When Are Back-Flow Testing Plumbing Services Needed?
BY MET Plumbing LLC | July 31, 2017
Anytime you are building a new home or updating the plumbing in your existing home, backflow testing plumbing services should be used. These services test to verify the flow of water only flows in a single direction. 
When the water and sewage system in your home is working correctly, water comes into the home from the main water supply. From there it branches with cold water lines running to the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen.
One cold water line runs to your water heater and then branches on the output side of the water heater. Hot water lines are run to bathrooms, the laundry room, and the kitchen. When you turn on the hot or cold water or a combination thereof, it flows out and then eventually runs down the drain.
Each drain line consists of a series of pipes inside the walls of your home that are connected to your home’s main sewer line. The main sewer line is connected to your septic tank or your city’s sewer system.
At various connections in the water and sewer plumbing system, there should be backflow preventers installed. These devices stop water, wastewater, and raw sewage from flowing backward.
The purpose of backflow preventers is to stop water from running backward. While we would assume water would always flow in one direction into and out of the home, this is not always the case.
Water flows in one direction into the home due to pressure. If there is a change in pressure, water can flow backward and out of the home. With freshwater systems, this may not seem like a big concern. Yet, there would certainly be a concern if raw sewage were to backflow into the home and then backflow into freshwater supply lines and out of the home. That would contaminate the fresh water supply.
To illustrate, if you have ever experienced raw sewage coming up the drain lines in your home due to a break in the sewer line, it was because your home did not have backflow preventers installed in the right locations. When the pressure was deceased, the wastewater and sewage coming out of the home no longer had enough pressure to keep it moving in one direction.
How Do I Know if My Home Has Backflow Preventers?
The easiest way to find out if your home has backflow preventers is to schedule an inspection and testing from an experienced plumber. Your plumber uses various tools and equipment to find out if you have backflow preventers installed.
In addition, they will review your entire plumbing system to evaluate if the backflow preventers are installed in the right locations; if they are not, they will not work right. You could still end up with water flowing back into the home.
Besides getting backflow testing when building a new home or installing new plumbing lines, it is also highly recommended to get backflow testing performed annually. Doing so helps identify potential problems and fix them before they become a major headache—like waking up to raw sewage coming up the shower drain.To learn more about backflow testing for your Katy or Greater Houston Area home, please feel free to contact MET Plumbing & Air Conditioning at 281-599-3336 today! We also offer drain cleaning, plumbing repair, installation, and maintenance services.
