The vibrant city of Fort Lauderdale surrounds you with stunning beaches and an endless supply of sunshine. Yet, when it comes to plumbing, what we need here in South Florida can be quite different from what other parts of the country require. For one thing, our unique topography—the result of living literally at sea level—has an enormous impact on drainage and pipe installation. Not to mention the effect that our frequent tropical storms and hurricanes can have. These systems can and do drop an enormous amount of water in a very short time. And then there’s the issue of salt. We live right by the ocean, and the salt in our atmosphere can quickly corrode not just plumbing pipes but also other household fixtures. In plumbing, as in so many other things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Like the circulatory system, your home’s plumbing is essential yet often overlooked. Do you ever wonder why your shower water pressure dips at certain times of the day? Those are the mysteries we love solving. The Fort Lauderdale plumbing of both older homes and modern condos has its share of good stories, bad jokes, and cautionary tales. A plumbing inspection provides not only a plumbing progress report but also a snapshot of the unique character that your home’s plumbing says it has. A plumbing inspection can save you from some unexpected mishaps, and as we talk about in this chapter, it can also save you from some plumbing progress that's more like a bad report card than anything else.
In the world of plumbing, whether literally or metaphorically, every drop counts. Think about it: You're trying to savor your Saturday morning brunch, and what do you hear? The incessant dripping of your kitchen sink, a sound that's somehow both steady and maddening. You're not in a rush, and yet the dripping seems to be urging you to make a few decisions, a few moves, and get your plumbing life back on track. It's what you might call a "medium annoying" sound. Of course, your plumbing might not have a "d" problem, and you might be just fine with your P-traps and S-traps, with whatever your local code requires. But if there's something askew in your kitchen plumbing, or if it's far more complex and somehow related to a game of hide-and-seek that's going on between your domestic piping system and your plumbing dreams, then remember who has local experience to get your life back to where it always should be, right under the sun.