Preparing for Summer

Do you have an urgent situation developing in your bathroom right now? Is your toilet or sink clogged and you're frantically trying to figure out what to do about it? Plumbing issues can arise at any moment, often with little to no warning. They can be caused by anything from simple wear and tear to a mischievous young child deciding to experiment with a plumbing fixture. Whatever the cause, getting things sorted out as quickly as possible will help keep this situation in the realm of inconvenient rather than a complete disaster. Some things that you need to do or have done as soon as possible include the following:

Call a plumber: This might seem obvious to some people, but it's not so obvious to others. For some, the first instinct when faced with a serious plumbing situation is to try to fix it themselves rather than to call in an emergency plumber. Unfortunately, this DIY approach can wind up causing more damage and costing more in the long run. You might be able to enact a temporary fix, but that doesn't mean that the situation has been resolved in its entirety. Only a professional plumber will be able to ensure that the trouble has been fixed for good.

Shut off water: In order to prevent more damage from occurring while you wait for the emergency plumber to arrive, it's essential that you shut down water to the troubled area as soon as possible. This may mean shutting off water to just a single fixture, such as your toilet, or it may require shutting off the water at the mains. If you're not sure whether you need to turn off the water or not, it's generally better to err on the side of caution and turn off all water until the plumber arrives and tells you otherwise.

Acquire cleaning supplies: Unless your home is located very close to the emergency plumber, it could be as long as a couple of hours before the plumber is able to get to your home. Use this time productively to get the supplies that will be needed to clean up the current mess and the potential mess that the plumber might make in the process of fixing everything. Depending on the problem, you're most likely going to want to be able to clean up both wet and dry messes. If your toilet has overflowed, you'll obviously need to mop that up. But if there's a plumbing issue within one of your walls, then you may need to be able to clean up drywall dust created by the plumber gaining access to the plumbing.