the weather drops down below freezing in the overnight hours, you may want to drain your line for a few days.  This is proactive in preventing any frozen pipes.  Frostproof does not mean it will not freeze, if not taken care of properly.

Another important thing is that you really want to have easy turn, easily accessible shutoffs to the outside line, inside your house. This way, if there is a break in your pipe, you can easily get the water turned off to that particular area.  Turning the shut off off when the temperatures are freezing , can also help reduce the possibility of frozen pipes.

Spring is here and summer is not far behind!!

Just a friendly warning/reminder…

Water heaters tend to respond to the barometric pressures.  When the barometric pressure changes up and down like it does in the spring, it puts pressure on your water heater, which in turn can cause it to leak. We are doing water heater replacements on a daily basis right now.  So be sure and keep and eye on yours so you’re not getting a flooded basement.

Other signs your water heater is starting to deteriorate are if you hear a grumbling or popping noise.  These should not be ignored.

We highly recommend if you have your water heater in the basement, that anything on the floor is protected from moisture.  When a water heater suddenly leaks, it can be a large volume of water that a floor drain can’t handle and will cover a large area around it, even going into adjoining rooms if the floor isn’t level and traveling a long distance.  Flooring and baseboards can also be soaked which will cause molding.

There are alarms available that you can put on the floor by your water heater and have the alarm in another area of your house so you can hear it if there is moisture on the floor.

I just heard on the news last night that experts are already concerned about the thaw coming from all the beautiful warm weather this week and next.  The concern is that there is no place for the water from the melting snow to go.  The ground is frozen and saturated already.  The thing homeowners need to understand is that even if your home has never flooded before, or you don’t live in a flood plain, that doesn’t mean you won’t have a soaked basement this year.

Other factors that contribute to flooding in your home are foundations shifting over time creating small cracks in the walls that you may not even see until water is pouring in through them.

Even if you already have a sump pump, have you checked it to make sure it’s working properly?  Don’t wait for the surge of water to test your sump pump.  Do it now, so you can be prepared.  Proactive is always better than reactive in this situation.  To check your sump pump, pour water into the pit from a 5-gallon bucket and check to see that it actually turns on.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know if you’ll need a backup pump until the thaw comes and your regular sump pump can’t keep up.  Therefore, we highly recommend all homes with a sump pump should automatically have a backup pump.  It’s not worth the risk. Not only will you have a terrible mess, you could damage your personal property, as well as your flooring and walls.  Then there’s the issue with mold.

There are even water powered sump pumps available, so if  your power goes off and your main pump stops working, the backup water powered pump will take over keeping your home dry.

If you have any questions, just give Terry a call. He loves sharing his knowledge and helping people take the best care of their home as possible.

It’s that time of year where we have nice weather in between cold weather so we’re never quite sure when to shut down our outside faucet, aka sillcock for the winter season.  Sometimes we think we shut it down and removed the hose but actually didn’t, so be sure and double check.

If you haven’t already, once you’re finished using your outside garden hose and faucet, unhooked your garden hose from the faucet.  DO NOT LEAVE IT ATTACHED DURING THE WINTER.  Also, you want to shut off your sillcock inside the house at the stop and waste valve (if you have one – if you don’t you really want one on that line) which should have a drain port.  Then open the outside faucet to drain the water.  Leave that faucet open during the winter so if it is leaking you will see an icicle forming.  A frost free faucet does not mean it won’t freeze, it only means that if installed correctly it should not freeze if you don’t leave a hose on it.

We often run into issues when customers purchase a product somewhere and then call us to install it.  So, I thought I’d write this blog about some of the disadvantages to buying products before contacting a plumber to install them.  Here are just a few reasons you don’t want to buy your plumbing products before consulting with a plumber, if you’re going to have a plumber install them.

What is the Real Price and Quality of A Product?

You may not really know the quality of the product you are purchasing.  People often look for the best deal or the lowest price.

1. A store will sometimes have a large discount on a product by increasing the initial price before giving the discount.  So the price really isn’t lower as it would appear.
2. Is the price lower because the product is a lower grade, or made with less durable and reliable materials?

