Category Archives: Water Leaks

Time to replace your water heater? Save $25 now!

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When is the last time you took a good look at your water heater? If it has any characteristics of the one found in the picture below (or it is 15+ years old), it is a ticking time bomb! This water heater absolutely flooded our clients’ home causing untold thousands of dollars in damage! The tragedy is they said: “Yeah, I’ve been looking at that for the last seven months, I knew I should’ve gotten a new one!”

Waterproof rubber rain boots are for outside in the rain, we had to wear ours during this entire job to keep our socks dry while standing in the living room!

Show this post to the technician and receive a $25 discount towards the installation of a new water heater!

Old Water Heater

 

17 Emergency Situations When You’ll be Glad You Know a Plumber!

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Check out this great article from Chadwicks:

“We’ve all been there. The water tank is emitting a strange gurgling sound and we know something’s not right. We call the plumber and pray that the house hasn’t become Niagara Falls by the time he arrives. We wait on tenterhooks, anxiously watching the clock. Finally, the doorbell rings and there he is. We’re so relieved we want to kiss him.

Instead we get a hold of ourselves and usher him up to the attic. Using wrenches and pliers and working by flashlight, he emerges some time later, t-shirt soaked with copper-colored grime, and pronounces the job done. Oh the joy of having running water once more!

We take a look at 17 Emergency Situations When You’ll be Glad You Know a Plumber – and express our gratitude to all those nifty plumbers who keep our modern conveniences in good shape.”

Courtesy of: Chadwicks.ie

Ti’s Tips – How to Fix a Dripping Hose Faucet!

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As the weather heats up, more and more people are using their garden hoses & outdoor hose faucets. This means many more service calls to fix “dripping” hose faucets. While some of these service calls require some specialized skills and materials to repair, many times all it takes is a basic hand tool like an adjustable wrench…

Adjustable Wrench
…and a few seconds to remedy.

Most outdoor hose faucets have what’s called a “packing nut.” It’s common after several dozen times of turning it on and off, the packing nut loosens causing a slight drip. Sometimes if left unattended it worsens over time and drips or leaks profusely. You may be able to save yourself a service call by attempting to tighten the packing nut, just remember “right to tight & left to loose.”

Adjust your wrench or pliers to fit around the packing nut of the faucet – usually no more than a quarter to a half turn does the trick.

There, you’re done!

Take the money you would have given the plumber (to drive out a big truck full of equipment) to do the same job and go out to a nice dinner!Packing Nut

How to make use of water from leaky faucets – Ti’s Tips!

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While you’re waiting for one of Sutherland Plumbing’s top-notch technicians to arrive and repair your leaky faucet, put a bucket under the faucet to catch the drip. There are more than a few things you can use the water for: flushing toilets or watering plants are just a couple. The possibilities are endless!

To flush a toilet with a bucket of water, expeditiously pour its contents straight  into the bowl. Remember – you’ll roughly need as much water in the bucket as is in the tank. So if you have an older non-efficient toilet, it’s likely you’ll need around 3 gallons to empty the toilet bowl of its contents. A newer, more modern water-saver toilet only requires 1.6 gallons or less.

What are you doing with an old toilet that wastes water and money anyway? When the Sutherland Plumbing technician arrives, remember to tell him that you need an upgrade!

We carry as regular stock: premium, high-efficiency 1.28 gallons per flush toilets on our trucks. Call Sutherland Plumbing today!

You can temporarily make good use of water from leaky faucets, but it’s best to call the experts at Sutherland Plumbing before the issue gets worse. Call (503) 719-4015 and have the issue resolved as soon as possible!

Easy Way to Avoid a Bathroom Flood – Ti’s Tips

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Look inside your toilet tank. If there are bolts in the bottom that look like the picture below (corroded & rusty), then it’s only a matter of time before they break off and water leaks and floods all over the bathroom floor! Call the pros at Sutherland Plumbing and we’ll keep your home safe and dry!

Toilet tank bolts

Avoid a messy toilet flood in your bathroom! Call Sutherland Plumbing at (503) 719-4015.

Kudos to Cameron!

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October 30th 2020

Fantastic overall service! Cameron was the best plumber we’ve ever had work in our home. He identified and explained the problem, then repaired the leak we have been battling for several months. He was very knowledgeable, explained everything thoroughly, ensured I understood, was extremely professional and was very careful in our home.

