When most homeowners in Duluth or Hastings think about a water leak, they imagine a slowly dripping faucet and tend to overlook its significance. After all, how much water could be running down the drain? It is just a few drips a minute, and it is not hurting anything by flowing down a functional drain pipe. However, that thought process can increase your water bill, waste a limited and valuable natural resource, and cause even more costly damage to your home.
It All Adds Up
A single faucet that drips once every 6 seconds, or ten times per minute, wastes about a gallon of water a day and costs you about a buck more a month on your water bill. Unfortunately, that dollar figure rarely gets any attention and motivates them to call 612-340-1440 for a repair from the Paul Bunyan Plumbing And Drains team. That is unfortunate for several reasons. The first concern is that this is only one dripping faucet, and typically an older home has far more than one dripping fixture. So if you have five dripping issues, the cost is getting more noticeable at $5 per month and $60 a year. That number could also be much higher if there are other water leaks hidden in the walls and floors of an older home.
The Bigger Picture
We all depend on fresh, clean water to live a healthy life. But when this precious natural resource is wasted, we face water usage restrictions, increased costs for water, and the threat of a limited water supply. Sadly, many homeowners think that a single dripping faucet in their home is not a significant contributing factor to this vital issue. However, when you count the houses in your community, such as the roughly 40k in Duluth, that comes to a massive 40,000 gallons of water wasted each day if every home has just one dripping faucet or water line. Over a year, those tiny drips would add up to over 14,000,000 gallons of wasted water.
An Indication Of Bigger Issues
If you live in an older home, that dripping faucet could be your warning of a more significant and costly problem. As plumbing fixtures age, they can begin to drip, leak, or fail. And old water lines are susceptible to the same issues as they age and deteriorate. So if your water lines are about the same age as your dripping faucet, there could be hidden leaks inside your home, creating costly water damage.
While you do not see a drop in water pressure or a flood of water, there could be other potential hazards, such as damage to the structural integrity of your home and the growth of potentially hazardous mold growth. The only way to be sure that tiny water leaks are not causing the framework of your home to degrade and mold to contaminate the air that you breathe is a plumbing inspection from the pros at Paul Bunyan Plumbing & Drains. Call 612-340-1440 at the first sign of a water leak to ensure that it is professionally corrected to protect your loved ones and home.
