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The Best Family Friendly Festivals Around Roanoke

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The Blue Ridge area has a lot of fun, outdoorsy activities. The GO Outside Festival takes place in October here in Roanoke, which is really just about people having fun outside. It’s right on the Roanoke River Greenway at the base of Mill Mountain. This is a fun event to enjoy the outdoors and do a lot of different things.

Another fun one is the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, which takes place at Ferrum College. There are lots of local businesses and churches, and it’s really about the history of that particular area. They also have farming demonstrations that can be a lot of fun for kids. The event always takes place on the 4th Saturday in October.

The Blue Ridge Kite Festival in Salem is tons of fun for the kids. It normally has thousands of people attending, so it’s a pretty big deal. Everybody brings their kites along to fly during the event, which takes place in April.

The Dickens of a Christmas in downtown Roanoke takes place over several weekends in December on Friday nights right in the center of the square. There are lots of street performers and other fun things to do. As long as the weather isn’t too cold it can be a ton of fun for kids to go and watch. It’s just a fun time of year in general.

If you have any plumbing related questions, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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There are two types of sewer systems: septic systems, which are used in rural homes, and municipal systems for homes in the city. We don’t repair or replace septic systems—the health department has to get involved and it can be a very major process. (Sometimes the pipe going to the septic tank needs to be repaired or replaced.) If you use the city sewer, the pipe coming from your home to the city tap is your responsibility, so it’s not as much of an undertaking as replacing the whole septic system. It’s a good idea to have someone look at the sewer system with a camera. After all, you don’t have to dig up everything to see what kind of shape it’s in and what might be causing the problem. This is also how we can determine what kind of pipe it uses, which is a very important thing to know. You don’t want to repair a clay or Orangeburg pipe because it will probably fail right beside the area that was repaired. Depending on the type of pipe, it might be a better idea to replace the entire thing or just a section. Even if it’s a PVC pipe or a pipe made of a relatively new type of material, it still might be a good idea to replace it entirely. If it failed in one place and it was put in by the same team, more than likely they used the same kind of practices throughout the entire system. A premature failure means that another section will likely fail later down the road. It’s extremely frustrating for a homeowner to have to dig up their yard multiple times. Disturbing the grass and landscaping over and over is definitely not much fun. You can save yourself the frustration by going for a replacement. Most people minimize the severity of a sewer backup in terms of damage or the burden it places on a home. I can’t stress this enough: a sewer backing up into your home is not anything that you ever want to deal with. It tends to happen when you have guests in your home because that’s when the sewer system is being worked the most. (A backup isn’t very likely to happen when you’re just using a small amount of water by yourself.) It can be extremely embarrassing to have a backup when family is visiting. Sewage is highly disease and bacteria ridden water, and when it backs up into the home it creates an unsanitary situation that you would not want to have to deal with. The best time to take care of it is as soon as you become aware of the situation. It’s definitely something you don’t want to play around with. If you think you have a sewer issue, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382. We can do a camera inspection of the sewer line and find out its condition.      

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When someone has a problem with a water heater, they are usually caught by surprise. All they want is to have the hot water working again. It’s easy to call a service provider and find out that a part like the thermostat needs to be replaced. However, it’s very important that whenever you’re going to start replacing parts that you first take the whole picture into account. (After all, a water heater can be as expensive as a car.) Here’s what you need to know in order to make an informed decision.

 

What is the life expectancy of your water heater? If you’re getting a certain part replaced, what caused the part to fail? (It might be an outside factor like water quality, for instance.) Was something not done correctly in the piping system or the gas line? These are some of the big picture considerations you need to discuss with a professional before you decide to get started with a repair. The worst thing that could happen would be to put hundreds of dollars into a water heater only for it to need repair all over again. If the water heater is near the end of its useful life, you might have to replace the whole thing a year down the road. There is the very real potential to waste money if these larger considerations aren’t taken into account.

 

On an electric water heater, there are normally two thermostats/elements doubled up to work non-simultaneously. If we’re replacing one of them because they failed, it makes most sense to replace both of those parts. After all, if one has failed and both parts are in the same water conditions and the same age, you probably wouldn’t want to make two separate service calls to replace the second one when it fails shortly after.

 

There are also items around the water heater that should be checked. On a gas water heater, the venting should be inspected to be free of obstruction. Don’t just assume that it’s clean and clear—there could be an item that caused the water heater to fail or for the particular part to go bad. Newer water heaters have a flame vapor ignition resistance on them, which is basically a safety device. If you have a combustible object (like a can of gas, paint can, paint thinner, etc.) nearby, this mechanism prevents it from flashing back into the home and causing a fire hazard. If the water heater is located beside a laundry area, it’s very important that you keep it clean so that lint or pet dander won’t interfere with the heater’s operation.