He deserves an A+ for his knowledge, great communication skills, terrific work ethic and professionalism.

5 Stars (Google Reviews)

Marlis M – Portland, OR

Sutherland Plumbing’s Cameron Bloom.

 

 

Keep your home clean and your family safe!

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Keep your home clean and your family safe! If your “Temperature/Pressure safety relief valve” is leaking, Call (503) 719-4015 and speak with the experts at Sutherland Plumbing today!

Is your Water Heater’s “Temperature/Pressure safety relief valve” dripping or leaking?

If so, it’s doing it’s job and trying to tell you, no it’s screaming at you:

“Houston, we have a problem!”

Most often the drain pipe and valve connected to the water heater runs right off the top or side of the heater and is open-ended just above floor level.

Don’t let anybody tell you that simply changing the safety valve will solve the problem. There’s very likely a larger core issue at hand causing the above mentioned symptom. Like excessive water pressure and/or trapped thermal expansion. Thermal expansion refers to a basic law of physics: anything that increases in temperature increases in size. The water inside your plumbing system is no exception. Trapped thermal expansion is a problem. The hot water has nowhere to expand to, so it takes the path of least resistance – you guessed it…leaking out of your safety valve often right onto the floor 😦

Fortunately there are specific remedies that work great to solve the problem and the plumbers at Sutherland Plumbing, LLC are experts at it!

Temp Pressure relief valve

Keep your home clean and your family safe! If your temperature/pressure safety relief valve is leaking – Call (503) 719-4015 and speak with the experts at Sutherland Plumbing today!

Sean Anderson gets accolades!

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February 10th 2020

I can’t say enough good things about working with Sean from Sutherland Plumbing. About a year ago I did a bunch of work on a rarely-used bathroom, including having the shower valve replaced. Once that shower started to be used regularly, a leak showed up in the form of a damp spot on a lower level ceiling and an unpleasant smell! I needed to get my house ready to rent in a short period of time and contacted Sutherland Plumbing based on Yelp reviews.

Sean showed me exactly what was wrong, which is that I’d been taken advantage of by the plumbers who did the initial replacement and they did a terrible job. Sean was able to fit me into his schedule later that week to replace it, which I appreciated because of my time-frame.

Not only did he do a great job on the shower valve, but when he came to ask me a question and found me struggling to install a door, not only did he jump in to help and provide advice, he also fixed my front door so that it closes more easily, realigned the sink tap so that it shuts off properly, as well as replaced some light bulbs I couldn’t reach. I mean, COME ON! Who does that? Sean, that’s who. Sutherland Plumbing, please hold onto this one, because you made a customer for life!

5 Stars (Yelp)

Kate M – Portland, OR

Sutherland Plumbing’s Sean Anderson.

Ti’s Tips – “The cheap comes out expensive…”

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Ever heard it said: “The cheap comes out expensive in the end?” 

This especially applies in the plumbing trade! 

The image below is of two 1.5″ tubular slip nuts, I haven’t found a house yet without one. They make the seal under your sinks to the drain pipes. 

(Right) is a cheap plastic one, notice the huge crack. 

This resulted in a damaged wood cabinet, damaged wood floors, stinky, gross drain water all over the place & an unexpected service call from the plumber!

(Left) is a solid metal one.

Note: Sutherland Plumbing only uses the higher quality metal ones!

Had the original plumber invested about .50 cents more – all of this would have been avoided!Tubular Seals

Ti’s Tips – How to Fix a Dripping Hose Faucet!

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As the weather heats up, more and more people are using their garden hoses & outdoor hose faucets. This means many more service calls to fix “dripping” hose faucets. While some of these service calls require some specialized skills and materials to repair – many times all it takes is a basic hand tool like an adjustable wrench…

Adjustable Wrench
…and a few seconds to remedy.

Most outdoor hose faucets have what’s called a “packing nut.” It’s common after several dozen times of turning it on and off the packing loosens causing a slight drip. Sometimes if left unattended it worsens over time and drips or leaks profusely. You may be able to save yourself a service call by attempting to tighten the packing nut, just remember “right to tight & left to loose.”

Adjust your wrench or pliers to fit around the packing nut of the faucet – usually no more than a quarter to a half turn does the trick.

There, you’re done!Packing Nut

Take the money you would have given the plumber (to drive out a big truck full of equipment) to do the same job and go out to a nice dinner!