Plumbing answers for Apache Junction & East Valley homes.

Very hard. Tap water across the East Valley commonly measures between 10 and 20 grains per gallon, and anything above 10.5 grains per gallon (180 mg/L) is classed as very hard. The exact figure depends on your water provider and the season.

The hardness comes from the sources: Colorado River water delivered by the Central Arizona Project, Salt and Verde River water, and local groundwater all carry a lot of dissolved calcium and magnesium. Your provider publishes current numbers in its annual water quality report. In Apache Junction that is either the Apache Junction Water District or Arizona Water Company, depending on your address.

Hard water leaves mineral scale wherever water is heated or evaporates. Scale collects in the bottom of water heaters, clogs faucet aerators and shower heads, stiffens valve cartridges, wears out toilet fill valves and leaves white crust on fixtures and glass.

The most expensive damage is the part you cannot see. A layer of scale on the bottom of a tank water heater makes the burner work harder and overheats the steel, which is a main reason heaters fail early in Arizona. Scale also narrows the passages in tankless heaters, dishwashers, ice makers and washing machine valves.

For most East Valley homes, yes. With water this hard, a properly sized and maintained softener noticeably extends the life of water heaters, faucets and appliances, cuts soap and detergent use and stops most spotting and scale.

There are trade-offs. A softener needs salt and uses some water to regenerate, softened water is not ideal for most landscape plants, and many people prefer not to drink it. That is why homes here are commonly plumbed with a softener loop in the garage that leaves the outdoor hose bibs, and sometimes the kitchen cold tap, on unsoftened water.

A softener treats all the water in the house by swapping calcium and magnesium for sodium, which protects plumbing and appliances. A reverse osmosis (RO) system treats a small amount of water at one tap, usually the kitchen sink, and removes most dissolved minerals and salts to improve the taste of drinking water.

They do different jobs and many Arizona homes have both: the softener for the house, the RO for drinking, cooking and the ice maker. An RO system sends some water to the drain as it works, and its filters and membrane need changing on schedule to keep working.

A salt-free conditioner does not soften water. It leaves the calcium and magnesium in the water and aims to change how the minerals behave so that less scale sticks to pipes and heating surfaces. Results on water as hard as the East Valley’s are mixed.

If you want the feel of soft water, less soap use and no spotting, only an ion-exchange softener does that. A conditioner may suit a home where salt or a drain connection is a problem, but go in with modest expectations and check exactly what performance the manufacturer certifies.

Because the ground and the pipes are hot. In Phoenix-area summers the shallow soil, the water meter box, the slab and any pipe in the attic all heat up, so cold water can reach the tap at 90°F or warmer for the first minute or longer.

It is normal here and does not mean something is cross-connected. If the cold side stays hot for a long time at only one fixture, or you hear the water heater firing when nobody is using hot water, a failed check valve or mixing valve can be letting hot water cross over, and that is worth having checked.

Public water systems in Arizona must meet federal and state drinking water standards, and each provider publishes a yearly Consumer Confidence Report listing what was found and at what levels. Read the current report from your own provider for the facts on your water.

Many residents filter drinking water anyway because of taste: the minerals and the chlorine used for disinfection are noticeable. A carbon filter improves taste and odor; reverse osmosis removes most dissolved solids as well. If your home is on a private well, testing is your responsibility, and an annual test is sensible.

A tank water heater in the Phoenix area often lasts about 8 to 12 years, and on unsoftened water with no maintenance it can fail sooner. Very hard water and the heat of an Arizona garage are harder on a tank than conditions in most of the country.

The age is on the rating plate, usually within the serial number. Once a tank is past ten years, or shows rust at the fittings, moisture in the pan, or rumbling and popping while it heats, plan the replacement on your own schedule instead of waiting for a flooded garage.

Yes. With East Valley water, draining and flushing a tank water heater about once a year removes loose scale from the bottom, helps it heat efficiently and can add years to its life. Homes with a softener can usually go longer between flushes.

