Plumbing repair, from a dripping valve to a burst main

Usually it is the water heater, and what failed decides whether this is a repair or a replacement. On an electric tank it is often a heating element or a thermostat, and both get replaced. On a gas tank the pilot assembly or the thermocouple is the common one. A tank rusting through at the seam is a replacement. We will say that rather than sell you a part that will not hold.

• No hot water at all, or hot water that runs out after a few minutes
• Water heater repair for rusty water, or a rotten-egg smell from the hot tap only
• Water pooling under the tank, or a rust ring on the floor around it
• Popping and rumbling from the tank (sediment on the bottom, making the burner work harder)
• Tankless unit throwing an error code or cycling on and off
• Water heater replacement, including tank to tankless and moving a heater out of a closet
• Expansion tank, temperature and pressure relief valve, and drain pan work on the same visit

A drain that blocks again within weeks is not really clogged. It is damaged, or something further down the line is catching debris. Roots, grease, a bellied section and old cast iron all behave this way. A camera down the line shows which one it is. That is the difference between one spot repair and paying for the same visit over and over.

• Kitchen sink draining slowly, or backing up into the other side of the sink
• Tub and shower that gurgle when the toilet flushes
• Drain cleaning that clears the line instead of punching a hole through the blockage
• Sewer camera inspection to find roots, a collapse or a bellied section
• Hydro jetting for grease and scale, rather than another pass with a cable
• A cleanout added so the line can be worked on without pulling a toilet
• Cast iron and galvanized drain lines in older houses, including Pittsburgh's older basement stock

Start at the water meter. Shut every fixture off, watch the meter for fifteen minutes, and if the dial is still moving you are losing water somewhere. After that it is a process. Isolate the hot side from the cold, listen at the fixtures, then check the crawl space or the basement ceiling. Open the smallest piece of wall or ceiling that answers the question.

• A water bill that jumped with no change in how you use water
• A warm or damp patch on a slab floor, which usually means a hot-water slab leak
• Leak detection before the drywall comes down, not after
• Pinhole leaks in copper, or a joint that keeps weeping
• A pipe that split in a freeze, including crawl space and attic runs
• Shutoff valves that no longer shut anything off
• Burst supply hoses behind a washing machine or under a sink

Most fixture work is a single-visit job at an existing connection. A toilet that runs. A faucet that drips. A disposal that hums and will not turn. These are the smallest plumbing calls there are, and they are the ones people put off longest. If you have three or four of them saved up, group them into one visit.

• Toilet repair for a bowl that runs, rocks, or will not stop filling
• Dripping or seized kitchen and bathroom faucets
• Garbage disposal that hums, jams or leaks underneath
• Shower valve and cartridge replacement, including the scald guard setting
• Ice maker and dishwasher supply lines
• Laundry box and washing machine valves
• Bidet seats, filtered taps and pot fillers at an existing supply

In Hampton Roads the water problem is almost always under the house, in a crawl space that sits close to the water table. In South Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania it is usually a basement pit, and the same goes for Pittsburgh, where many older basement houses sit on sloped lots. Either way, a pump that fails during a storm turns into standing water, wet insulation and rot in the framing above it. Test yours by pouring a bucket into the pit. If it does not kick on, that is the whole test.

• Sump pump that runs constantly, or will not kick on at all
• Sump pump installation and replacement, float switches and check valves
• Battery backup for the storm that takes the power with it
• A discharge line that dumps too close to the house, or freezes shut
• Standing water in the crawl space or basement after heavy rain
• Perimeter drainage and a French drain feeding the pit

Two materials turn that into a yes. Polybutylene is the gray or blue flexible plastic pipe used from the late 1970s into the mid 1990s. It has a long record of failing from the inside out. Galvanized steel corrodes closed until your pressure drops to a trickle. If you have either one and you are patching leaks on repeat, you are not fixing a problem, you are renting time.

• Identifying polybutylene, galvanized steel or aging copper in your house
• Whole-house repipe in PEX or copper, room by room or all at once
• Repiping through a crawl space or an unfinished basement without tearing up finished floors
• The main water line from the meter to the house
• Hose bib and exterior line replacement while the walls are open
• Drywall and paint handled after, so one company closes the wall back up

Low pressure everywhere in the house points at one of three things: the pressure reducing valve, the main line, or corroded galvanized pipe. Low pressure at a single fixture is nearly always an aerator or a cartridge, and that is the small one. Pressure that runs too high is the problem nobody calls about, and it is why water heaters and supply hoses fail early.

• Pressure reducing valve testing and replacement
• Fixtures that hammer or bang when you shut a tap
• Well pump and pressure tank work for homes on a private well, in parts of Cecil County and out toward Suffolk
• Whole-house filters and softeners plumbed in at the main
• One weak shower while the rest of the house is fine
• Pressure loss that showed up right after a repair somewhere else

How a pipe freezes depends on where the house is. Coastal Virginia does not freeze often, and that is exactly why pipes there split when it does: the hose bib has no frost-proof stem and the crawl space run has no insulation. Houses in Pittsburgh, South Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania are built for winter, so the failures come from the exceptions, like a frost-proof sillcock with a hose left on it or a supply line run along a cold outside wall. One hard January night finds every weak point at once. The damage usually shows on the first warm day, when the ice thaws and the split starts running.

• A split hose bib, or a spigot that leaks inside the wall when you open it
• Frost-proof sillcock replacement
• Insulating and heat taping exposed crawl space and attic runs
• An irrigation backflow preventer that cracked over the winter
• Winterizing a house you are leaving empty for a move, a sale or a long trip
• Outdoor shower, pool fill and garden line repairs

Often, yes. Gas work is licensed and permitted separately from plumbing in some jurisdictions, and the two do not automatically travel together. Tell us it is gas when you call, so the visit gets booked against the right trade. The water side of a gas heater is plumbing either way.

• Water side work on a gas heater: supply, temperature and pressure relief valve, drain pan, expansion tank
• If you smell gas right now, leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 before you call us

Sharpline takes plumbing calls in five markets, and the work changes with how the houses are built more than with the map. A slab or crawl-space house hides its leaks under the floor. A basement house puts the main shutoff, the sump pit and most of the supply runs in one room you can walk into. A house on a private well adds a pump and a pressure tank to every no-water call.

• Elkton, MD: Cecil County homes on town water and sewer, or on a private well and septic
• Hampton Roads, VA: mostly slab and crawl-space houses, with the oldest drain lines in Norfolk and Portsmouth
• Pittsburgh, PA: a large stock of older houses with basements, many on sloped lots
• South Jersey, NJ: Camden County and the towns around it, where basements are standard
• Southeastern PA: the Philadelphia suburbs and Delaware County, also mostly basement houses