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There are many minor plumbing issues out there that can be remedied relatively easily, and a few concerns involving the toilet are good examples. Whether on your own or with some brief assistance from a professional plumber, there are a few reasons why your toilet might be failing to flush that are simple enough to resolve pretty quickly and without any major hassle or cost. 

At City Creek Plumbing, we’re happy to help a variety of clients with numerous plumbing repair services in Utah, including for issues where the toilet won’t flush for any reason. What are some of the possible reasons this might be the case, and how can it be remedied either on your own or with the assistance of our plumbers? This two-part blog series will go over several themes to consider.

Lift Chain Has Excess Slack

Within your toilet, the lift chain is an important clip that connects the chain for your flush handle to the arm of the flapper, which is how it lifts up. Over time, if the lift chain has even a small level of slack at all, there can be an inadequate amount for this connection to hold well enough.

This will result in you pushing your toilet handle down and feeling no resistance, almost like pushing on a door that is open and unlocked. When this happens, the water inside will not be siphoned out of the tank, which means your toilet will not flush properly.

The good news about this issue is that it’s easy to resolve yourself – you simply need to reach down under the handle where its joint with the lift chain would be and pull any slack out. Our plumbers are happy to help here if needed.

Clogged Toilet

Another common issue that may cause your toilet to fail to flush is a clogged bowl. If waste material – such as tissue paper, baby wipes, food particles and more – has built up somewhere in the drain of your toilet, it can easily restrict its ability to function well enough for a flushing connection.

This should be fairly self-evident based on how you try to flush the toilet and how it fails to move at all. If you notice this happening, you’ll need to make plans for a way to clear out whatever is blocking your toilet in order to get back to use it normally, whether this involves a plunger or something more in-depth.

Stopped-Up Fill Valve

A less common issue, but one that’s still possible, is for your fill valve to become stopped up too. This is another part of the toilet that’s responsible for siphoning water into it when you flush, and if debris or some level of grime has built up where it attaches to the overflow tube, there may not be enough suction occurring.

This can show itself in several ways, but mainly by the toilet not filling itself with water after you flush. If this is the case, you’ll need to reach underneath and remove whatever buildup may exist on the fill valve, following it directly up to its connection point with the overflow tube.

For more on how to remedy simple toilet non-flushing issues quickly and affordably, or to learn about any of our other plumbing services, speak to the staff at City Creek Plumbing today.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some of the basics and benefits associated with modern tankless water heaters. These features, which require no tank and instead heat water on-demand for all your fixtures, are often desirable among homeowners for several reasons.

At City Creek Plumbing, we’re happy to offer a wide range of water heater and other services to our Layton clients, including tankless water heaters if you’re considering making this upgrade in your home. What are some of the situations in which a tankless water heater might be the ideal option for your home and needs? Here are a few to consider.

Limited Hot Water Usage

While many homes can experience great savings from a tankless water heater, the less water you use in general, the greater your savings will be. For this reason, these heaters may often be a great choice for homes with light to moderate hot water usage. Homes in high-density apartment buildings or condominiums could also benefit from efficiency savings due to the fact that they have limited hot water use.

Endless Hot Water is Preferable Over Flow Rate

Generally speaking, tankless water heaters have a trade-off with traditional types: They will absolutely never run out of hot water, but they often do come with lower pressure capabilities than their tank alternatives.

For some people, however, this isn’t a problem at all. Many people care a lot more about endless amounts of hot water over a high flow rate, so tankless water heaters can be an ideal option in this case.

Limited Storage Space

Another situation that may highlight the benefits of a tankless water heater is if your home has limited storage space. This can be the case in homes with small closets, crawl spaces, or basements. In these situations, a tankless water heater can free up some much-needed storage space that would have been taken up by a traditional tank model, which is much larger and requires at least double the storage space.

No Upcoming Move

The trick with tankless water heaters and savings is this: You need time to realize them. This is because the tankless option will come with a higher up-front cost than other water heater types — but over a period of months or even years, the improved efficiency will more than make up for this high initial cost.

For this reason, the tankless option is best if you know you’ll be staying in your home for an extended period of time. Newlyweds or people looking to upgrade homes might not want to go with the tankless option, since you might be moving again soon anyway and won’t have enough time to realize the financial benefits of your upgrade.

For more on the common situations in which it might be ideal for you to purchase a tankless water heater, or to learn about any of our plumbing services in Layton or nearby areas, speak to the staff at City Creek Plumbing today.

If your home is in need of a new water heater, you have a few options available to you — and the most modern and (in many cases) efficient of these is the tankless water heater. Many homeowners find that not only does a tankless water heater reduce their water and energy bills, but also provides them vastly improved comfort and hot water access throughout their home. 

At City Creek Plumbing, we offer a variety of water heater services to our clients, including tankless water heater installations and maintenance solutions. What is a tankless water heater, what are its typical benefits, and what are some common situations where you should consider a tankless water heater? We’ll go over all these elements and more in this two-part blog series.

Tankless Water Heater Basics

For those who are unfamiliar with them, a tankless water heater is a small, continuous-running appliance that heats water on an as-needed basis. As the name suggests, these units are installed directly in your home’s hot water system — they are not large tanks of heated water that have to be constantly topped off.

Instead, you get all of the benefits of a gas or electric hot water tank with none of the associated downsides. Tankless water heaters provide a virtually limitless supply of hot water on demand — they never run out of hot water. They utilize a gas-fired burner or electric component anytime your hot water taps are open, heating water directly as it flows toward your required output area.

