How a Plumber Can Help with Your Remodel Project

DIY projects are extremely popular these days – with an abundance of YouTube videos and Pinterest tutorials, you have a variety of ideas with detailed instructions for projects ranging from making jewelery to home remodels.

While it’s a great feeling to know you’ve built or repaired something, when it comes to plumbing, self-help manuals may show you how to repair a leaky faucet or running toilet.

However, for renovating a bathroom or kitchen, you’ll need a professional pair of hands on many occasions:

Benefits of hiring a plumber

First of all, having a plumber on your project means much less work for you.

Instead of purchasing a lot of tools you’ll most certainly never use again, let the plumber bring his own.

Also, an inexperienced renovator may fall days and even weeks behind the remodeling timeline, and when plumbing is concerned, every day without essential bathroom facilities is a big deal.

In their decision to do all themselves, some homeowners even plan their kitchen and bathroom renovation as purposefully avoiding major plumbing projects, only to end up with less than satisfactory results.

A plumber can help you move and reroute pipes and drain lines, install a kitchen sink and garbage disposal, rearrange your bathroom fixtures or upgrade it with spa features or a rainfall shower head. 

Plumbers know what they’re doing

This is probably the number one reason why you’d want a plumber for your bathroom renovation: their know-how includes all the smaller details that even a handyman might miss.

Building codes limit how you can alter your plumbing, which is for your health and safety. On the other hand, plumbers know the codes in the area they service, ensuring that everything they do is admissible to any permits that may be necessary.

Finally, if you hire someone who knows his job, everything will be completed a lot faster, and you can rest assured that your plumbing is working properly. 

Extensive bathroom remodels

In every bathroom renovation project, the plumbing fixtures you install make the most impact on your living space.

Not only do they affect the way you’ll be using the space, but also set the stage for overall look and feel of the room.

For example, before you choose your new cabinets and counter, you should choose a bathroom sink, and the plumber will reroute the piping to hook it up. If you’ve chosen an under-counter mounted sink, professional help would mean a lot.

The plumber can also give you valuable insight when installing the toilet, tub, shower, and other fixtures essential to your new bathroom look. 

Leaks and corrosion inspection

Home renovation is a perfect opportunity to examine indoor plumbing.

While your walls are open and your plumbing exposed, schedule a professional inspection of pipes and joints for drips and leaks.

Hidden leaks are often cited as the most dangerous since they typically aren’t discovered until substantial damage is made.

Behind the walls, the moist environment easily becomes the breeding ground for molds. For drain pipes, run the water in the bathroom or kitchen and see if any moisture accumulates on the fittings.

If there are signs of wear and leakage you can have those pipes replaced or relined from the inside. 

Replacing galvanized pipes

Homes built before 1960, and in some areas even as late as the 1980s, were fitted with galvanized steel plumbing pipes.

Although at that time they were a huge leap forward from lead plumbing, they still corrode and clog over time, and after 40 or 60 years of use, it’s only a matter of time when they fail. Imagine now connecting a new sink or shower to galvanized plumbing only to discover that the supply pipe has burst. By leaving them be, you’re wasting money in advance.

Instead, have them replaced during the kitchen or bathroom remodel. Unless you’re sure you have galvanized pipes, try scratching one with a screwdriver. If the mark is silvery grey, it’s galvanized steel. 

By choosing to go by themselves all the way, homeowners often end up paying a lot more when plumbers have to fix their mistakes.

Apart from having the right tools and equipment, plumbers are experienced in ordering parts that fit your existing plumbing, so the added cost of hiring a professional doesn’t seem so high in the end.