When your toilet won’t stop running is only one of the many reasons you might need plumbing help. And at plmbrs.com, we consider any plumbing problem an emergency. The reason is this: IT’S TRUE! All plumbing problems are emergencies, no matter how small, because the can so easily turn into bigger problems, even though it might not seem so. Problems like:
- Toilet won’t stop running
- Dishwasher drain hose needs replaced
- Unclog shower drain
- Dishwasher won’t drain
- Garbage disposal clogged
- Toilet tank not filling
- Washing machine hose needs replaced
- Sink stopper stuck
- Sewer smell in bathroom
- Slow draining tub
Each one of these issues may sound like a small problem, but they could all VERY quickly turn into much bigger problems if time is allowed to pass before they are addressed.
I experienced a real-life story (it actually happened to me personally) that illustrates the point perfectly:
Toilet Keeps Running
A couple years ago my family was out of town on vacation when a pipe behind a toilet broke and started spraying water. We were actually sitting on the beach when my cell phone rang, and someone said “Ummm – you have water running out from under your front door!” It had apparently been running a few days without anyone knowing it while we were kicking back on the beach!
We could have panicked and packed up and left, but we were two days’ drive away, and would not really be able to do much about it once we got there. So instead we phoned our insurance agent, who started the remediation process before we could have even gotten home.
Toilet Won’t Stop Running – and Ruining
Once we did get home, not realizing how extensive the damage was (from our toilet won’t stop running for 4 days), we spent the first 4 nights there while talking back and forth with our insurance company. Then we noticed a mildew smell, so we popped off a stretch of baseboard and found thick green mold all the way down underneath the baseboard, which led to popping off more baseboards, and the discovery of mold and mildew everywhere. We immediately called our adjuster and let him know they needed to put us in a hotel asap.
Fortunately they were really good about it, and we lived in a hotel for 3 weeks while they helped us find an apartment to move into. They rented us an apartment for 3 months, which we all felt like should be plenty of time to get the repairs done.
Plumbing Repairs
In the meantime, we found out that our floors were 100% totaled, and they had to do a “flood cut” on all the walls and remove the ruined drywall. I realize this is getting a little long, but if you’ll stick with me, I have a very interesting little twist coming up that you might want to know in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
Anyway, we lived in that apartment for 3 months (5 adults and 3 dogs), while our remodeling crew did the extensive repairs on our house. They had to remove all the kitchen cabinets, which broke our granite countertops – which meant insurance also had to replace all the countertops.
Since we had to repaint every room, our whole house got repainted in the process. And since we decided to replace all of our expensive reclaimed antique pine floors with a much cheaper white oak option, we had enough extra funding to replace all the upstairs flooring as well, all with insurance money.
Then we took the (larger) broken pieces of granite countertops from the kitchen and cut new countertops for all of our bathrooms, put all new fixtures everywhere, while replacing the black granite in the kitchen with brand new white marble counters. At the same time, we chose to replace the black granite backsplash with clear subway tiles over a white background – which turned out awesome, by the way.
During all this time, our insurance company was so slow to send money on several occasions that our crew had to pull workers away to jobs that had cash to pay, which slowed down our process… which leads me to the twist I told you about a few paragraphs ago.
Toilet Wont Stop Running
We found out with 4 days left on our apartment lease that we weren’t going to be able to move into our house until a month after we had to move out of our apartment. So in 4 days we had to find a place to live for the next month!
After frantically searching in our area, we were dismayed to find that there was absolutely no place that would house us for a month for less than $12,000! So in a panic we called the insurance company and asked if we had to stay in-state. They said it didn’t matter whatsoever where we went, so we got creative… and started checking beach houses!
Our go-to beach area is NW Florida, which ironically is where we were when we found out our house had flooded. We started checking there (it was September, which is off-season for that part of the country) and we found several really nice places available for the insurance company’s $5000/month allowance. I had several weeks of vacation I needed to take anyway, so we ended up staying at our favorite beach for a month at the end of the whole ordeal, all paid for by insurance!
Once the remodel was finally done, we were looking forward to getting home so much that we didn’t really hate having to leave the beach. I’m not saying we loved driving away from the ocean, but we were excited to see our new house! The remodel was stunning, and we were extremely happy to finally get home.
Emergency Plumbing Repairs
Once the whole ordeal was over, we realized that if we had been home when that pipe broke, we could have turned off the water, mopped it up, and called a plumber to fix that little problem – all in one day. But since nobody was home, and our toilet won’t stop running for 4 days, it turned into a 5-month gut and remodel of the entire house to the tune of $60k+! Fortunately our insurance covered it amazingly well, and we got a major remodeling job we could never have afforded.
However, I would not recommend it to anyone. We ended up moving our whole family a total of 5 times in 5 months while we were out of our house, and it put untold stress on our entire family. We’re still dealing with a few residual issues caused by that little leak.
Plumbing Companies for Emergency Repairs
So the moral of the story is: call a plumber as soon as you think you might need one! At plmbrs, we know exactly how important that is, and that every plumbing situation can potentially be an emergency, and possible even disastrous if not dealt with in a timely manner.
We provide excellent service to each and every customer, no matter how small (or large!) the initial problem is. Our experts will show up on time, do great work, and leave the place cleaner than they found it.
Call a PLMBR!
You can count on our expert approach to take care of any and all of your plumbing needs, and we’ll be there when you need us. Please call 323-4-PLMBRS and get connected to the most awesome plumber in your area, right now. If you procrastinate long enough, it could turn out disastrous – and your insurance company might not be as agreeable as ours was! So call us now at 323-4-PLMBRS. We can help!
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