Keeping your plumbing system in good condition starts with routine plumbing maintenance inspections. These inspections can help you identify where you need to make repairs and upgrades in order to prevent leaks, low water pressure and excessive water use.
Plumbing Inspection Checklist
As a property manager, you can avoid a lot of headaches and expensive repair bills by instructing your maintenance team to look for signs of leaks and other problems with the water fixtures and plumbing pipes in your building. If you own a large building, you might want to inspect one floor per month to make the task more manageable.
1. Look for Signs of Obvious Leaks
As your maintenance men walk your building, have them look for signs of obvious leaks. If they see water where there should be none, notice stains or walls that are wet or hear running water when all the fixtures and appliances are off, it’s time to call a professional plumber or pipe liner in Chicago to repair your leaks.
2. Test all Water Values
The water valves on your plumbing pipes are designed to turn the water on and off to certain sections. This can help prevent catastrophic floods in the event of a pipe leak. Have your maintenance personnel test every water valve for proper operation. If one is faulty, it should be replaced.
3. Test the Water Pressure on All Floors
If your maintenance staff doesn’t have a water pressure tester they can be purchased at most home improvement stores. These gauges screw into hose bibs and washing machine bibs and tell you the pressure at that point. Your building’s water pressure should be between 40 and 80psi. If the water pressure is low, you may have plumbing leaks that need to be sealed with an epoxy coating. If the water pressure is high, your pressure regulator may be malfunctioning.
4. Make Sure All Drains Are Flowing Smoothly
Have your maintenance staff turn on all faucets and fixtures and watch the drains. If the drain is slow or appears to be clogged, you should have it hydrojetted in order to remove debris. If you suspect your residents are putting things down their drains that are not approved, you can create a pamphlet explaining the hazards of putting things, like grease, egg shells and coffee grinds, down the drains.
5. Test All Faucets and Water Fixtures for Proper Operation
While your maintenance staff is testing the drains, they can also inspect the faucets and fixtures for proper operation. If a faucet doesn’t work or leaks, it should be replaced, preferably with the low-flow version.
6. Check Your Irrigation System
If you have an irrigation system for your property, it is important to walk the water and examine each sprinkler. When the system is off, you should check to make sure that there are no sprinklers that have flowing water. When the system is on, you should check to see that all the sprinklers are spraying water. If you see a problem, it’s best to call a professional plumber.
Fixing Leaks and Corrosion with NuFlow
If you spot leaks or corrosion in your plumbing system, you can call us to come out and perform a building pipe assessment, which includes a camera inspection of all of your plumbing pipes, a written report and verbal explanation of what we found during the plumbing inspection, whether or not your pipes can be lined with an epoxy liner and an estimate for pipe lining.
To understand how your building plumbing system works, check out our animation of a building plumbing system.