A water leak can really ruin your day as a homeowner, whether it’s a faucet that won’t quit dripping, or a water heater that unexpectedly floods your house. (How badly your day is ruined being relative, of course). During the home buying process, one of the major things home inspectors are looking for is water doing what it shouldn’t be doing. For today’s Upon Closer Inspection, I collected some examples of water leaks from different systems of the house, on a scale of “that’s a bummer,” to “call a plumber, STAT.”
A Really Old Water Leak
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: take a look at your water heater every now and then. It’s like people are scared of this appliance. It’s not like it’s a furnace, is legitimately scary.
Kidding, kidding. But if someone had bothered to do a maintenance check on that water heater anytime in the last … oh, ever, they would have noticed that the cold water inlet was leaking before there was so much rust built up there was literally a tetanus colony living there. Anyway, if you have rust on top of your water heater, that’s likely the problem.
Plumbing Cleanout Leak
This giant muddy puddle was brought to you by a leaking plumbing cleanout. The toilets and showers were backing up, and rather than calling a plumber, the owners took a cap off of a wall clean out and were letting it drain into the backyard. The house turned out to have cast iron plumbing which upon closer inspection had a collapsed drain line under the house which wasn’t allowing it to drain out to the street, so all the waste water was coming out of a plumbing cleanout into the backyard. Spoiler alert: this one is a big problem.
The Wrong Fix For a Water Leak
You know that saying about working smarter not harder? This is not working smarter. These folks constructed a Rube Goldberg machine to pull the water that was leaking from their secondary condensate line away from the house, when all they had to do was unclog the secondary condensate line. (Unclogging the primary one would also have been helpful.)
A Water Leak Waiting To Happen
Not a water leak yet. PVC is not rated for use with hot water over 140 degrees. So when this home was renovated, they used the wrong material for water distribution. That piping is going to expand and degrade with hot water running through it, and eventually spring a leak, or 10.
When in doubt, call a plumber! Or if you have a house full of home maintenance questions, call a home inspector, and we’ll perform a seasonal home maintenance check to let you know if any of these problems are happening in your home.
