Plumbing questions
New house owner here, a couple of weird plumbing things I'm noticing and not sure how big of a concern they are. All of these are very sporadic.
Possibly relevant things to note, I live in the US, we do not have a basement, do have a crawlspace, are connected to the town sewer lines, have lived in the house for about 2 weeks and it was vacant for a month prior to us moving in (with occasional visits and contractors.)
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A couple of times, but only a couple, the bathroom sinks have made a sound when flushing the toilet. Maybe once this happened with the kitchen sink but I couldn't be sure. Not sure if this is something I should be trouble shooting or I'm overthinking it.
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We've had occasional sewer gas odors. I've run water down the second bathroom's drains just in case it was due to those being unused, but I can't tell if that fixed it because it's inconsistent. Anything else I can/should do?
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The main suite shower is a circular rain style shower head. Occasionally, hours or even a day after using it, it'll just run water, the way you'd expect it to drain out of the shower head after turning off the shower. The internet suggested this could be just something where the water is held in the shower head until air/water pressure shifts and it can escape. It's also possible that this needs a vinegar bath to clean up some hard water scaling. Am I on the right track?
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One of my toilets keeps running/not running when the float gets stuck. I've fixed that before, though the last time I did it, it was a rubber float on a stick and this is some plastic contraption. (I am discovering home repair makes me feel like a 72 year old grumpy old man. ) Pretty sure I can clean it and see if that fixes it, adjust the screw on it, and replace it if needed. But any tips there besides a YouTube video or two?
Never owned a house before so any advice is worthwhile.
It sounds like your plumbing vents are either inadequate or clogged somehow. That would certainly explain 1 and 2.
For 3, if it's draining like that, it sounds a lot more like a valve not properly closing.
Descaling is never a bad idea, DO YOUR HOT WATER HEATER ASAP. Its often neglected and will cause premature failure if left undone. I hear that an electric descaler can be helpful, depending on the nature of the hardness of your water.
I knew plumbing vents were on the table, wasn't sure with how infrequent it all was if it could just be lack of use or not. I'll look into those. But is this likely a plumber thing?
I have no idea how to do a hot water heater, time to look at that. I haven't tested the hardness but my water's been hard in the area in general and I'm seeing some of the same signs of it here. Just, wasn't my area to handle before. I'll look into this too!
Hard to say, but I'd try to get a diagnosis from one if possible.
A lot of plumbing work can be self service with some elbow grease, but this one is kinda important enough that I'd want a professional scoping it out.
The hot water heater descaling is usually just a flushing process. Turn it off, drain out all the hot water, hook up a hose to the bottom, and run water out till all the chunks stop coming out.
Yeah that is gonna be a lot more involved time wise but sounds easy enough. I need a second work week every week to do stuff around the house ಠ_ʖಠ
Honestly descaling your showerhead is a good thing to do even if it's completely unrelated to your problem, so it makes sense that it's recommended as a first step. But I also live somewhere with super hard water so I'm in a constant battle against limescale.
Yeah I realized I probably should test our water for hardness just so I know. Ty
For 3, when our shower head does that it 100% means it is time to descale it. Which isn't to say that's definitely your issue, but a nice soak in some vinegar won't hurt anything.
With sink noises and occasional smells and stuff, I've found a good old fashioned plunger to be pretty helpful. Stuff builds up in drains, that's just the nature of draining stuff humans have got gunk and hair and stuff in. Most of the time giving your drains a good plunging is at least as good as expensive and corrosive drain unblocking chemicals. Fill the sink or put some water in the bath, pull the plug and plunge away.
Sounds like plunging and snaking are in my future. Appreciate it!
I'd add that 3 may have something to do with vents like 1&2 but more than likely it's just vacuum locking itself and holding onto water until some evaporates and breaks the seal. If it's tiltable I'd tilt it a bit or give it a light shake when you finish your shower and see if it occurs; descaling as mentioned by vord probably wouldn't hurt but you'd probably see if it was necessary on the head. If it has a hand shower, body jets, or other diverter valve you can try shifting that position and see if it releases.
4 depends on the exact setup, I've had a Kohler that hangs up on its chain sometimes and some carefully placed zip ties fixed it. If you have hard water buildup then some careful cleaning is probably enough. Unless it's an exotic/expensive toilet the entire assembly is a YT video or two, a bucket, some towels, and under 50 bucks to rebuild. And don't start a plumbing project at 5pm on a Friday, that's just tempting fate ;) . I even rebuilt a valve with a $3 replacement membrane at an Airbnb that the local middle-of-nowhere hardware store happened to have so sometimes it can be even cheaper!
3. I think there is some build up on the shower head but the internet suggested the same thing with the vacuum forming. I'll try to be more attentive to it after a shower, but maybe on the weekend where I'll be more likely to know if it's dripping hours later.
IANAP but I'm a homeowner and I've run into some of these.
2. Yeah it sounds like that's useful troubleshooting. Unfortunately if 1 and 2 suggest the same thing it seems like next step is being on the roof with a snake which means probably plumber time. Also I don't know where it was coming from but I'll just start poking around I suppose.
I'd be happy to get on the roof, with a real live snake, but less so to do plumbing things.
3. Never had one of these shower heads before so like I said in another comment I'll try to wiggle it and be more attentive to whether that fixes it. ADHD brain will probably keep forgetting and being surprised but if it isn't inherently indicative of a bigger issue I won't stress.
4. I'll add it to my troubleshooting list, but I think if I follow what's going on with it, the plastic screw the float "rides" up and down is what it's sticking on. So I'm hoping a quick clean/descale might cover it. Ty much!
Sometimes you can fiddle with those and get them working again, but they're so cheap (in both senses) you may as well just replace it. It's pretty quick and easy. After which even the cheap ones are good for 5+ years.
Fair! I'm hoping it's just needing a quick clean, but if it's more than that replacement makes sense.