A heater that has never been flushed in eight or ten years is a different case: the drain valve may clog with scale or fail to close afterward. On an old, neglected tank it is often wiser to leave it alone and budget for a replacement. A plumber can also check the anode rod, which protects the tank from corrosion and is used up faster by softened water.

A water heater in a garage generally has to be protected from vehicle impact and, for fuel-burning models, installed so its ignition source is at least 18 inches above the floor unless the heater is listed as flammable-vapor ignition resistant. It also needs a temperature and pressure relief valve piped to a safe place.

Those are the common model-code requirements; your city or county adopts and amends its own code and decides what a replacement must meet. Many jurisdictions in the Phoenix area require a permit to replace a water heater. An installer should know what applies at your address.

It can be, provided you commit to the maintenance. A tankless heater on untreated East Valley water needs descaling regularly, typically once a year, or scale will coat the heat exchanger, cut the flow and shorten its life. A softener ahead of the heater reduces the problem a great deal.

Tankless heaters give continuous hot water and free up garage floor space, but they cost more to install, may need a larger gas line and different venting, and do not deliver hot water to the tap any faster on their own. Ask for the unit to be installed with isolation valves so it can be flushed easily.

The common warning signs are water in the drain pan or on the floor beneath the tank, rusty or discolored hot water, rumbling or popping while it heats, hot water that runs out faster than it used to, and rust or crusty deposits on the fittings on top.

A slow drip from a fitting or a valve can often be repaired. Water coming from the tank itself, from the seam or the bottom, cannot: the tank has corroded through and needs replacing. If it is leaking now, shut off the cold water valve above the heater and turn off its power or set the gas control to off or vacation, following the instructions on the heater’s label.

A dripping temperature and pressure relief valve is usually reacting to pressure. When water is heated it expands, and in a home with a pressure regulator or a check valve at the meter that extra volume has nowhere to go, so pressure climbs until the valve opens. High incoming water pressure or a worn valve can cause the same thing.

Do not cap or plug the valve or its discharge pipe. It is the safety device that keeps a water heater from over-pressurizing. The usual remedies are an expansion tank, a working pressure-reducing valve, or a new relief valve, and a plumber can tell which with a pressure gauge.

The wait is the time it takes to push the cooled-off water out of the pipe between the heater and the tap. In a spread-out single-storey home with the water heater in the garage, the far bathroom can be a long run of pipe away.

A hot water recirculation pump solves it by keeping hot water moving through the line, either through a dedicated return pipe or through a comfort valve under the farthest sink. Put it on a timer or a demand control so it runs only when you are likely to want hot water.

A slab leak is a leak in a water line that runs under or within the concrete slab a house is built on. The usual signs are an unexplained jump in the water bill, a warm spot on the floor, the sound of water running when everything is off, damp or lifting flooring, or low water pressure.

They are common in the Phoenix area because nearly all site-built homes sit on slabs with soft copper water lines beneath them, and decades of hot water, minerals and soil movement eventually wear a pinhole in the pipe. Hot water lines fail more often than cold.

Turn off every tap and water-using appliance, then look at your water meter. If the small leak indicator is turning, or the reading changes over 20 to 30 minutes with nothing running, water is going somewhere.

To narrow it down, close the shut-off valve at the house and look again. If the meter stops, the leak is inside the house plumbing. If it keeps moving, the leak is in the service line between the meter and the house. Toilets are the most common culprit: a few drops of food coloring in the tank that show up in the bowl without flushing means the flapper is leaking.

There are three usual approaches: open the slab and repair the pipe at the leak, abandon the leaking line and reroute a new one through the walls and attic, or repipe the house if the pipe is failing in several places. The right choice depends on where the leak is, the age of the pipe and whether it has leaked before.

A single leak in an otherwise sound system may justify a spot repair. A second or third leak on the same line usually means the pipe is at the end of its life, and a reroute in PEX avoids breaking up floors and puts the new line where it can be reached in future.

It depends on the policy. Many policies cover sudden water damage and the cost of getting access to the leak, but not the repair of the pipe itself, and most exclude damage from slow leaks that went on for a long time. Only your insurer or agent can tell you what yours covers.