This isn’t always the case.  However, do you know enough about the products to really know what’s a good deal? Do you know how well a product is made?  Do you know about the materials it’s made with?  Can you truly determine if you’re really getting a good product or not? You rely on the experts to know what’s best.  The experts have been using these products for many years and know the difference.  Experts see the changes over time. They’ve experienced what lasts and what doesn’t.  They know what’s a good deal and what’s not.

Can The New Product Be Installed Without Modifications?

People will often purchase a product based on the looks or how they think it will function, without knowing if it’s going to work with their current plumbing.  When it comes to plumbing products, there is no universal, standard or one size fits all.   As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite.  Many manufacturers now like to have their own unique twist, making their product just a little different than anyone else. This is true with many products.  It’s is a great marketing ploy.  Consumers purchase their products but have to use their accessories and replacement parts.  There’s a lot of competition in the market these days.

Just because you have a certain faucet now doesn’t mean something that looks similar will fit in the same space, for example.  It can often be very costly to modify the product or the plumbing to make it work for you.  If you consult with a plumber before you make a purchase, you can be sure what you are purchasing will work, how reliable it is, and if there will be additional costs.

What about the Product Warranty?

We have also installed a faucet or toilet, for example, that a customer purchased elsewhere, only to find it leaks, after we get them installed, due to the product being faulty.  We are unable to warranty the product because our suppliers will only warranty what we purchase from them.  In these situations we end up having to leave without being able to complete the job. The customer has to deal with the return and replacement. Then reschedule to have it installed again, which ends up adding extra costs to the project.  It’s a frustrating situation for us.  We feel badly that our customer is trying to save money and ends up costing more than if they had just purchased the products from us or at least consulted with us in the first place.

Are You a Gambler?

It’s always good to do your homework before buying. Otherwise you’re gambling on a lot of maybes.  If you have any questions, give Terry a call. He loves talking with customers and helping them understand why they should purchase professional quality products or how to figure out what will or won’t work in their situation.

We’re raising awareness of simple ways to help nonprofits or one-time benefit events raise much needed funds.  This helps those in need in our own community.  This is a passion of ours as we truly believe in giving back to the community or paying it forward.  It’s  easier to help spread the word and make fundraising events more successful with just a few minutes of our time and no expense, thanks to social media. We can really push our posts out to a larger audience, by just spending a few dollars. $10  goes a long way.  That’s less than the price of a lunch out.

To really spread the word and help others, we need your participation.  Let’s start a movement of helping others.  Let’s create an epidemic of goodwill!!

To Start: LIKE OUR FB PAGE so you can TAG US on posts you are already sharing for events you’re passionate about or aware of.  You will also see the events we share so you can SHARE those with your friends.  The more we share the more people we reach.  Hopefully we will get more people to attend the events making it more successful.  You can also MESSAGE us to let us know there’s an event we should share.

If you want to help in a small monetary way (under $10 or more), you can create an ad campaign to push the post out on your page to a larger audience.  FB tends to only show your posts to a small percentage of your friends/followers.  This spreads the word to people you don’t even know and usually by the hundreds.

Attending these great fundraising events whenever you can is a great way to help.  You will find that it’s really a rewarding feeling to know you are helping others and it’s FUN.  Usually there is good food involved, great silent auction or live auction items to purchase and great socializing.  If you’ve never attended a fundraising event, give it a try.  You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it and want to attend more.  If you don’t want to go alone or just want to get more people involved, invite a friend or two to join you.  When we attend an event where we don’t know a lot of people or anyone for that matter, we often invite others to go with us.  Going to fundraising events is something we truly enjoy.  We can’t count all the events we attend in a year’s time.  Everyone needs to eat and it’s no more expensive than going out for dinner but you’re helping others at the same time.

Let’s Make Our Communities a Better Place!!  If you know of a local Twin Cities non-profit event that’s being shared on FB, please let us know so we too can share with all of our followers.  The more we all help each other the better the communities we live in will be.  You can also email us at gina@terryoverackerplumbing.net or call 763-323-8885 to let us know of an event.

