Category: Plumbing

Those Too-Common Kitchen Plumbing Problems

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The kitchen contains an enormous amount of plumbing fixtures and they undergo a huge amount of work during the year, and especially during holiday seasons and other times when big meals are being prepared. When a plumbing problem starts in the kitchen, it’s a serious issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. And even if the problem seems minor, it will need to have a professional plumber address it.

Below, we’re going to look at the kitchen plumbing issues that happen the most often. The types that we’re used to dealing with. Although there are some simple repairs you can do on your own, we don’t recommend grabbing a set of tools and trying to go DIY on the problem. A professional can get the job done right the first time, and get it done fast.

A leaky faucet

This is one of the kitchen plumbing troubles that you may be able to fix on your own. The faucet head may only need to be tightened or the washer replaced. But if the faucet is leaky around its base, you probably shouldn’t attempt to disconnect the faucet to attempt to figure out what’s wrong. (It’s likely the O-ring that seals the faucet’s base has worn down.) Let a professional do the work.

Low water pressure

You turn on one of the faucets in your kitchen and find that the water pressure is extremely low. There are a couple of reasons this could be happening, and we recommend you check other taps in the house to see if the problem is occurring elsewhere. If it is, it may be a temporary municipal water problem—or it could be a leak in the water main, which is a big emergency that needs professionals right away. If you are only having trouble with the one sink faucet, check the aerator in the faucet. It can become clogged with minerals and cause the water pressure drop. Clean out the aerator and see if this fixes the trouble.

Broken garbage disposal

If a garbage disposal won’t turn on, press the reset button on the bottom of the unit. This is a circuit breaker that trips if the motor of the disposal creates a voltage surge. If the disposal trips the breaker again, call professionals. If the disposal is jammed, don’t put your hand down in it to try to dislodge something. It’s safer to let a plumber look into it. You may need to have a new disposal installed rather than keep fixing an old one.

Drain clogs

You know about these. They’re almost impossible to avoid in a kitchen at some point, no matter how careful you are about keeping food waste and fats, oils, and grease out of the drains. Kitchen sink drain clogs can be obstinate and impossible to remove using a basic plunger or hand-cranked drain snake. (Don’t use store-bought chemical cleaners at all!) Let professionals handle the drain cleaning to keep your kitchen plumbing in great shape.

The Frederick, MD plumbers to call when you need to conquer a kitchen plumbing problems are right here! We handle everything from simple kitchen plumbing repairs to more extensive jobs such as installing new sinks, pipes, and garbage disposals. We’re the local service contractor of choice!

Mallick Plumbing & Heating serves Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia with quality plumbing.

Youtube Videos Won’t Make You into a Plumber

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YouTube has brought some wonderful things into our lives, such as a wide array of opinions on almost any topic. And cute animal videos. Lots and lots of cute animal videos.

One of the downsides of YouTube, however, is that instructional videos have led many homeowners to believe they only have to watch five minutes of a professional performing a task, and presto! they become professionals as well! This can be extremely damaging when it comes to something like plumbing for a house. A YouTube video may help explain how your plumbing works, or show you a basic job like how to replace a washer in a faucet. But for almost anything else, simply watching a video doesn’t mean an amateur can then do the job.

Professional Plumbers—Better Than ANY Instructional Video

It’s not just that watching an instructional video won’t provide you the complete details about how to perform a plumbing job or an understanding of ­why you’re taking a certain action. The more serious issue is that these videos don’t actually give you the right tools to do the job or the knowledge of how best to use these tools.

Professional plumbers are trained on a range of tasks so they can bring numerous skills into a job and troubleshoot anything. They have the finest in high-end tools and know how to properly handle them. Licensed plumbers will see that any plumbing job is done right the first time so the issue doesn’t pop up again later and to stop the potential for water damage.

If you’re looking for a professional plumber in Potomac, MD, call on us—the contractor of choice. We’re here whenever you need us, 24/7, and it’s as fast to call us as it is to go watch a YouTube video. All of our staff are licensed by the WSSC (the Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission) and are members of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association. They’ll see any job is done right so you won’t incur additional costs later or even significant water damage.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating Is the Service Contractor of Choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

If You Have Rusty Water, You Need Plumbing Help

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What happens when you see a rusty brown discoloration in your water? It’s obviously nothing good—fresh water should be clear and colorless. There are a number of possibilities for this happening. One is that a faucet hasn’t been used for a few weeks, and there’s dirty some collected in the pipes. You’ve probably seen this happen when you’ve been away on vacation and your plumbing has been idle. In this case, the discoloration should disappear in less than a minute.

