Often times when a home becomes of a certain age the bathroom fixtures will begin to leak. A major leak from a toilet, sink, shower or refrigerator can cause significant damage to your floors and home in general. Don’t wait until the damage has already occurred to address the issue. Be proactive by monitoring your fixtures and be aware of signs that they may be deteriorating. Before you go spending a considerable amount of money for a plumbing company to fix a broken fixture, first give Metro Atl Floors a call. We have licensed plumbers and you can go ahead and get your fixture addressed and a floor upgrade while you’re at it.
Flooring of all types have one primary enemy and that’s moisture IE water. Here are some photos from a recent shower pan replacement in Roswell, GA where the homeowner was forced to remodel the shower because of moisture damage caused by deteriorated fixtures.
Two pieces of advice:
- Metro’s first piece of advice specifically pertains to your refrigerator. We recommend that you change your copper composite line to a flex hose. We have too often see the copper lines crimp and bust creating a massive water leak. Inevitably, this will happen while you are out of town or on vacation, and you will be welcomed home with a lake in your kitchen. The flex hoses are much more forgiving and won’t cause a large leak if they have been moved or manipulated.
- Metro’s second piece of advice involves everyones favorite place to sit in the house, your toilet. One of the most abundant places that we see water damage in homes stems from deteriorated aspects of toilets. The wax ring surrounding the toilet at the base can dry and crack creating a pathway for moisture to creep into your flooring. This is easy to fix by simply replacing and changing the ring on a consistent basis. Additionally, composite water supply lines are often used to connect the wall to the toilet fixture, however we recommend using a flex supply line as oppose to the composite. From our experience they last longer and homeowners don’t experience spontaneous busts and leaks like they do with the composite counterparts.
Those two very simple things could easily save you from having to replace all of your flooring. The examples provided in this article are the most common culprits for water damage. Be proactive and make sure that your fixtures get the proper maintenance and care needed to keep from deteriorating. Each of these tips sound simple in theory but if you’re not VERY confident in your plumbing skills these tasks could easily backfire on you. Do yourself a favor and save yourself some time and money by calling a pro. Metro Atl. Floors would be happy to come and assist with these tasks as well as share some additional knowledge on how to keep your floors looking great for a long period of time.