Be a part of a bigger movement and join us to make this world a better place!!

As I sat here feeding my grandson soup today I got to thinking about disposals.  When he was all done and still had a little soup left in the bowl, I thought, “why can’t I just flush this down the toilet?” It’s smaller than feces, so it shouldn’t clog the toilet.  Then I remembered some things Terry told me.

Even though we don’t see it, there is grease in the chicken broth.  As this grease goes through the trap with cold water it hardens and can stick to the pipes.  A very small amount probably wouldn’t really hurt anything, but why take the chance?  Larger food particles don’t flow well and can weight down and stop in the line before reaching the city main.  Feces usually breaks up as it goes down the line, but the food particles may not.  Then if you have tree roots coming in to the line, they can stop the food particles from moving on down the line, which will create a clogged drain.

My mother always saved her milk cartons and put left over food that would decay and smell in that. When it was full or started to smell, she’d close up the top and throw it away.  Later when she didn’t use the cardboard milk cartons, but bought the plastic gallon jugs, she would cut the top off the jug, put a grocery sack in as a liner and fill that up. Once it was full, she’ just pull out the bag, tie it off and throw it away.  I love using these useful recycling tips from my Mom.  When I do it always brings a smile to my face and makes me think of her.  She was extremely frugal.  She taught me a lot about repurposing and saving money in a lot of different ways.  I try to pass those tips on to my own children and grandchildren.

My Mom never used a garbage disposal because back in the day, they didn’t always work real well and would jam up the pipes, and they were very noisy.  But now we have much higher quality disposals with multiple grinding gears that grind food up into very small, light-weight particles that flow easily down your drains and go out to the city main.  We carry disposals that are even a lot quieter and we even have one for septic systems, with extended warrantees.  Call 763-323-8885 for details.

Mangled Hair

BEWARE! Long hair & garbage disposals don’t mix and can cause mishaps!

I like to share information that can help others prevent mishaps from happening.  We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s always better to be safe than sorry” and I find that to be so true.  I’m usually a pretty cautious person.  Sometimes to a fault.

I have a friend who had a mishap that could easily have been prevented and luckily she wasn’t seriously injured.  But it got me to thinking, this would be a good thing to share on my blog and FB to help others think about steps they could take before possibly doing the same thing.

If you have long hair and decide to wash it in your kitchen sink where you have a garbage disposal, there are things you should do.  This story is being shared with permission, name has been omitted to protect the innocent!.

Friend posted on her FB:

“I about had a conjunction malfunction today😱😱😱 I went to wash my hair in the kitchen sink (which is something I seldom do). While my hair was hanging in the sink I reached for the shampoo and hit the garbage disposal switch instead. Thinking twice the next time, checking for lost hair and looking for tylenol for the headache. I’m laughing now but when they say Stupid people, there’s now a meaning.”

It’s so easy for accidents to happen.  We highly suggest that if you have a garbage disposal and you have long hair that you do like to wash in the sink, get a strainer for your disposal so you don’t risk having this happen to you.  Or use the strainer from the other side of the sink, if you have one.

If you don’t have a strainer on each of your sinks, there are a lot of good reasons to get one.  It’s always good to prevent the wrong things from going down your drain. I had a butter knife fall down a drain once.  Never even dreamed that would happen.  We see a lot of things accidentally dropped down a garbage disposal that cause damage to the item and the disposal.  You just never know until it’s too late.  And smaller items rarely stay in the trap under the drain when you’re running water, so you are very unlikely to get them back.  Better to be safe than sorry!

It’s that time of year again.  We go out and turn on our outside faucets.  It’s highly recommended that you test the sillcock, commonly referred to as the outside faucet.  You could easily have a leak in your pipe and not know it until you end up with damage to your walls and flooring.  This can be a very expensive repair, and the testing is FREE.