But if the rust color doesn’t go away, or it happens to faucets and taps regularly in use, you may be facing trouble with rusty water. This is often a serious plumbing issue, and in that case, it needs the attention of a professional as soon as possible.

Why You’re Seeing Rust in the Water

Rust in water creates a distinctive appearance, odor, and taste. It’s possible you’re seeing dirt that has entered the water through a break in the mainline, but this is rarer and you’ll probably be able to tell the difference. Rust isn’t harmful to drink, but it indicates major issues elsewhere in the plumbing.

But it might not be your plumbing. Troubles in the municipal water system may be at fault. How can you tell that it’s from your plumbing? Do a test: Fill up a glass with water with cold water from one of your faucets and check if it’s rusty. Run the water for a minute, then fill up another glass and see if the problem is going away. Now fill up a glass with hot water from the same faucet. If you only see the rusty discoloration in the hot water or the rusty coloration is in the cold water and isn’t going away, then the problem is definitely in your plumbing, and you should call on a professional plumber right away. Otherwise, call the water company to report the issue—part of the municipal pipe system is rusting.

  • If only the hot water is rusty… you probably have a rusting water heater. This is bad news for a water heater and probably means that it must be replaced. Once corrosion sets in on the interior of the tank, there’s usually nothing that can be done to fix the problem that isn’t more expensive than getting a new water heater altogether. You don’t want a water heater that’s going to start springing leaks or suddenly fail. Call a plumber to get a replacement in right away.
  • If the rusty coloration isn’t going away… the issue is likely corrosion in the pipes. This is something that can happen to homes with older galvanized steel or iron pipes. These pipes are prone to rusting over time, unlike corrosion-resistant copper and plastic. A plumber can identify where you need new pipes, or if you need full repiping for your house.

For the service for your plumbing in Rockville, MD to fix problems that create rusty water, get in touch with us. Our licensed and trained plumbers are available 24 hours a day to take care of emergency services.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Contractor of Choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

It’s Not a Ghost, It’s … Water Hammer

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To have us reassure you that those thumping noises you hear in the walls don’t mean you live in a haunted house, they just mean you have water hammer, might not actually feel assuring. Water hammer sounds sinister. Possibly dangerous. What is it?

First, it’s not dangerous—at least, not to you or your family. It can be a problem for the plumbing, however, and if it happens frequently, it’s an issue you’ll need a professional plumber in Potomac, MD to fix.

How water hammer happens

The thump noise you hear that either surprises or annoys you is the abrupt stop of water flow in the pipes and an equally abrupt change of direction. This can occur when a tap somewhere, such as a faucet or in a water-using appliance, cuts off the water flow. If the pipes don’t have air chambers to cushion the water when the demand cuts off, the water force will create that distinct sound.

If you only hear water hammer now and then, you probably don’t have a serious issue. Water pressure can sometimes spike in residential plumbing because of an issue with the municipal water supply. If water hammer is a routine occurrence, however, it poses a threat to the pipes. High pressure inside pipes can cause damage to them, even resulting in burst pipes.

Call a professional plumber to fix the problem

There are different ways to approach habitual water hammer, and it requires a skilled and licensed plumber to find out which one is right for your situation. Air chambers may leak and lose their air, so a plumber must seal and restore them. The plumbing could require a water pressure regulator; this is a common fix to any issue plumbing has with high pressure. Another option is to use mechanical water arrestors.

You can trust our plumber to fix whatever plumbing problem you have!

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the service contractor of choice in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Water Stain on the Ceiling? It May Be an Emergency

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It’s not something you want to see on the ceiling: a circular stain of discoloration marring the pleasing décor of a room. But when you notice a ceiling stain, the solution isn’t to get a can of paint and brush over it to disguise it. A ceiling stain is often an indication of a more serious problem that will require calling on a professional plumber to repair it.

What Might Cause a Ceiling Stain?

The likely cause is a leaking pipe. It doesn’t take much water to create damage to the drywall of most ceilings. Even a small buildup will rapidly begin to eat through the drywall, as well as create mold and mildew that cause further damage. If the stain is located beneath an upstairs bathroom, then leaking pipes are almost certainly the source. The bathroom has more plumbing pipes concentrated in it than any other room in the house (this includes the kitchen) so even a small leak in this spot can mean a lot of water.

It can also mean a lot of trouble: the leak might have been going on for a while before you noticed it. The water damage weakens flooring material with wood rot, and this can lead to parts of the ceiling starting to fall in. The worst case scenario—and yes, this does happen—is for the toilet to crash through the floor. You don’t want to hesitate when it comes to finding out if you’ve got a plumbing leak.

There are other possibilities. The problem may be a leaking roof that’s allowing water down into building materials. The leak might be coming from the bathroom, but not from a leaky pipe: deteriorating caulking around sinks and showers can allow water to seep through the floors.

