October is about the easiest month of the year to look after the plumbing in a Chesapeake home. The summer irrigation is winding down, hurricane season is past its peak, the first freeze is still weeks away, and the holidays have not yet arrived. The list below takes an afternoon at a comfortable pace, and every item on it heads off a repair that would cost more, and arrive at a worse moment a few months later.
Start outside
Freezes in Hampton Roads are fewer and shorter than they are inland, and that is exactly what makes them catch people off guard. A pipe that was never insulated because it never seemed to need it is the one that splits on the single hard night in January, so the outdoor plumbing is a good place to begin.
- Take the garden hoses off and drain them, because a hose left connected traps water inside the faucet body, and that trapped water is what splits the pipe behind the wall when it freezes.
- Fit each outdoor spigot with an insulated cover, which costs a few dollars and can stay on until spring.
- Turn off and drain the irrigation system, and take a look at the backflow preventer for drips, since it sits above ground and will be the first thing to freeze.
- If you have an outdoor shower, a pool, a dock, or a detached garage, wrap the exposed lines to them in foam insulation. Outdoor showers are common near the water, and they are almost always the first plumbing to freeze.
The water heater
From now until spring, the water coming into the tank is colder, so the heater works harder to give you the same warm shower. Sediment that built up over the summer makes the job harder still. If you are comfortable doing it, flush a few gallons from the drain valve at the bottom of the tank until the water runs clear, and lift the relief valve’s test lever for a second; water should come out and then stop. Before you leave the heater, find the manufacture date on its label. A tank heater past ten years is getting close to the end of its working life, and fall is a much calmer time to plan its replacement than the week before Christmas. Our water heater page walks through the repair and replacement options.
Under the house
Hampton Roads sits on a high water table, and a wet fall or a passing nor’easter puts water under a great many homes here. If yours has a crawl space, one trip under it with a flashlight this season tells you more than you might expect.
- Look for standing water or damp soil, for which a sump pump is the usual answer, and if one is already down there, lift the float or pour some water into the pit to make sure it still runs.
- Look for bare supply pipe with no insulation on it, which will freeze in the first hard cold snap, and wrap it now while it takes only a few minutes.
- Look for open foundation vents and gaps where pipes pass through the foundation, which let cold air move across the lines, and close and seal them for the winter.
- Find the main water shutoff valve and turn it once to confirm it moves. A valve that has seized from years of sitting still is a hard thing to discover while water is running across a floor.
Inside the house
Open each cabinet under a sink and run a hand along the supply lines and the trap, feeling for moisture and looking for stains or mineral crust. Put a few drops of food coloring in each toilet tank and wait fifteen minutes; if color shows up in the bowl, a flapper is leaking and quietly wasting water around the clock. Last, take a reading from the water meter at bedtime and another in the morning before anything runs. If the reading moved, there is a leak somewhere in the system, and finding it now is far less expensive than finding it later as a soft spot in a floor. If the showers have grown weaker over the year, a water pressure assessment is worth adding to the list, since the cause is often a pressure regulator that has faded with age.
The drains
Holiday cooking sends grease, starch, and food scraps down the kitchen line in volumes the rest of the year never sees, and a drain that runs a little slow in October tends to stop in November. Notice any sink or tub that drains slowly or gurgles while another fixture is running. Both are early signs of a partial blockage, and having the line cleared now means it is wide open when the house fills up, and our drain clearing visits are short ones.
One more for homes with gas
If your home has gas service, fall is a sensible time to glance at the visible gas line to the water heater and furnace for corrosion, which coastal air encourages, and to make sure the carbon monoxide detector has a fresh battery. Our gas line service handles inspections and repairs if anything looks off.
We are glad to handle whatever you would rather not
Russell’s American Mechanical has served Hampton Roads since 1977. If you would rather have one of our plumbers flush the water heater, check the sump pump, or take the trip under the house, you can schedule online, use the website chat, or call, and same-day appointments are available by phone when the day allows. A fall plumbing visit is a short appointment, and it turns what might have been a January crisis into planned work on a day you picked.