Plumbing Leaks Can Lead To Plumbing Disasters

On a scale of annoying to disastrous, plumbing leaks are often dismissed as mere irritations. However, they can easily become the most expensive home repair that you face as a homeowner. Even those that start out small have the potential to cause big plumbing problems and expenses if not repaired.

Below, we discuss some of the reasons why you should make sure leaks in your home are repaired quickly.

Why Small Leaks Cause Big Problems

When a pipe bursts, the results are dramatic and easy to notice. But, did you know that small plumbing leaks are more dangerous because they often go unnoticed until significant damage has been done to your home’s foundation, frame, walls, floors, or ceiling?

Plumbing Leaks Hurt Your Pocket

Even a slow drip from a faucet can increase your utility bill drastically over time. Regardless of what causes the faucet to leak, you will be paying for water that you’re not using. Getting plumbing leaks repaired as soon as you notice them will not only cut down on an ever-increasing utility bill, but it will also prevent extensive damage in the future.

Leaks Don’t Love The Environment

Ignoring leaks can have a serious collective impact on the environment. Water has become an increasingly precious global commodity. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ignoring a single leaky faucet can waste more than 180 showers’ worth of water! That’s the equivalent of 3,000 gallons a year per household.

Common Bathroom Leaks

Bathrooms are all about water and where there is water, there will be leaks sooner or later. Here are some of the common bathroom leak hotspots.

• Over time, toilets can work themselves loose from their seating.
• Toilet water lines can become loose and leave pools of water on the floor.
• Faucets and showerheads can leak due to damaged seals.

Common Kitchen Leaks

Water in a kitchen is necessary for food preparation and cleaning. The potential for leaks in a kitchen usually come from two main areas.

1. Under-sink piping can loosen or get damaged. When leaks happen here, the cabinet can potentially be ruined, and the floor and wall can be subject to extensive damage.


2. Water lines that run to refrigerators and dishwashers. When appliance hoses leak, it’s usually because they’ve degraded or become loose. Pipes in the walls can deteriorate over time even with normal usage. This leaves you with leaks inside your walls that can be hard to detect early on, which can cause a lot of structural damage. Repairing in-wall leaks is a big job that requires the right tools and expertise.

Top Ten Plumbing Leak Lookout List

So how do you tell if your home has developed a leak that needs to be repaired? Here are 10 tell-tale signs:

1. A constant damp feeling in your home not mitigated by the use of a humidifier.
2. Rusty nails and screws throughout the home.
3. Uneven floor services. Vinyl flooring will lift and wood will buckle if there is water around.
4. Drywall water stains.
5. Damp, musty odors.
6. Carpet stains and wet patches that aren’t caused by normal wear-and-tear.
7. Random patches of condensation throughout your home.
8. A sagging ceiling.
9. Missing roof shingles or tiles.
10. Fungi and mold growth throughout the home.

Hidden Plumbing Leaks

Many plumbing leaks are obvious and as easy to spot—others are harder to find. Water has a way of running down the line and showing up away from where the actual source of the problem is. This makes it hard to locate and repair the source of the issue. At Art Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electric, we have specialized equipment that enables us to locate the source of the leak quickly.

Leak Size, Leak Cause, Leak Location … Art Can Fix It!

Whether you’re dealing with a flooded room or a cracked plumbing pipe inside a wall, Art Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electric in Boca Raton can fix it. Call us today at 561-391-1048; we’ll be there with our state-of-the-art equipment and knowledge to get you out of a leaky situation.