Tankless Water Heater Benefits

Here are some of the top qualities of tankless water heaters that have made them so increasingly popular among homeowners:

• Lower energy and water bills: Tankless water heaters only produce the amount of hot water that is actually needed at a given time. This means you’re not paying to keep a large tank full of heated water at all times — and since tankless units offer a virtually endless supply of hot water, this reduces your wait time when multiple people in the home need access to hot water.
• Longer lifespan: Due to their lack of moving parts, tankless water heaters have an extremely long lifespan. This means lower maintenance costs over the years, as well as fewer headaches for homeowners.
• Increased hot water access: Tankless water heaters can be set up to serve either a whole home or multiple zones within your home — so regardless of where the hot water requirement exists, you’ll always have access to it.
• Eco-friendly installation and operations: Tankless water heaters use significantly less energy than traditional hot water tanks, and 100% of the energy they do use is used for heating your water — there is no wasted energy. This results in lower operational costs and a reduced environmental impact.

For more on tankless water heaters, or to learn about any of our plumbing services, speak to the pros at City Creek Plumbing today.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some common signs that your main sewer line might be dealing with issues. The main sewer line is one of the single most important components in your plumbing system, serving as the central location that combines all drains and feeds into the public sewer and water lines, and any concerns taking place within it need to be remedied quickly. 

At City Creek Plumbing, we’re here to help with numerous plumbing services for all our clients, including drain cleaning and sewer line maintenance for any issues you may be experiencing. It’s vital that you be able to recognize the potential signs of these problems so you can alert our plumbers quickly — here are some of the other top indicators of main sewer line issues to look out for.

Sinkholes or Foundation Cracks

Leaks coming from your main water line will actually cause sinkholes or foundation cracks within your yard. This is another indication that you need to call a plumber immediately, as the damage can grow larger and more costly if not repaired very soon.

This happens when water that leaks from the sewer begins to pool, forming a sinkhole. This can be very problematic for homeowners to deal with, as the damage done might not seem worth fixing at first glance — but if you don’t take care of it quickly, this could result in even worse issues developing.

Slow Drains Throughout the Home

In some relatively common situations, you may experience a single slow drain for a variety of reasons – from a minor clog that can be fixed with a plunger to a few other limited concerns. If these are found in “one-off” scenarios, there’s no reason to worry about your main sewer line.

However, if you notice repeated issues of slow drains – and if you notice them in multiple drains at once, not just a single drain – this could be a sign of an issue. This often indicates a deeper blockage somewhere in your main line, and may require a process like trenchless sewer line repair or a related service.

Lawn Signs

In still other cases, you may notice the signs of a main sewer line issue on your lawn before anywhere else. Certain patches of grass – those that sit on top of where the main line runs underground, especially – may look especially lush and green, largely because sewage that’s leaking out from the main line is acting as a fertilizer. You may also see specific indentations or dips in your lawn in some of the same areas, a sign that sewage has leaked in large enough amounts to saturate the soil and cause it to sink.

For more on how to spot issues in your main sewer line, or to learn about any of our plumbing services, speak to the staff at City Creek Plumbing today.

Your bathroom is the part of your home where you should always feel safe, clean, and comfortable. But if it’s been a while since your bathroom has been updated, it might not be the sanctuary you deserve. Bathroom remodeling may seem like a hassle, but when you hire City Creek Plumbing in Kaysville, you’ll see how worth it is when to have functioning fixtures, a more eco-friendly toilet, new tiling, and so much more.

A New Toilet

Although bathroom remodels have a reputation for being on the pricier side, there is a way that bathroom remodeling can actually save you money. Older toilets installed before the invention of low-flush toilets in the late 1980s use between five and eight gallons of water with every flush. Especially in larger households, this can run up the water bill each month.

Modern water-saving toilets only use an average of 1.6 gallons per flush, making them much more efficient and helping to reduce your water bill from month to month. When you remodel your bathroom with City Creek Plumbing, ask your plumber in Kaysville about installing a low-flush toilet.

Low-flush toilets aren’t the only aspect of modern toilet technology that you can be taking advantage of in your bathroom. If space is one of the reasons you’re remodeling your bathroom, consider having a compact toilet installed to replace your old one. Whether your bathroom has an unusual floor plan, or it’s just too small, a compact toilet can help make the space less crowded. This is an especially good option if knocking down walls to make the space larger is not in your budget.

Bath and Shower

There are a few things to consider when it comes to replacing your bath and/or shower in a remodel. Bathrooms with only shower stalls and no tubs are becoming increasingly popular. This can be a great bathroom space saver, but you should first be sure that a tub-less bathroom is right for you. If you have children or are planning on having children soon, you may want to have a bath installed so that it’s easier to bathe them. Also, you should think about whether you plan on moving any time soon. Bathrooms with showers but no tubs are usually listed as “three-quarters” baths when you sell your home, rather than “full” baths, which may slightly decrease the value of your home.

On the other hand, however, if you hardly use your bathtub and/or you have elderly people in your household who may struggle to step over a bathtub’s high walls in order to shower, ditching the tub may be the perfect solution. It all depends on your household’s needs.

The Best Plumbing Services in Kaysville for Your Remodel

Remodeling a bathroom is a big job, but City Creek Plumbing can handle it. We’re your plumber in Kaysville that can tackle any plumbing project, no matter the size. Give us a call today to get one step closer to having your dream bathroom.