Have you had your multi-unit family building’s plumbing inspected recently? Plumbing inspections in Chicago can help you locate small problems before they become major catastrophes, including leaks, major blowouts and clogged drain and sewer lines, but how often should you schedule a whole-building commercial plumbing inspection? Here at Nuflow, we can help you answer that question along with whether or not commercial pipe lining would help restore and extend the useful lives of your plumbing pipes.
Reasons to Have Your Commercial Plumbing System Inspected in Chicago
If you’re like most building owners and property managers, you don’t think about your plumbing pipes until there’s a problem, like a major leak or complete sewer backup. Getting a plumbing inspection can make you aware of problems before they cause serious problems.
- You can reduce your risk of experiencing a serious sewer line clog that causes wastewater to backup into your building.
- You can find worn and extremely corroded pipes before they break.
- You can have your water heater checked for operation, corrosion and sediment.
- You can find toilet leaks before they cause high water bills or damage to the bathrooms in your Chicago building.
- You can have the chemical composition of your potable water checked for health hazards, like lead and copper.
- Prevent contamination of potable water with wastewater with a backflow preventer check. (especially useful for buildings that have pools, hot tubs and sprinkler systems that have chemicals added to the water)
Commercial Plumbing Inspections
A commercial plumbing inspection involves checking the safety and reliability of your plumbing pipes. Most plumbing inspections include a visual walk-through, testing for leaks and checking every joint and seam to ensure they are properly fitted and contain no leaks. These inspections may also include a camera inspection of the inside of your plumbing pipes to determine if there are any cracks or holes or excessive corrosion that could immediately or in the future result in plumbing problems. After the plumbing inspection, you will be provided with a detailed report of all of the findings so that you can plan for current and future plumbing maintenance.
Commercial Plumbing Inspection Schedule
The commercial plumbing system inspection schedule will depend on the age of your system and whether or not you’ve noticed any problems.
Do you have a new building?
If you have a new building, it’s important to have your entire system inspected and tested to make sure it was installed correctly. If you find problems with the system shortly after it was installed, the repairs may be covered under your building’s warranty.
Is your building more than 20 years old?
Plumbing systems aren’t designed to last forever. Although, some plumbing materials are rated to last between 80 and 100+ years, including cast iron, PVC, CPVC and PEX. The majority of plumbing pipes last between 20 and 50 years. This means that if your building is more than 20 years old, you should consider getting your plumbing system completely inspected in order to determine the wear and tear on the pipes, any partial or complete clogs and any pinhole leaks that may have gone undetected thus far.
Have you noticed any plumbing issues?
If your building is a few years old, you may have started to notice certain issues, including high water bills, slow drains and low water pressure or discolored, terrible tasting water. According to Facilities.net, you should get your plumbing inspected and drains cleaned quarterly in order to prevent clogs and take care of any small problems. However, if you’ve noticed plumbing problems or seen an increase in your water bills and/or water repair bills, you may need to schedule an inspection sooner than every three months in order to determine the exact causes of your plumbing problems.
Benefits of a Commercial Plumbing Inspection
Getting regular commercial plumbing inspections can give you peace of mind and allow for you to plan and budget for future plumbing issues and upgrades ahead of time. Of course, the biggest benefits of getting a commercial plumbing inspection include:
- Determining the corrosion levels inside your plumbing pipes to learn if they need to be cleaned, lined with epoxy or replaced.
- Determining the amount of useful life left in your pipes before you need to seriously consider getting them lined or traditionally replaced.
- Ensuring the new plumbing system inside your building was properly installed and functions as expected.
- Ensuring your plumbing system is up-to-date with all modern plumbing codes.
- Identifying and health hazards (lead and potential bacterial contamination) before they make your residents sick.
- Identifying and locate clogs before they result in sewage and wastewater backing up onto your floors and into the family units.
- Locating cracks and breaks in pipes in order to reduce water waste and keep bills low.
- Preventing major water damage from potable water pipe blowouts
Commercial Plumbing Inspections with Nu Flow
Here at Nu Flow in Chicago, we offer whole-building pipe assessments to determine the corrosion levels and useful life left in your pipes. We primarily perform these inspections to determine if your plumbing pipes would be good candidates for our pipe lining process, which helps restore the integrity and durability of your plumbing system.
Our plumbing inspections involve the use of a digital plumbing camera that can be threaded through your pipes. The camera relays the images onto a small LCD screen where it can be viewed by our professional plumber. The footage is also recorded so that you can view it while we explain the findings. We will also provide you with a detailed report that you can review later and submit to your board members, executives or property owner.
If your plumbing pipes are good candidates for the pipe lining process, we will also give you an estimate for the cost of lining your plumbing pipes with an epoxy coating and/or epoxy pipe liners. This estimate allows you to review the costs and organize your budget so that you can restore your pipes trenchlessly.
To learn more about our plumbing pipe inspections and to schedule a building pipe assessment, call us at 815-790-9000.