Every person wants to have skills and to do some of the basic tasks in their homes on their own. Being able to do some of the reparations on your own is great, you will be able to save up some money, and you will get that extra fulfillment of doing a task on your own. When you start taking care of the basic things without calling a repairman for every single thing will help you out a lot, however, there is a fine line between doing a thing on your own, and making the problem even bigger.
Burst pipes are one of the worst things that could happen, and it could easily lead to flooding and damaging a lot of your property. If you’ve noticed that a pipe in your house is leaking, or if it has busted, you probably want to take care of it on your own, and skip calling the plumber. This is one of the things you should steer away from, and this task is something that you should never skip calling a repairman on. In this article, we are going to give you some of the reasons why you should never try to repair a burst pipe by yourself and how that can do more damage than good.
1. You don’t have the equipment
The first reason why you should steer away from doing this on your own is that chances are, you don’t have the proper tools for the job. Fixing small leaks is possible, and you don’t have to have a lot of skills or any specific tools for the job. You can also keep things contained until the plumber comes, and this is another thing you can do on your own. However, finishing the whole project without contacting the proper service is close to impossible.
The professionals have all the needed tools and equipment, and they will run full diagnostics on why this happened, how to properly fix or replace the pipes, and they will prevent any future damage.
Note that this issue may be just a symptom of a bigger problem happening in your house, and even if you somehow fix it on your own, you risk more damage happening in the long run just because you did.
2. You can do more damage
The next thing why you should steer away from this DIY project is that you can do more damage than good. Sometimes the issue with the plumbing may be a small one and easily fixable for the professionals.
However, when you do it on your own, one wrong move may break the whole system. In addition, you may apply more pressure than needed, fasten the pipes too hard, or too loose, and you risk everything detaching or getting damaged beyond repair.
Note that if you do this, you will have to ultimately replace the system, and you will need to spend a lot more money.
3. You risk facing additional issues in the future
Now let’s talk about a job seemingly done right. In some cases, you may be able to get the pipe fixed on your own, and things may look like they have been done properly.
If you don’t do it correctly, there may be water build-up, and when that water finds a leak and bursts, it may cause serious damage and flooding inside your home. Note that even if there is a leak in the middle of the night, there are plumbers who will be there for you to help you out. You can visit here if you want to find out more about the emergency services, and what you need to do before the plumber gets there.
Don’t risk making things worse on your own, and know that saving money in this process for a DIY project will turn out to be far more costly in the future.
4. You will lose a lot of time
When you try to do this on your own, you need to be prepared. This means that you will lose valuable time looking for the right tutorials, and step-by-step guidelines. Know that some of those tutorials are made by people who know nothing about plumbing, and they will miss valuable steps in the whole process.
Even if you find a proper tutorial, you will need to spend a lot of time watching it, and then you will spend even more time testing things out on your own to see if the same thing can be applied in your home. Note that when you go out to buy all the proper equipment, you will have to leave the pipe unattended, and even in 30 minutes, a lot of things can go wrong.
To save yourself a lot of time, and to make sure that there is no additional damage, the best thing you can do is call an emergency service, follow their instruction on what to do to contain the water, and then just sit back, relax while the professionals do everything.
5. You risk spending more money in the long run
The last thing we are going to talk about is money. When we approach a DIY project, we believe that we are doing that to save money. In reality, when you calculate all the costs, starting from the equipment, up to potential mistakes that could lead to you paying double, maybe even triple for your mistakes to be corrected, you will see that you risk spending thousands of dollars on something that would’ve costed less than a fraction of that sum.
Know that doing and risking this is not going to help you out, and if you damage the whole system, you will need to fully replace it. In addition, if your home floods, and if there are damages to the whole property because you didn’t do a proper job, you will need to replace everything on your own. Some insurance companies will not pay you the full sum if you did a DIY job and if the flooding happened because of you.
These are some of the reasons why you should avoid this DIY project. It is far better to sit down and learn how to contain potential damage than to try and learn how to do something that professionals take years to master. Just because you managed to change a pipe on your own once does not mean you will be able to do that every time. Find a reliable and trustworthy service now, so that in case something happens in the future, you will be able to act accordingly right away.