If you suspect a slab leak, shut off the water if it is causing damage, take photos, and call your insurer early. Keep the plumber’s written findings; adjusters usually ask for them.

Polybutylene is a flexible grey plastic water pipe installed in many homes and manufactured homes from the late 1970s until the mid 1990s. It became known for failing without warning, at the fittings and in the pipe itself, and it is no longer made or accepted by plumbing codes. If your home has it, replacement is the long-term answer.

Look where pipes come out of the wall under sinks, at the water heater and at the main shut-off: polybutylene is usually grey (sometimes blue or black outdoors) and often stamped PB2110. It cannot be judged from the outside, because it deteriorates from the inside. Some insurers will not write or renew a policy on a home that still has it.

It depends on when the house was built. Homes from the 1950s to the 1970s mostly have copper, with some galvanized steel in the oldest. From the late 1970s to the mid 1990s you find copper, CPVC and polybutylene. Homes built since the late 1990s are mostly PEX, often run through the attic and walls from a central manifold.

Each has its own typical trouble: pinhole leaks in copper under the slab, brittle CPVC that cracks when disturbed, polybutylene that fails unpredictably, and some early PEX systems whose brass fittings corroded. Knowing what you have tells a plumber a lot before a single wall is opened.

Between about 50 and 70 psi suits most homes. Plumbing codes require a pressure-reducing valve when the supply is above 80 psi, because high pressure wears out supply lines, fill valves, water heaters and appliance hoses and makes any leak worse.

You can check it with an inexpensive gauge that screws onto a hose bib. Read it with no water running, and again late at night when neighborhood demand is low and pressure is highest. A pressure-reducing valve does not last forever; if pressure has crept up or swings widely, the valve may need replacing.

In most East Valley homes the main shut-off is outside, on the pipe that comes up out of the ground and enters the wall, usually at the front or side of the house near a hose bib. There is a second shut-off in the meter box near the street.

Find yours before you need it and make sure it turns. An old gate valve with a round handle may be seized or may not close fully; a quarter-turn ball valve with a lever handle is far more reliable and worth having installed. In a manufactured home the shut-off is usually where the water line comes up at the utility pedestal or under the edge of the home near the water inlet.

A drain that clogs again and again usually has a cause beyond the clog itself: grease and soap built up along the pipe wall, hard-water scale roughening the inside of the line, a sagging or back-pitched section that holds water, a venting problem, or roots or damage in the main line.

One slow fixture points to that fixture’s own drain. Several fixtures at once, or water coming up in a shower when the washer drains, points to the main line. Clearing a recurring clog buys time; repairing the reason for it is what ends the pattern.

They are best avoided. Caustic and acid drain cleaners often fail to clear a real blockage, then sit in the pipe as a hazard to whoever opens the drain next. They can damage older metal pipes, finishes and disposal parts, and they are hard on a septic system.

A plunger, a hand-cranked drain snake or removing and cleaning the trap is safer and usually more effective for a sink or tub. If you have already poured a chemical cleaner down a drain that is still blocked, tell the plumber before work starts.

In most East Valley homes the main sewer cleanout is outside, within a few feet of the house on the side facing the street or the alley. Look for a capped pipe three or four inches across, at ground level or slightly below, often in the gravel near a bathroom or the front wall. Many homes have a two-way cleanout with two caps side by side.

Older homes may have no ground-level cleanout at all, or one buried under landscape rock. It is worth finding or adding one: a cleanout lets the main line be cleared and inspected without pulling a toilet or going up on the roof.

It could be either. Much of the city is served by the Superstition Mountains Community Facilities District sewer system, but a large number of Apache Junction properties, and most homes on the county islands and larger lots around the city, are on their own septic tank and drain field.

The quickest check is your bills: if nobody charges you for sewer, you are almost certainly on septic. County environmental health records and the property’s sale documents will also show it. In Arizona a septic system must be inspected when a home is sold, so the inspection report from your purchase is a good record of where the tank and field are.

