About Down Under Plumbing & Drains in Charlotte, NC

Attempt to identify the area the leak is coming from. Confirm if the drip is constant or only when fixtures are running, this will help eliminate if it is a supply leak or a drain leak. It is always best to call a plumber and they will be able to repair the leak as it could involve isolating water supply and cutting out sheet rock, and if you don’t get it fixed properly you may have to go through the same process causing the same damage to your property.

There will be a stop valve located:

In a residential house it will be located on the ground floor in places such as garage, kitchen cupboard, bathroom, access panel in wall, under crawl space, under ground on front lawn in valve box. The valve tap needs to be turned close wise to shut the water off.

In an apartment the shut off valve is likely located in the airing cupboard, in a kitchen cupboard or bathroom.

In a commercial building it will be harder to find but if you can find the water meter it will be there, and you may have to look outside as it could be under ground in a valve box.

First check your water meter readings with your utility bill and water supplier. Make sure you have no fixtures running in the property and then look at the water meter, if it's still spinning while all of the fixtures are off then you have a leak.

Check your toilet bowls as the cistern flapper can pass water causing water to leak into the bowl and be wasted.

Also check your water heater relief valve is not dripping, then check all fixtures and pipe works for leaks. If you can’t find anything it is likely a leaking pipe in the ground and you need to contact a plumber.

A dripping faucet indicates failure in the sealing components on the valve seating, the faucet may need a new washer to cartridge which can be replaced quite easily.

We highly recommend AO Smith due to their exceptional quality and customer service. Avoid buying from Home Depot as they sell different models to the supply houses.

Yes this should be done annually to remove scale build up caused by hard water, we would attach a 3/4” hose and flush the scale build up out, this will give the water heater a longer life span and also improve efficiency.

The best drain cleaner for kitchen sink grease would be a hot water hydro jetter, putting a hose down the line that blasts hot water to clean all the pipes and break down the grease.

This can vary a lot as a lot of companies use set job catalog pricing instead of hourly rate, so they will charge a service call fee such as $140 plus the cost of the job, for example a faucet replacement at $295.

Ask upfront questions about pricing, ask about call out fee or trip fee, what’s included in the service call, what happens after the service call time, do they charge by hourly rate, 1/2 hourly rate, catalog job pricing.

It is important to clarify that you want to be informed of any additional costs before the works are carried out.

At “Down Under Plumbing & Drains” we give honest and transparent pricing issuing set catalog prices and informing the customer about any possibility’s of additional charges.