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Chicagoland Plumber Tip #24: Sump Pump Readiness

At this time of year, you may be less concerned with sump pump maintenance than you were during spring and summer. Here’s the thing – proper sump pump functioning depends on proper sump pump maintenance, so if you have not yet scheduled a sump pump maintenance visit from a Chicagoland plumber or a Chicagoland plumbing contractor, then we recommend that you do. The Scottish Plumber’s team of Chicagoland plumbers and Chicagoland plumbing contractors is professionally trained to provide you with cost-effective sump pump maintenance services that will extend the life of your sump pump.

Part of sump pump preparation is having systems in place to activate your sump pump in case of a power outage. If there is a thunderstorm that pulls down power lines or a power surge in extreme weather along with increased rainfall, then you will need a battery backup in order for your sump pump to continue working. If the sump pump loses power and there is no batter back-up sump pump in place, then you are pretty much on your own.

A working sump pump could be the difference between a dry basement and a flooded one, so please do not hesitate to schedule a sump pump maintenance inspection with a Chicagoland plumbing contractor or Chicagoland plumber at The Scottish Plumber today.

Villa Park Plumber Tip #23: Kitchen Faucet Repair

Does your kitchen sink faucet drip or leak? If so, please contact The Scottish Plumber so we can investigate the cause of your leaking kitchen sink or dripping kitchen sink right away. Leaky kitchen faucets are a nuisance, so rather than cope with the annoying dripping sound, please call The Scottish Plumber so we can put an end to your misery.

A kitchen faucet may look like one continuous metal object, when in fact the faucet is composed of smaller parts, screws, nuts, and bolts.

If another the kitchen faucet had not been installed properly, then it could drip or leak. The key is for the faucet to be secure. The Scottish Plumber’s technicians are licensed to repair kitchen faucets or install new ones.

Sediment can build up in the various rings that secure the faucet head to the waterspout. This sediment can harden or accumulate, causing the kitchen faucet to loosen.

Once the kitchen faucet loosens and the sediment has even more space to accumulate, the kitchen faucet can no longer effectively transport water from the pipes below your kitchen sink into the kitchen sink itself. Sediment buildup is one potential cause of leaky kitchen faucets.

Please allow our plumbers to share their plumbing expertise with you. Once a plumber from The Scottish Plumber repairs your leaking kitchen sink, you’ll wonder why you ever put up with the annoying drip! We look forward to being your number one choice for plumbing services.

Villa Park Plumber Tip #22: Repairing Leaking Pipe Joints

The Scottish Plumber is well known in the Chicagoland area for delivering excellent Chicago plumbing services, Villa Park plumbing services, Chicago plumbing repairs, and Villa Park plumbing repairs to our valued Chicagoland plumbing customers. The Villa Park plumbers and Chicago plumbers at The Scottish Plumber employ the newest plumbing technologies to fix leaking pipes, clean clogged drains, and protect your Villa Park basement from basement flooding.

Since 1970, PVC piping has been the dominant piping material, as an upgrade to clay or concrete pipes. PVC piping is a very common household plumbing material that is typically more durable and less susceptible to erosion than clay, concrete, or orangeburg piping. Although PVC certainly has greater structural integrity than most other piping materials, it can also leak. These leaks usually result from leaking PVC pipe joints, which are the junctures between distinct pieces of PVC piping. Over time, these PVC pipe joints can loosen, and eventually begin to leak. Leaking pipe repair is a job best left for a Villa Park plumber from The Scottish Plumber. Please contact us to learn more about how we repair leaking pipe joints.

Have you noticed a growing water stain on the ceiling of your basement? If so, please contact The Scottish Plumber today. A leak in the ceiling is not a minor plumbing issue. If left to worsen, the leaky basement ceiling could collapse, leading to worse problems and much more expensive repairs.

Villa Park Plumber Tip #21: Clearing Root Infested Sewers

The Scottish Plumber employs a team of highly qualified licensed Villa Park plumbers, Chicago plumbers, and Chicagoland plumbers who provide a variety of Chicago plumbing services and Villa Park plumbing services. The Scottish Plumber is proud to offer outstanding customer service, consistent professionalism, and excellent plumbing repairs and plumbing maintenance.

One of our top-notch Villa Park plumbing services is clearing sewer roots from Chicago sewers and Villa Park sewers. Sewer roots develop in underground soil, and especially after heavy rains, these roots grow and expand. As the sewer roots grow thicker and larger, they can meander right into your sewer lines. Clearing sewer lines of sewer roots is a hefty plumbing job that should be done by a licensed Villa Park plumber or Chicago plumber from The Scottish Plumber.