Most household septic tanks should be inspected and pumped about every three to five years. The right interval depends on the size of the tank, how many people live in the home and whether there is a garbage disposal, which adds solids quickly.

Pumping is what protects the drain field, the expensive part of the system. Signs of trouble include slow drains throughout the house, gurgling, sewage odor outdoors, or wet ground over the field. Keep vehicles off the tank and field, spread laundry loads through the week, and keep wipes, grease and harsh chemicals out of the drains.

Keep grease, fats and oils, coffee grounds, eggshells, rice and pasta, potato peels and other starchy or stringy scraps such as celery and corn husks, and bones or fruit pits out of the disposal. Run plenty of cold water while it grinds and for several seconds after.

The disposal only chops; everything still has to travel down the same pipe. Grease sets hard in the line and starchy food swells into paste. If your home is on septic, use the disposal sparingly, because ground food fills the tank faster.

Most often a drain trap has dried out. Every drain has a U-shaped trap that holds water to block sewer gas. In the dry heat of an Arizona summer, the water in the trap of an unused shower, tub, floor drain or sink can evaporate in a few weeks and let the smell in.

Run water in every fixture for a minute, including guest baths and laundry and floor drains, and the smell normally clears within a day. If it persists, a failed wax ring under a toilet, a cracked vent or a loose cleanout cap may be the cause, and those need repair.

In a manufactured or park-model home the water and drain lines run beneath the floor, inside the insulated underbelly, and come up through the floor to each fixture instead of through the walls. Pipe sizes are often smaller, fixtures and tub drains can be non-standard, and the water heater sits in a small closet.

Homes built from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s often have grey polybutylene water lines, which are prone to failure. Leaks under the floor can soak the insulation and subfloor before anything shows inside, so soft spots in the floor, a sagging underbelly or water dripping at the skirting are worth acting on quickly.

No. A manufactured home needs a water heater that is listed for manufactured-home use under the federal HUD standard. Gas models for these homes are built differently from standard residential heaters, typically with sealed combustion that draws air from outside, and are made to work with either natural gas or propane.

A standard heater squeezed into the closet can be a real safety hazard and can cause problems with insurance or a later sale. In Arizona, the Department of Housing’s Manufactured Housing Division regulates installation and alteration work on these homes, so use an installer who is properly licensed for it.

Occasionally. Apache Junction gets a handful of nights below freezing most winters, usually in December and January. Indoor plumbing is rarely at risk, but exposed pipes, hose bibs, irrigation backflow preventers, evaporative cooler lines and pipes under a manufactured home can freeze and split on a hard frost.

Because it happens seldom, few homes here are prepared for it. On a freeze-warning night, wrap exposed pipes and the backflow assembly with towels or foam covers, disconnect hoses, and let an outdoor-wall faucet drip. Know where your main shut-off is in case something splits and thaws.

Shut off the water to the house at the main valve, set the water heater to its vacation or pilot setting (or switch off an electric heater at the breaker), and ask someone to check the home regularly. A supply line that fails in an empty house can run for weeks.

Before you go, pour water into every drain so the traps are full; some seasonal residents cover drains and toilet bowls with plastic wrap to slow evaporation. If irrigation has to stay on, have it fed from a line ahead of the house shut-off. When you return, open the valve slowly, run each tap to clear air, and check under sinks and around the water heater before you restore the heater to normal.

Arizona’s monsoon, officially June 15 to September 30, brings short, heavy downpours that can overwhelm yard drainage, saturate septic drain fields, push stormwater into sewer cleanouts with loose or missing caps, and cause backups in low-lying homes. Power outages during storms also stop well pumps, sump pumps and recirculation pumps.

Before the season, make sure cleanout caps are in place and tight, keep roof and yard drains clear, and check that water runs away from the foundation. If you are on septic and the ground is saturated, go easy on laundry and long showers until it drains. Lightning is another reason to stay out of the shower during a storm that is right overhead.

