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How do storms and water main breaks affect your home’s plumbing? Are there reasons you might need to call an emergency plumber after these events? One of the biggest concerns from situations where the groundwater or your water supply is affected is your water quality and safety. There are other reasons to call your emergency plumbing service, to protect your property and fix any plumbing damage, but your family’s health is our biggest concern and an important reason why My Professional Plumber in Knoxville, TN offers emergency plumbing service to our customers. We’re glad to share information so you can be prepared to check for trouble and call us if necessary when unusual situations arise that might affect your home’s plumbing. There are even measures you can take, like sump pump inspections, that will help you be prepared for water-related emergencies.
Groundwater Infiltrating Your Sewer Line
One of the biggest concerns after heavy rain is a leaky sewer line. While it was leaking out into the ground before the storm arrived, heavy rains can saturate the ground and push water into your sewer line through the cracks and root invasions, even causing blockages and backups inside your house. This can be quite a surprise, since you may not connect the storm with the wastewater coming up from your toilet or sink. Our emergency plumbers can check out your drain problems and diagnose the actual cause, which might also be factors unrelated to the sewer and storm, maybe related instead to having lots of people in the house waiting out the storm and using the plumbing.
Water Line Problems During the Storm
The same kind of problem can occur with your water line if it’s leaky, as the water table can push groundwater through cracks and into your home’s water supply. This is definitely an emergency plumbing service situation since you don’t know what’s in the water that’s coming in from the soil surrounding your water supply pipe. It certainly isn’t the fresh, clean city water that you’re expecting. Our emergency plumbing service can help you determine what’s going on, plan repairs and initiate short-term remedies, including having you boil water for drinking and cooking until the situation is straightened out. Remember, water in the ground has filtered down through whatever is in your yard, which could include chemicals, animal feces, and other risky substances.
City Water Pipe Problems
If there’s a city water main break or the fire department opens a hydrant in your neighborhood, your water pressure may drop low enough to become a problem. Not only will it not serve your home very well, trickling out of faucets and taking forever to fill washing machines, it will also create another kind of situation where outside water and substances can find their way into your line while the pressure is low. This is a problem called backflow, and it’s a common reason for “boil notices” that cities issue when they’re aware of pressure problems in a neighborhood or larger area. These notices require residents in the area to boil any water used for drinking and cooking, brushing teeth, and so forth. The water could contain bacteria and other sources of disease.
Soggy Soil and Shifting Pipes
In addition to existing cracks and tree root intrusions, wet soil can reduce the support that your pipes receive when crossing the yard or press down on your pipes and move them. The resulting shifts in pipe position can cause leaky connections between pipes. Once again, groundwater and other materials can enter your pipes, causing blockages of your sewer or contaminants infiltrating your water supply. Material buildup inside the sewer pipe over time can cause serious backups that may seem like foundation leaks, and our emergency plumbing service can help you determine the actual cause of water that accumulates in your basement during or after a storm.
Overloaded City Sewer Lines
Heavy rain can also affect the pipes where your wastewater is headed, providing a backup that’s beyond your property line but affects your sewer line and your home’s plumbing, as well as water, which can even flow back towards your home from the municipal sewer. This is an important time to have an emergency plumbing service to help you, and especially if it’s not a rare occurrence. We can help you to sort out existing issues and ones that develop which cause problems during heavy rain.
Gurgling Drains and Toilets
Sometimes drains have trouble because of blockages and backups further down the line. Drains and toilets then back up or gurgle as they slowly pass wastewater down through the limited passage. Another reason for the gurgle or even blocked drains and toilets or ones that are backing up is on your roof. The air intake from your plumbing vent is essential for the drain system to empty properly into your sewer line, and the rooftop vent pipe can get blocked, reducing or stopping the airflow. Sometimes this happens because of debris blown in, a nest built in the pipe, or an unfortunate creature that expired and filled the space. When the heavy rains fall, any partial blockages can become soaked and fall further in, blocking the pipe as they do. In that case, you’ll experience drain issues for an entirely different weather-related issue that our emergency plumbing service can use their expertise to uncover. All the plungers, augers, and other drain clearing methods won’t take care of this one properly.
Sump Pump Issues
Our emergency plumbing service can also help with sump pump issues, including inspecting your system before the rains fall so you can be well protected. Don’t forget this essential basement protection.
Your Emergency Plumbing Service in Knoxville, TN
We’re My Professional Plumber, expert plumbers available to serve you when wet weather contributes to your plumbing challenges, or for dry weather emergencies. Call us for any emergency plumbing issues, or for professional plumbing services and inspections scheduled at your convenience.