We’ve sometimes written about emergency plumbing situations and how to handle them, such as when a toilet starts to overflow. In this post, we’re going to address a broader situation, which is flooding in a bathroom, regardless of its source. Because of the large amount of plumbing pipes, drains, and fixtures in a bathroom, it’s the room in a home most likely to experience flooding from a plumbing accident. The flooding can be due to an overflowing toilet, or it might be a broken water supply line or someone who forgot to turn off the bath.
Whatever is the cause, here are the steps to take to mitigate the damage and prevent injuries:
A bathroom toilet is designed for durability. In fact, people may think of a toilet as an appliance in their home that will never need a replacement. But this is not the case. If your home has a toilet that’s more than 20 years old, it’s time to put in a new one. Even putting in a similar model of toilet will use half the amount of water of a toilet that was made two decades ago.
The bathroom is the room in a house that contains the largest number of plumbing pipes and fixtures. Yes, more than the kitchen! And the bathroom toilet accounts for around 40% of indoor water use for a home, making it one of the most important plumbing fixtures in the whole house (even before considering the important job the toilet actually does).
There is no such thing as “the last pair of shoes you’ll ever need to buy.” Nothing that receives use is durable enough to last forever—and this absolutely includes the major plumbing fixtures in your home.
This is a post for all our cat-loving clients out there. It’s one of the big misunderstandings about plumbing that doesn’t get enough attention. You’ve probably heard a list of various items that shouldn’t be disposed of down a toilet: paper products aside from toilet paper, sanitary wipes, dead goldfish, and any type of trash that normally goes into the trash can. (And don’t pour chemical “drain cleaner” into a toilet either. If you can’t unclog a toilet with a plunger, call a professional plumber for 
One of the most common plumbing troubles in the bathroom is when the toilet either won’t stop running or runs too long before it stops. You’ve probably encountered this before when you’ve flushed the toilet, walked off to do something else, and then noticed a few minutes later the sound of running water still coming from the toilet. You jiggled the handle, maybe flushed it a second time, and the sound stopped.
Plumbing in Southern California has a major advantage over that in much of the rest of the country: no intense low temperatures during the winter! This means pipes aren’t in danger of freezing, leaving homes with seriously damaged plumbing systems when the spring weather starts. And without snowmelt, there’s less worrying about problems with sump pumps.