Yes. Arizona law requires you to contact Arizona 811 at least two full working days before digging, so that utility companies can mark their buried lines. The service is free, and it applies to homeowners as well as contractors.

811 marks utility-owned lines only: gas, electric, communications, and water and sewer up to the meter or connection. Private lines on your property, such as irrigation, a gas line to a barbecue or pool heater, the water line from the meter to the house and septic piping, are not marked, so dig carefully near where they are likely to run.

Shut off the water at the main valve, which in most East Valley homes is outside where the water line enters the house, usually near the front hose bib. If water is near outlets, lights or appliances, switch off power to that area at the breaker panel if you can reach it safely. Then call a plumber.

Open a faucet at the lowest point to drain the lines, move what you can out of the water and take photos for your insurer. If the house valve will not turn or will not hold, the valve in the meter box at the street will stop the flow; your water provider can also shut it off.

Leave the building immediately, taking everyone with you, and call your gas utility’s emergency line or 911 from outside, well away from the house. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off, do not use a phone indoors, and do not start a car in an attached garage.

Do not try to find the leak or relight anything yourself. The gas utility will respond, make the situation safe and tell you whether the problem is on its side of the meter or yours. Repairs to the piping on your side are work for a licensed contractor, and the line should be pressure tested before gas is turned back on.

Search the contractor’s name or license number on the Arizona Registrar of Contractors website, roc.az.gov. The record shows whether the license is active, its classification, the bond, how long it has been held, and any complaints or discipline.

Arizona law requires licensed contractors to put their ROC license number on contracts, bids and advertising, so ask for the number before work begins and check that the name on the license matches the company you are dealing with. Asking is normal, and a reputable contractor expects it.

They are Arizona Registrar of Contractors plumbing classifications. R-37 is a residential plumbing license, C-37 is a commercial plumbing license, and CR-37 is a dual license covering both residential and commercial plumbing work.

For work on a house, the contractor should hold a residential or dual plumbing classification, or another classification whose scope includes the work being done. The ROC website describes the scope of each class, and the license record shows which one a contractor holds.

Only small jobs. Arizona’s handyman exemption allows unlicensed work when the total price of the job, labor and materials together, is under $1,000 and the work does not require a building permit. Anything larger, or anything that needs a permit, requires a licensed contractor.

A job cannot be split into smaller pieces to stay under the limit, and an unlicensed person may not advertise as a licensed contractor. Hiring a licensed contractor also gives a homeowner access to the Registrar of Contractors’ complaint process and, for residential work, its Recovery Fund, neither of which applies to unlicensed work.

Often, yes. Permit rules are set by each city or county, and many jurisdictions in the Phoenix area require a plumbing permit to replace a water heater, because the gas connection, venting, relief valve and impact protection are safety items.

Check with your own building department: the City of Apache Junction, Pinal County, Maricopa County or your city, depending on where the home is. Manufactured homes fall under the Arizona Department of Housing’s Manufactured Housing Division. Your installer should be able to tell you what applies and who pulls the permit.

Ask for the Arizona ROC license number and check it, ask whether you will get the price before work starts and what it includes, ask whether the job needs a permit, and ask what warranty comes with the parts and the labor.

It is also fair to ask who will actually be doing the work and how long they have been in the trade, and to ask for the diagnosis in plain language before you agree to anything. Be wary of pressure to decide on the spot, or of a large replacement recommended without a clear explanation of why a repair will not do.

Integrity Plumbing Service, LLC offers discounted plumbing repairs to first responders, active military members and veterans, and teachers. Mention it when you call 480-973-2020 and the company will explain how the discount applies to your repair.

The discount is the company’s way of serving the people who serve the community. Terms can change, so confirm the details when you book.

Integrity Plumbing Service, LLC is based in Apache Junction, Arizona, and serves the East Valley of the Phoenix metro area. Call 480-973-2020 with your address and the company will tell you whether it can get to you.

The work is residential service and repair: leaks and water lines, drains and sewer lines, water heaters, recirculation pumps, faucets, toilets, showers and tubs, garbage disposals and plumbing inspections.