The easiest way to test it is to put a spray nozzle turned to the off position on your hose attached to the sillcock, then turn the water on and listen for the water to run inside your basement or inside your house near where the sillcock is. The water flow should run momentarily and then stop. If you continue to hear the water running, you could have a leak. Or, if you see that it is dripping on the outside of your house, you might want to get it repaired or replaced to not only save water but also to insure that it doesn’t run into the inside of your walls of your house, which you might not notice until it’s a real flood.

Before you buy a new kitchen countertop, sink and faucet for your kitchen, you should consult with a plumber who does the whole job. Plumbing might take more work and be a higher expense than you are anticipating.  Going over the options and any obstacles with a plumber makes it possible to make a wise and educated decision on how you should proceed.

Issues You May Confront

Extra costly issues may be encountered.  For example, a gentleman purchased a very nice granite countertop and kitchen sink from a company who doesn’t do plumbing.  That company came out and measured and made the countertop and attached the sink.  He was told he would need a plumber to hook the sink up.  They had no idea what would be involved.  It became a larger project to install because the sink was lower than the original one which meant the pipes didn’t match up with the pipes in the wall. It’s about $700-$800 to do the drain change after the sink and countertop are installed.

His garbage disposal would no longer fit under the sink making him unable to have a garbage disposal.

He also purchased a really nice touchless faucet.  However, the sink is a corner mount and the cables and supply lines from the manufacturer were not long enough.  This made it another unexpected extra expense to get it installed.

We do the complete kitchen countertops and sinks from sales to install.  It can be more efficient and cost effective to have us do the whole job.  If a customer comes to us first, we can go over all the options and additional costs and do the job the correct way from the start rather than trying to fix it after the fact.  So if you’re thinking of replacing your kitchen countertop and sink, give us a call before you purchase any products, and make a wise educated decision you’ll be happy with.

We recently ran a water heater inspection special for our customers we installed a water heater for in the last 4 to 4 ½ years.  The special included an inspection of their water heater anode rod, testing the TPR valve and flushing their system.

We got a great response.  While doing the inspections we found many water heaters experienced the following issues:

1. Quite a lot of mineral build up in the bottom of the tank.  This can plug the drain valve. It also will reduce the efficiency of the water heater due to having to heat through the mineral bed.

2. Anode rods that were almost gone. At this point the minerals in the water start attacking and eating the steel liner of the tank which eventually causes a leak.

3. Temperature Pressure Relief (TPR) valves protective coating on the sensor had flaked off which no longer protects the sensor.

Terry is going to move up our offer to water heaters we’ve installed in the last 3 years.  Waiting 4 to 4 ½ years can be too late to give the most protection and prolong the water heater’s life the longest.

Great Deal for You

Terry’s real passion is helping people get the most for the least amount of cost possible.  He is offering the same special, for a limited time, to anyone who wants to prolong the life of their water heater.

A great investment in your water heater is prolonging the life as long as possible before purchasing a new one.  You can even get $25 for giving a FREE GIFT to your family and friends by sharing this blog with them.  They too can prolong the life of their water heater.  If they tell us you referred them and they are a new customer, we’ll send you $25.00.

This special expires March 31, 2017, so call now to book your water heater inspection and service.

When the temperature is below freezing (32°) or there are strong winds, there are steps you can take to help prevent your pipes from freezing.

If you have faucets on an outside wall, you should open the doors to the vanity or sink below the faucets and turn up your house heat a few degrees, if you keep it low.

Keep in mind that strong winds blowing on really cold days increase the chances of pipes freezing.  If your pipes have never froze before that doesn’t mean they won’t.  Houses get very fine hairline cracks in the foundation that will allow the extremely cold air to filter in and cause freezing.  It’s a good idea to check to make sure the area around your pipes is warm.

If you are unfortunate enough to have your pipes freeze, don’t leave them frozen and wait for temperatures to rise.  Frozen pipes can expand and crack, which will cause water damage when they thaw. Restoration of wet flooring and walls can be very costly. Getting heat to the area where the pipes are frozen will help them to thaw.  Or you can call a plumber to come out and thaw your pipes.  This can be a costly time-consuming project, so it’s better to prevent the freezing from happening in the first place.