Most Southern California homes sit on a concrete slab foundation. Much of their plumbing runs directly through pipes in the slab. If this sounds like the recipe for a plumbing disaster, it can be. Leaks in the slab are difficult to detect and even harder to repair. A...
You turn on the shower and wait. And wait. And wait. And when you step into the stream, frigid water hits you like a glacial melt. What gives? In a large home, hot water may travel through 50 feet or more of piping from the water heater to the shower, the kitchen...
Toilets clog for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes, they seem to clog out of spite. It’s more likely that someone put too much paper in the bowl or that the sewer pipe is getting old and working at reduced capacity. Most toilet clogs are minor and can be repaired...
Bummer. There’s a leak in the line connecting the toilet to your home’s water supply. A visual inspection reveals that the problem is caused by the threaded connection between the water line and the bottom of the toilet tank. Or the problem may lie with...
The water heater accounts for 20–25% of the total energy use in an average Orange County home. This percentage may be even higher in an age of spiking energy prices. We may never return to the good old days of (relatively) inexpensive energy, so the best way to lower...