 

Water heaters can also be overly taxed if they are not sized properly. (We actually see most water heaters fail for this reason.) If your household has several teenagers and the whole family is constantly running out of hot water, that means that the water heater is working overtime. Because it’s undersized, you’ll probably be experiencing more repairs or problems with the heater.

 

If you need water heater repairs this season, make sure you reach out to an experienced, professional team. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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A water tech (technician) can mean several different things, but let’s go with the meaning that generally applies to someone who works on water supply systems. Their work might include the municipal side of the system, or well system for those who live in a rural area. A water tech generally makes sure that water is getting to the residence or business. If the lines/systems that transport water are broken or need repair, the water technician will step in.

 

A water treatment specialist, on the other hand, focuses more on the quality of the water. They are an expert about everything that might be in the water, such as chlorine, sediment, iron, pH, bacteria, hardness, or total dissolved solids. They know how to properly test for these items, and are also capable of prescribing solutions to turn poor quality water into good water. If the water is already good, they can turn it into great water.

 

There are several different levels of water quality. A water treatment specialist is familiar with the differences and what needs to be done to get to those levels. For instance, water that’s appropriate for washing cars or watering the lawn doesn’t need to be extremely high quality. For doing laundry, there shouldn’t be any contaminants in the water that could stain clothes. This is the same kind of water that would be good for taking a shower, since stains and buildup can occur in showers/tubs as well. When it comes to water you intend to consume, it is very important that it’s drinking water quality.

 

Any time the topic of health effects comes up, there are always various different opinions. There are many myths surrounding healthy drinking water, what’s best for someone’s body, and whether hardness causes problems in the plumbing system. Because plumbers see the effects of water on a plumbing system, we have firsthand knowledge about what different contaminants can do.

 

Do you prefer water with high alkalinity, or water without anything in it? I personally believe that pure water with nothing in it is most desirable. But because there are so many differing opinions, the best thing I can say is that someone with experience in water treatment tends to have more truth and facts than someone who has just done online research. (There’s a lot of misleading and inaccurate information out there.)

 

If you want to learn exactly what’s going on with your water and get the best option for your home, reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing to work with a water treatment specialist. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

 

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The average lifespan of a water heater is 8 to 12 years. Some heaters do last longer than that, however. One way to maximize your water heater’s life is through maintenance, which can potentially extend its life by an extra 5 years. First, though, I should mention that most of the topics I’m going to cover here are explained in the owner’s manual, which goes into detail about the maintenance required for your specific water heater.

 

Water quality is incredibly important to the longevity of a water heater. One of the best things that you can do when it comes to its longevity is simply put really good water into it. If the water has iron, hardness, sediment, etc., it will settle and accumulate in the bottom of the heater, causing premature failure.

 

Next, flushing your water heater at least once a year is very beneficial. (Some people do it as often as every six months.) There are lots of water heaters out there that have never been flushed. You don’t need to be in a panic if that’s the case, but flushing does allow any sediment at the bottom of the heater to be removed before it has a chance to build up and cause blisters in the inside of the glass lining.

 

Another factor that affects the lifespan of your water heater is the anode rod, which is there to attract the minerals in water that could cause harm to the tank. The anode rod is made from a softer metal, so it will actually diminish (wear away) instead of the metal tank itself. After the rod is diminished, it can be replaced to extend the life of the heater. As long as you have a rod in there, it will be able to do its job of protecting the tank.

 

The next piece is the temperature and pressure (T&P) relief valve. As the name implies, its job is to protect the heater against excessive pressure and/or temperature. If it is not working properly and the pressure gets too high, it can cause the water heater to rupture. As long as it’s inspected and working properly, you shouldn’t have any problems with rupture due to pressure or temperature.

 

To keep your water heater working for as many years as possible, it should be maintained annually. This is a service that’s included for all our club members during each annual maintenance and safety visit. To learn more, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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There’s a big difference between just clearing your line and cleaning your line. When you have a backed up drain, the first thing we usually do is clear the line using cables to get rid of the blockage and figure out what happened. Once it’s drained out and cleared, there’s usually a lot of gunk and buildup. That’s where hydrojetting comes in—it’s a piece of equipment that we use in drain cleaning which is basically a high-powered pressure washer.

 

It’s always important that we choose the correct tip to place on the end of the hydrojetter. (Drains can be compared to arteries, which tend to get clogged and obstructed.) We use one kind of tip on the hydrojetter to scour the sides of the pipes, and another to cut through grease.

 

We’ve also found that if we have trouble seeing a crack or break in the pipe after we’ve cleared the line, using the hydrojetter can make things clean and clear enough to be able to uncover the real issue and prevent anything from happening in the future.

 

Hydrojetting is also what we use whenever we clear or clean gutter drains. Because of the very thin nature of gutter drains, putting a cable down them could cause damage. This is a situation where hydrojetting is the best tool for the job.

 

If you have any questions about hydrojetting and how we use it in your home, reach out to us today by contacting us online or giving us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

 

 

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