Because your bathroom’s shower is used daily, it is essential to ensure it remains in good operating condition. Like any other part of your home, it is susceptible to wear and tear. Plumbing issues can be a massive inconvenience, but there’s good news: most issues can be spotted in advance, as long as you know what to be looking for.
Here are seven common shower problems you might encounter that signal it’s time to call a plumber right away:
1. Inadequate Pressure
There’s probably nothing more irritating than taking a shower that doesn’t have enough water pressure. As a general rule, if your shower isn’t producing adequate pressure, it indicates that your faucet is malfunctioning. While you can go ahead and contact your local plumber to get a new high-flow faucet installed right away, there may be other problems to consider.
A break in the plumbing line may have allowed silt and debris to get into your water pipes and cause a clog. Cleaning out the pipes, repairing the break, and restoring water flow to normal are all things that a skilled plumber can do to resolve your low water pressure issues.
It is also possible that a defective showerhead is the source of insufficient pressure. It is important to carefully clean the shower pipe’s threads before replacing them with a new showerhead. Dirt and calcification may accumulate in these threads, causing pressure to decrease as a result.
2. Leaky Shower Faucet
Having a leaking shower faucet may indicate that you need new gaskets, seals, or rings for the faucet. See a competent plumber unless you have previous expertise in disassembling a shower faucet and inspecting all of its components. Even though new seals and gaskets are very cheap, finding the perfect fit may be challenging.
3. Clogs
It’s pretty normal to have a blockage in your shower drain at some point in time. Hair, grime, soap, and others inadvertently thrown into the drain are the most common causes of clogs. If you’re dealing with a minor blockage, you should be able to resolve the problem by pouring some baking soda and vinegar down your drain and flushing it. You may also attempt to clear the blockage from the drain by hand.
For a more significant obstruction, you may need to use a plumbing snake to clear the blockage. It is, nevertheless, essential to exercise caution when using a plumbing snake or chemical drain cleaners. Without the proper knowledge, you may wind up inflicting more harm to your drains than you first intended. Likewise, installing a drain cover is one of the most effective methods to avoid drain blockages in the first place. Although drain covers will not prevent everything from entering your drain, they will assist in preventing hair from entering the p-trap.
4. Excessive Noise
The only thing you should be able to hear in the shower, apart from the sounds of running water, is the sound of your voice. Strange sounds from your shower generally indicate that something isn’t correctly attached to the wall or that your pipes need to be more securely fastened using brackets. A plumber should be called if you notice any additional sounds since this indicates that you have an issue that requires attention.
5. Foul Odors
A variety of various problems may cause a foul scent in the shower. Bad odors are usually caused by a blockage or standing mold as a result of a water leak. If you discover a foul odor, the best course of action is to eliminate the source of the problem and ventilate the area. If the stench persists even after you’ve completed all of these steps, sewage gas may be escaping from your plumbing and you’ll need to call an expert to have it addressed.
6. Rattling Pipes
Rumbling pipes are a common occurrence due to cold and hot water competing for space in your plumbing. Adjusting your mixing valve is the best course of action if you have rattling pipes. When changing a mixing valve, extreme care must be used to avoid damaging the valve. That is because thousands of individuals need medical attention each year due to heat shock or scorching due to over-correcting their mixing valve.
7. Bursts of Scalding Hot Water
During your shower, someone else in your house goes to the bathroom and flushes the toilet. It interrupts your enjoyment of the shower. All of a sudden, the cold water that you were using to moderate your shower rushes away to finish the toilet flush, leaving you with painfully hot, scorching water to contend with.
Fortunately, there is a method to prevent this excruciating issue altogether. Installing a high-efficiency toilet is one of the most effective things you can do. The goal of these toilets is to decrease the quantity of cold water required to flush a toilet effectively. That means that even if someone else is using the toilet at the same time as you, your shower will have enough cold water to keep itself temperate.
Final Thoughts
These difficulties are often overlooked since most of them do not seem to be significant at first glance. Nonetheless, fix any problems in your bathroom as soon as you discover them since they tend to escalate.
Do not let these problems interrupt your best shower moments. Candu Plumbing and Rooter provides the best plumbing services in Glendale, CA. We offer sewer pipe lining, clogged drain service, and more. Book our services now by calling 855-522-2638!