What Needs to Be Done

First, don’t worry about the stain itself—it’s not the current priority. It will get taken care of later. Worry that you may have leaking plumbing. If you live in an older house (built pre-1970), this could be a major warning that your old pipes are starting to decay. Galvanized steel pipes are prone to corrosion, and if you still have these types of pipes in your home, you may need more extensive repiping than fixing that single leak. Call a plumber no matter what so you’ll have the problem correctly identified and fixed.

And please, don’t try to cut through part of your ceiling to reach the pipe and attempt a DIY fix. You might end up causing even more water damage—possibly to other parts of your house. A licensed plumber will have the job done right and done fast, with no mess. Then you can worry about taking care of the unsightly stain. That’s usually the easiest part.

If you need an emergency plumber in Rockville, MD—you’ve found one! Let us take care of the plumbing work you need to be done right away, including bathroom plumbing and leak detection.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of Choice for Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Rusty Water: What It Means, What to Do About It

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You come back from an extended vacation and turn on the faucet in the bathroom for the first time in weeks. You’ll expect the water to have a brownish-red tint to it, but it will soon fade as the sink gets back into action. But when you spot this ruddy color in the water at other times, it may mean you’ve got rust in the plumbing system. The water will give off a metallic odor as well.

Is this unhealthy?

With the exception of a condition called hemochromatosis, people who drink rust in water won’t suffer ill health effects. Rust is oxidized iron, which isn’t harmful. But this doesn’t mean you should tolerate having rust in your home’s water. It looks ugly, for one, and it also can cause staining to fixtures, surfaces, and your dishes.

The source of the rusty water—and the solutions

The big concern is not so much the rusty water itself as what is causing it. It might be a problem with the municipal water supply. If you find rusty water flowing from all the taps in the house, both hot and cold, that often means an outside source of contamination. Call the water company to inform them of the problem.

If the reddish water is only coming from the cold water line or the hot water lines, the problem is somewhere in the house’s plumbing. If the discoloration is coming from the hot water lines, your water heater is probably dying. When corrosion starts to gnaw away at a water heater, the system needs to be replaced. Call a professional plumber for this service right away.

Rusty water from the cold water lines doesn’t bring much better news: the trouble is likely the pipes that have corroded with age. This is common in older homes that have plumbing of steel or cast iron. We recommend contacting a professional plumber to see if you need to have repiping done to replace this material with copper and plastic.

When you need professional plumbing in Silver Spring, MD from a contractor with experience and training, call on us. We offer all the above work and more.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating Is the Service Contractor of Choice! We serve Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Why Is My Toilet Leaking

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Handling plumbing in bathrooms is a huge part of the job of any professional plumber. The reason is simple: there are more plumbing pipes and fixtures in a bathroom than in any other room in the house—including the kitchen. People are likely to notice bathroom plumbing issues soon after they start and move fast to have them fixed. That’s the right instinct. When you think you need a plumber in Rockville, MD to repair your bathroom’s plumbing, get in touch with us and we’ll get the job done. We offer 24-hour emergency service for your convenience.

What Causes A Toilet To Leak?

Speaking of emergencies … is your plumbing problem a leaking toilet? This is common trouble, and there’s no single source for it. We’re going to list some of the possible reasons this is happening to your toilet, but only a professional plumber can do a proper diagnose and fix the problem.

Leaky Gaskets

The rubber gaskets between where the tank is connected to the bowl can dry up and deteriorate over time.

  • When this happens, water will begin to leak from the tank and flow down onto the floor.
  • Plumbers can put in new gaskets to stop this.
  • Loose tanks bolts are a similar cause of leaking.

Loose Feed Line

The feed line is the flexible rubber tube coming from the wall that delivers fresh water into the tank.

  • If the line starts to loosen, it will mean escaping water.
  • The frequent cause of this is a broken fill valve nut.
  • Water can also start leaking from around the valve that shuts off the feed line in cases of emergencies.

Failed Wax Ring

Have you noticed the water leaking seems to be escaping from around the base of the toilet? In this case, the problem is a failed wax ring. The wax ring is the seal against water escaping from the pipe in the bottom of the unit. The ring can shrivel up with time.

  • The only option to repair a failed ring is to have it replaced.
  • A new ring doesn’t cost much, but the job necessary to replace it—unbolting and removing the whole toilet—is one you must to leave to a professional plumber.

Cracked Porcelain Bowl

Damage to the porcelain of the toilet bowl is a serious issue. If you notice any crack in the toilet bowl, even if you don’t see any leaking yet, call for a plumber immediately. In most situations, the only solution is to have the bowl—or the entire toilet—replaced.

