An Emergency Plumber Has Seen Everything, Here Are a Few Examples | San Antonio, TX
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Don’t Feel Self-Conscious About Your Emergency Plumber Call
A quick survey of the internet shows that we’re not the only emergency plumbers who have seen unusual things on emergency calls. Whatever your situation is here in San Antonio, TX, we’ve probably seen or heard about it. This is called life, and we’re here to help you with the plumbing part of it. We’re not sure we’d be calm if we were the ones that found an alligator in the drain, but other than that, most anything else is well within our routine. We’ve probably got your curiosity going, though, so we’ll talk a bit about things plumbers have seen on routine and emergency calls. If you’ve got an emergency, though, please call us and then read on!
Phones Aren’t the Only Thing People Drop in Toilets, But They’re Popular
Statistics from various sources point to about one in five people have dropped their phones in the toilet. We wonder how many of them have done it several times. Plumbers have found everything from little bags of stuff flushed in a panic to dentures, diapers, phones, toys of course, and money. It’s always tough when jewelry goes down the drain, too. Sometimes with our video equipment we can find it, though. We use that video when we’re not sure what we’re dealing with, since pushing a plastic dinosaur further in with a plunger isn’t such a great idea, and an auger might clear a path through a toy or diaper, but the drain will clog again pretty soon.
When Superheroes Use Your Bathroom
There is a particularly helpless feeling when you don’t know your own strength and you break off a sink or shower handle. That goes double if the drain is partially clogged and won’t handle the flow that you now cannot stop. As luck would have it, if there’s a shutoff under your sink it’s probably so seldom used that it’s stuck. Hopefully, you know where the shutoff is in the basement, but call us while you’re doing that! We can come, stop the disaster, fix the handle, unstick the shutoff or put in one if needed, and restore order out of chaos. We’re the superheroes that clean up after other ones.
Avoiding Emergency Plumber Calls with Drain Strainers and Screens
For sinks where you have frequent problems with items down the drain, we can help with drain modifications or strainers to keep only liquids and tiny material passing through. The same goes for the shower, where everything from hair ties and earrings to shampoo bottle caps can go down and stop up the drain. A simple drain screen can save many emergency plumber visits, especially in a big family. While we’re there unplugging the kids’ bathroom shower, if mom and dad have been thinking about one of those rain effect shower heads or other luxury upgrades for theirs, we’ll be glad to discuss the possibilities and make an appointment.
Garbage Disposals are Made for Garbage, but When Did That Stop Anyone?
You know to keep fruit pits, metal, glass, and other tough-to-chew items out of the disposal, and peelings or other slippery items can mess up the disposal’s function. But what else do people put in accidentally or not realizing what they’re doing is wrong? Big wads of chewing gum have been reported, Money, pieces of utensils broken off and lost down the drain, screws and nuts, bottle caps, a doll’s head (brothers, huh?).
Things that expand in the p-trap after the disposal can be a problem, and many people know not to put large amounts of rice down there but one plumber found that powder you put in juice to get your system going again, and it had done the same thing. Your emergency plumber can not only replace your disposal if it broke, but sometimes perform a repair by removing the unit and disassembling it to retrieve the stray items. Oh, and one grandma claimed her cat pushed the spare change in. Quite believable, if you know cats.
Things That Go Bang, Bang, Hiss, Tweet, Braaap in the Night
Plumbing vibrations can sometimes be cause for an emergency plumber visit. Not necessarily for the noise itself, sometimes just for the damage it can do over time. A vibrating pipe can wear through, for example, and “water hammer” sounds are not only startling but represent big pressure spikes that can damage pumps and equipment attached to the water line. Water hammer reduction devices can help solve that problem, and when the noise is caused by an automatic valve in a dishwasher or washing machine, repairing or replacing the valve can help too.
Underground Dwellers in Your Sewer Line
We’ve heard about the alligators and along the sewer line other creatures have gotten in that could, depending on size, swim upstream into your line. That makes video inspection even more exciting! Legends speak of snakes, giant worms, even raccoons and rats in the bigger pipes. Usually, though, we just find an assortment of flushed household products and other items bound with grease and a big mess we can blast out with hydro jetting. Holes in the line that are making your grass or garden grow great right above require patching or pipe lining, and sometimes a full-pipe replacement is required, especially when there’s tree root damage or heavy equipment is driving above the line.
Plumbing Drama Is Routine Work for Us
By now you’ve hopefully realized that life’s “full catastrophe” as Zorba the Greek called it, is part of an emergency plumber’s job. Don’t worry about it, just call and we’ll take care of it.
Your Friendly, Courteous San Antonio, TX Emergency Plumber
At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of San Antonio we’re your best emergency plumber call, also ready for any project you have, from sink leaks to sewer line repair. Put us on speed dial and give us a call when you need us at 210-361-3418.
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