Left untreated, sewer roots can disrupt your Chicago sewer lines and Villa Park sewer lines’ functioning. When sewer roots exert pressure on sewer lines, especially older sewer lines than run under older homes, the sewer pipes can crack. Sewer cracks are often a sign of a larger plumbing issue, so that is why The Scottish Plumber’s team of Villa Park plumbing contractors and Chicago plumbing contractors use video camera pipe inspection as part of their leak detection strategy.

Please do not wait until a sewer root infestation grows into a larger sewer obstruction, which can lead to cracked sewer pipes, which are not only a sever plumbing issue but a potential health hazard. For example, if a sewer root grows into a sanitary sewer, the sanitary sewer can crack and leak sewage into the surrounding earth. Trust the Villa Park plumbers and Chicago plumbers at The Scottish Plumber to serve all of your plumbing needs, including emergency plumbing services and plumbing repairs.

Villa Park Plumber Tip #20: $99 Video Camera Inspection

The Scottish Plumber is a trusted provider of Villa Park plumbing services by Villa Park plumbers and Villa Park plumbing contractors. Our licensed plumbing contractors perform a variety of jobs, from unclogging toilets and unclogging shower drains to sump pump installation and battery back up sump pump installation. The Scottish Plumber is proud to offer its plumbing expertise to all plumbing jobs that our Chicagoland plumbers and Chicagoland plumbing contractors perform.

Video camera inspection is a plumbing procedure that the Scottish Plumber offers at a shockingly reasonable rate. Villa Park video pipe inspection is exactly as it sounds – a Chicago plumber or Villa Park plumber feeds a video camera into your drain or sewer pipe to investigate those areas hardest to reach. Because video pipe inspection uses advanced technology, this plumbing service can be very costly to you, the consumer.

At The Scottish Plumber we are constantly looking for new solutions to the plumbing issues that our Villa Park plumbing customers and Chicago plumbing customers most commonly encounter. A central goal of ours is to build a satisfied customer base so that, when you are pleased with the work our Villa Park plumbers have done, you will reach out to us in the future.

Video camera pipe inspection from The Scottish Plumber is part of our $99 drain cleaning package. That’s right, for $99 we provide a Villa Park plumbing service that includes video camera pipe inspection and drain cleaning. Villa Park plumbing services should be affordable, so please contact The Scottish Plumber to learn more about how we deliver outstanding plumbing repairs at a great value.

Villa Park Plumber Tip #19: Storm Drain Cleaning

Villa Park plumbing contractors and Villa Park plumbers at The Scottish Plumber are here to answer all of your Villa Park plumbing and Chicago plumbing questions. The Scottish Plumber’s team of Villa Park licensed plumbers and Villa Park licensed plumbing contractors believe that there is no plumbing job too small for our years of plumbing expertise.

So if you are concerned that you have a clogged kitchen sink because the dishwater is draining slowly, please do not hesitate to call The Scottish Plumber. We are eager to solve your Villa Park plumbing issues and Chicago plumbing issues.

As autumn draws near, so do more frequent thunderstorms. The Villa Park plumbers and Chicago plumbers at The Scottish Plumber have devised an elegant solution to a common plumbing issue. As the leaves fall and paint Chicagoland red and gold, our Villa Park plumbers and Chicago plumbers grow even more vigilant about sewer cleaning and drain cleaning because these leaves do not simply disintegrate, they get wet!

When those crisp fall leaves turn to a soggy mess and runoff water washes them into your Chicago storm drains, blockages can occur. You might notice water seeping into driveway, which can put unsightly cracks into your driveway. The Scottish Plumber wants all of its Chicagoland plumbing customers and Villa Park plumbing customers to be thoroughly satisfied by the performance of their Chicago storm drains and Villa Park storm drains. For this reason, we offer an exclusive $99 drain cleaning package. The Scottish Plumber is here to serve your Villa Park storm drain cleaning and Chicago storm drain cleaning needs.

Chicago Plumber Tip #18: Prevent Summer Basement Floods

Late summer rainstorms can be a welcome respite from Chicagoland’s typically hot and humid weather. Many Chicagolanders will be fortunate to find themselves indoors, perched by a window, watching the rainstorm pass. Others might take the opportunity to cool off and play in the rain.

No matter how summer rains make you feel, they are an inevitable aspect of Chicago summers. They may reduce the humidity and cool us down for a while, but summer rains can also have adverse effects on your Chicagoland sewers and drains.

Basement flooding can occur when water enters your basement through cracks in the foundation. While it may seem like your basement is an open space waiting to be filled to the ceiling with incoming rainwater or runoff water, there is actually a handy device that works to alleviate basement floods in your Chicago or Villa Park home.