Dangers Of Leaks

We want to stress how important it is to have plumbers repair a leaking toilet as soon as possible. These leaks not only waste water, but they can also inflict water damage to the bathroom floor.

  • Water damage is expensive to remediate and creates mold and mildew trouble.
  • Worst of all is that it weakens building material.

Toilets have even collapsed through floors because of water damage! Please don’t let your leaking toilet even close to that kind of disaster—put in a call to our plumbers and we’ll take it from there.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating Is the Service Contractor of Choice throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

What Is Causing That Drain Clog?

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Our plumbers handle a huge number of different jobs, from installing new piping for homes to extensive commercial plumbing services. But we know that when most people think of “plumbers,” the first job they think of is “drain unclogging.” Drain clogs are the most common plumbing hassle and drain cleaning to fix clogged or slow drains are one of the most important parts of our day-to-day operations.

A reason clogs are so common is that there are so many different things that can cause them to start in drain pipes. Below we’ll try to answer this most frequently asked of all plumbing questions, “What’s clogging up my drain?”

Hair

Hair clogs are the bane of bathroom drains. Sink, shower, and bathtub drains often draw in a lot of loose hair. The hair strands become stuck in the p-trap, the curved section of pipe beneath the drain. Once lodged there, the hair will begin to ensnare other hair as well as debris, leading to a tangle that can slow down the drainage or stop it completely. These clogs are tough to clear out thoroughly without the assistance of professional plumbers. We recommend using drain covers to slow down hair accumulation.

Soap scum

It’s hard to stop soap from going down drains around the house. If you’ve ever seen soap caked onto a soap dish, you’ll have some idea of how tough and obstinate soap scum build-up is. Not only does this build-up threaten to clog the drain, but it can also create chemical reactions with the pipe material leading to corrosion. (A potential chemical reaction between soap and liquid drain cleaners is one of the reasons no professional plumbers recommend using these store-bought “cleaners.”)

Food and FOG

This is the big trouble for kitchen drains. Food particles and fats, oils, and grease (FOG) wash down the drains—but often not all the way. FOG is particularly tenacious: when the hot liquid cools down, it changes into a waxy solid that is tough to remove from pipe walls without using professional tools like hydro-jetting. This organic accumulation can also lead to unpleasant odors from the drains and the appearance of drain flies.

Hard water minerals

Many homes have problems with hard water, which is water with high levels of calcium and magnesium. The minerals leave scale behind in the pipes, which slow drains and even clog them entirely. Professional drain cleaning can remove this scale, but we also recommend you look into having a water softener installed to attack the trouble at its source. Your entire plumbing system will thank you!

Small objects knocked over into the drains

Finally, bottle tops, children’s toys, and other small objects that might accidentally fall down a drain are another leading cause of clogs. Again, we recommend putting drain covers over your drains to stop this problem from happening in the first place.

Solving any of these drain clog troubles is as easy as contacting us for drain cleaning in Frederick, MD or elsewhere in our service area. We also offer routine drain cleaning to see that your drains have as few clogs in the future as possible.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating: The Service Contractor of Choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Reminder about Frozen Pipes (What to Do and NOT to DO)

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As we head into the seriously cold weather of the winter, a concern you may have about your plumbing (and a concern you should have) is pipe freeze. We’ve previously written about what causes frozen pipes to burst, and it’s definitely something you want to watch out for. We recommend taking precautions now to help prevent pipe freeze, such as disconnecting outside hoses, insulating hose bibs, and checking to see that exposed pipes have insulation sleeves.

What do you do, however, when you do end up with frozen pipes? We have some advice on what you shouldn’t do…

Don’t…

  • Use any type of space heater, kerosene heater, or acetylene torch to attempt to thaw out the pipe. For one thing, this may cause the pipe to burst because of the sudden increase in pressure. For another, it’s potentially dangerous.
  • Use a hair dryer to thaw the pipes. Not only will this not be enough heat to thaw the pipes, but there’s also an electrocution damage potential.
  • Ignore it. Pipe freeze is something that needs to be fixed ASAP!

But what should you do?

Do…

  • Call for professional plumbers. This is one of our fields of expertise, and we can have frozen pipes fixed fast and without danger of bursting.
  • Open up the faucet at the end of a frozen pipe. This will help relieve the pressure within the pipe and make a burst pipe much less likely.

Once the pro lumbers arrive, they’ll be able to take over the job from there. They’ll also help you with advice and installations that will help prevent more frozen pipes in the future.

You have great plumbers available in Potomac, MD to help you out when pipe freeze strikes! Our plumbers are ready to help you 24-hours a day for any plumbing emergency.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of Choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

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