Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog

Plumbing Tips to Make Thanksgiving Even Happier

November 11th, 2019

fall-cornucopiaDo you know what the busiest day of year is for professional plumbers? The day after Thanksgiving. The toughest shopping day of the year is also when many homeowners discover they’ve got a plumbing nightmare. This makes sense: the house is packed with guests—more than a home experiences during the December holidays, most likely—and the kitchen plumbing, especially the sink and garbage disposal, are under assault from food preparation. Most parts of the plumbing get used to their fullest, increasing the chances that something will go wrong.

We want you to enjoy a great Thanksgiving this year with worry-free plumbing in Burlington, VT. Below are a few tips to make everything go smoother:

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No Matter Your Heating System, It Needs Fall Maintenance!

October 28th, 2019

autumn-backgroundHow do you keep your home toasty during the cold winters in Vermont and New York? The majority of homes use natural gas furnaces, but there are many that rely on boilers, electric furnaces, in-floor radiant systems, heat pumps, and dual fuel systems. Our heating technicians work with all these types of heaters in Burlington, VT. It’s one of the reasons we’ve had so many years of success and built up a loyal client base. Whatever you use to heat your home, you can trust us to install, repair, and maintain it.

We want to focus on that last part: maintain. Your central heating system needs to have professional maintenance each fall before the cold winter arrives. And this applies to all types of heating systems, from furnace to heat pump. Skipping maintenance can lead to higher bills, inconsistent performance, repair needs, an early replacement, and even safety hazards.

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Signs You’ve Got a Garbage Disposal Going Bad

October 14th, 2019

rinsing-lettuce-kitchen-sinkA kitchen garbage disposal isn’t meant to last forever, although people often treat the ones in their homes as if they were immortal. We’ve written before about how you can take better care of your kitchen garbage disposal to avoid having to replace it years too early. Today we’re going to look at the inevitable point when you realize it’s time for a new disposal.

When you notice these signs below, call for our Burlington, VT, plumbing professionals. Our plumbers can help determine if you’ve got a dying garbage disposal and then get to work on putting in a new one that will last you for many years.

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HVAC Maintenance for Fall—Time to Get the Furnace Checked!

September 30th, 2019

hand-drawing-check-boxFall has officially arrived and this is an important time of the year if you’re a Burlington, VT, HVAC contractor. It’s … HVAC maintenance season again.

HVAC maintenance happens twice a year. When spring starts, customers arrange for our technicians to give their air conditioners a thorough inspection and tune-up. When it’s fall, it’s time for our experts to deliver the same for heating systems. For most of our customers, this means complete maintenance for their furnaces.

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Plumbing Horrors We Find From Bad DIY Attempts!

September 16th, 2019

plumber-working-on-pipesFirst, we want to stress that all “do-it-yourself” attempts to fix or install residential plumbing are bad. It’s simply unwise to try this type of work unless you have the proper tools and training. But there are times when DIY jobs go past bad and become serious problems. Ask any professional plumber, and you’ll often hear the same story: the majority of repairs they make are due to amateur plumbing errors.

If you’ve never done any DIY work on your plumbing, you could still have troubles. A previous owner may have done some unlicensed repair or installation that you’ll end up having to deal with. No matter how cautious you are about only hiring professional plumbers in Burlington, VT, you still may need to call us to remedy some amateur mistake.

We’ve put together a list of the DIY problems we often must fix for our customers.

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Does a Fried Compressor Mean the AC Must Be Replaced?

September 2nd, 2019

compressor-in-ac-unitNow here’s an unpleasant problem you may run into during the last days of summer: an air conditioning system that doesn’t work because the compressor has died. The compressor is the literal heart of a cooling system, since it’s the component that causes refrigerant to circulate through the system, turning a cool low-pressure liquid into a hot high-pressure gas. When a compressor is fried because of a burnt-out motor, an air conditioner turns into nothing more than a large fan.

You may have heard that a dead compressor means the end of the line for the air conditioning systems It’s so expensive to replace the compressor that the more cost-effective choice is to have a brand-new cooling system put in. But is this true? If air conditioning repair in Burlington, VT won’t save the compressor, is the next step working with us to get a new system?

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When Does a Ductless HVAC System Make Sense for a Home?

August 19th, 2019

ductless-mini-split-on-the-wallDuctwork is what originally allowed air conditioning and heating systems to spread conditioned air throughout a house, rather than concentrating it in one place. The earliest ducted systems were nothing more than metal pipes extending from basement furnaces (or even just fireplaces) that allowed heat to rise to different rooms in a building. Today, forced-air central AC and heating systems use powerful air handlers and efficient ducts to see that comfort is sent throughout a house.

But technology has also developed ductless HVAC systems. Also called ductless mini split heat pumps, these HVAC systems operate like standard heat pumps (cooling and heating air through circulation of refrigerant), but the single outdoor unit connects through walls to separate air handlers placed around the house. Each air handler has its own fan and refrigerant coil so it can blow the cooled or heated air directly into the living space—no ductwork required.

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You May Need to Replace Your Water Main!

August 5th, 2019

pipe-decayThe water main is as essential as household plumbing pipes get. After all, if you don’t have water piped into your house from the municipal water supply, you don’t have water in your house and you don’t have much use for a plumbing system at all!

So when it comes time to replace the water main—and it will come eventually, no pipe lasts forever—you need to know the signs. This is a job you want taken care of as soon as possible, and below we’ve written some of the indications to look for.

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How Do Slab Leaks Start in the First Place?

July 22nd, 2019

slab-leak-crack-in-foundationWe’ve addressed the topic of slab leaks on our blog before, but here’s a quick rundown. Slab leak is a professional plumbing term for any pipe leaks that occur down in the concrete foundation of a building. The term can sometimes apply to any pipe leak in hardscape or rock, but for the purposes of your home we’re using it for the hot and cold water pipes under your house.

Slab leaks, as you can probably imagine, are a tricky problem. They’re difficult to detect, locate, and then reach. Our plumbers have the best tools to narrow down where the leaks are occurring so we can make the repair job as brief as possible and with little disruption to the house.

But what causes buried pipes to start to leak in the first place? There are several sources:

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Summer Water Conservation Tips

July 8th, 2019

young-womanMost households use more water than they should on a day-to-day basis. And that adds up to higher water bills on a month-to-month basis. Some of this water waste comes from bad habits (such as running the faucet while brushing your teeth rather than shutting the faucet off until you need it). Others are plumbing concerns that will require some assistance from your favorite local plumbing contractors—which we hope is us! If we’re not yet, we’ll soon be your favorite after you call for professional plumbing in Williston, VT.

Below is a list of smart ways to conserve water over this summer. Make a few simple changes and call us for anything more extensive.

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