A Chicago sump pump or Villa Park sump pump is the device that pulls water away from the foundation of your home and channels it into the appropriate storm drain or storm sewer. Sump pumps can reduce considerably the risk of Chicago basement floods and Villa Park basement floods at this time of year.

If your basement is not equipped with a sump pump, please call a Chicago plumber or Chicago plumbing contractor at The Scottish Plumber so we can discuss sump pump installation. For our Villa Park plumbing customers and Chicago plumbing customers who already own basement sump pumps, please feel free to contact us for a sump pump inspection, sump pump maintenance, or battery back up sump pump installation.

5 Things You Can Do To Keep Your Sewer Clean

Don’t flush wipes, hygienic products, or paper towels down the toilet. If you do, it will eventually catch up with you and result in the sewer becoming slow or clogged.
Don’t plant trees or bushes near the sewer. Tree roots grow as long as the tree is tall and they love to feed on nutrient-dense sewage. If your sewer is close enough, they will find it.
Use a natural product like Bio-Clean to get rid of the sludge and grime that stick to the walls of the pipe and reduce the diameter of the pipe.
Occasionally call a plumber for maintenance sewer rodding or hydro-jetting. Keeping the sewer clean of sludge, debris, and roots on a preventive basis, can save you a lot of money in the long run. Not to mention not having to deal with a nasty backup.
Install a power-flush toilet that uses compressed air to increase the force of the flush and help push the waste into the city sewer more quickly.

How to Schedule an Appointment

To schedule an appointment for sewer rodding simply fill out the easy appointment form above, or give us a call at 888-451-6137.

Drain Tips: Soft Drain Blockages

At The Scottish Plumber, our team of Chicago plumbers and Villa Park plumbers are always seeking to find the most innovative plumbing solutions to common plumbing issues, emergency plumbing issues, and those plumbing issues that are not so easy to fix.

Whether you are dealing with a persistent slow bathtub drain or a garbage disposal that makes more noise than a high fidelity stereo, a Chicago plumber or Villa Park plumber at The Scottish Plumber is eager to investigate your Chicago plumbing issues and find a cost-effective, timely solution.

Last week’s Chicago plumber tip focused on drain blockages, of which there are two main types – hard blockages and soft blockages. Let’s take a closer look at what causes soft drain blockages and how the Chicago plumbers at The Scottish Plumber deal with these soft blockages.

Soft drain blockages settle into Chicago drains and sewers all the time. Although soft blockages are usually less dense than hard blockages, such as Chicago sewer roots, the soft blockages can sometimes be harder to remove. Unlike hard blockages, soft blockages are often composed of solid debris such as soap residue combined with liquid debris such as body oil. Soft blockages require diligent drain cleaning to help loosen the blockage material.

For all of our Chicago drain cleaning customers and Villa Park drain cleaning customers who are reading this article, we apologize if we are making you nauseous, but do not fret – our Chicago plumbers will handle all of the gritty details of clearing soft drain blockages. A great way to combat soft drain blockages is with The Scottish Plumber’s $99 drain cleaning package. A Chicago plumber will use high pressure water jets to clear away the oily soft blockage residue, so you don’t have to!

Chicago Plumber Tip #15: Hard Drain Blockages

The Scottish Plumber employs a wonderful team of Chicago plumbers and Villa Park plumbers whose main concern is to provide our Chicago plumbing customers and Villa Park plumbing customers outstanding customer service and a plumbing job well done.

Our highly qualified Chicago plumbers and Villa Park plumbers are licensed to perform a wide range of plumbing repairs, pipe repairs, and plumbing maintenance, including video pipe inspection, pipe bursting sewer pipe replacement, and sewer and drain cleaning.

The Villa Park plumbers and Chicago plumbers at The Scottish Plumber want you to know that, for the purposes of simplicity, there are two types of Chicago drain blockages. There are hard blockages and soft blockages, and both types of blockages can result in clogged drains, clogged sewers, overflowing toilets, or slow drains. For this Chicago plumber article, we will focus on hard drain blockages.

Hard drain blockages can appear in Chicago drains and Chicago sewers. Hard drain blockages include sewer roots, objects such as bath toys, and mineral buildup. They are so named because they are literally hard to the touch. If a Chicago plumber were to feed a drain snake down a toilet drain with a hard blockage, the drain snake would initially come up hard against the blockage.

Hard blockages, therefore, require more advanced plumbing solutions than a drain snake can provide. Our Chicago plumbers might try video pipe inspection to get a closer look at the blockage itself, at which time chemical drain cleaning or sewer rodding may be required.

We were recently featured in an article about home repairs on Porch where we provided some advice on when to try to clear the clog yourself and when to call us.