Near Me, FL

Got a late call from a homeowner near Lighthouse Point whose garbage disposal had seized up and the kitchen sink was completely backed up with nowhere for the water to go. Found a piece of broken dishware lodged in the grinding chamber jamming the impeller and a reset switch that had given out from the repeated overload trips. Cleared the obstruction, replaced the reset assembly, and ran the disposal through a full cycle under water to verify it was grinding and draining clean. Sink and disposal are both back in service and the homeowner's got a heads-up on what not to put down there going forward.

Homeowner out in Hillsboro Beach called about low water pressure that had been creeping up across the whole house for the past year — not sudden, just getting worse. Inspected the supply lines and found significant calcium scale buildup narrowing the flow inside the older galvanized sections feeding the bathrooms, plus a pressure regulator that was on its way out. Replaced the regulator, cleared the restricted valve connections, and recommended a water softener installation to slow down future mineral accumulation. Pressure is back to where it should be at every fixture.

Homeowner in the Coral Gate community in Margate called after finding the bathroom floor wet every morning even though nobody had showered yet overnight. Suspected a supply line leak but couldn't locate it visually. Used a moisture meter to trace the path and found the source was a slow seep at the toilet supply valve. The braided stainless line had a tiny split right at the compression fitting where it connects to the valve, probably from age and mineral stress on the fitting. Shut off the supply, replaced the line and the angle stop valve while I was in there, and tested under full pressure. Floor's been dry every morning since and the homeowner's not losing sleep over it anymore.

Responded to a home in MiraLago at Parkland where the owner had been dealing with multiple slow drains across two bathrooms and a musty odor near the hall bath for the majority of the month. Fed the camera through the main clean-out and found the original cast iron drain lines under the slab showing significant interior corrosion and partial scale collapse; which is typical for a home built in the mid-'80s in this part of Broward where Florida's acidic groundwater has been working on the metal for 40 years. Walked the owner through what we found, scheduled a full cast iron replacement with PVC, and had the system draining clean and odor-free before we left. They said it was the first time all the drains had worked properly since they moved in.

Got a call from a homeowner near the Pompano Beach Golf Course. They'd noticed a soft, damp patch of grass in the front yard that wasn't going away and the water bill had crept up over several billing cycles. Ran leak detection along the main supply line from the meter to the house and located a crack in the underground copper lateral about 8 feet down, right where the line bends under the driveway edge. Ground movement from the heavy vehicle traffic had stressed the joint over time. Excavated the section, replaced it with new copper with reinforced fittings, compacted the backfill carefully, and pressure-tested before restoring service. The grass will dry out and the bill will come back down.

Arrived at a newer home in the Parkland Bay community in Parkland where the owner had installed a whole-home water softener themselves a couple of years back but was still seeing white scaling on the shower fixtures and getting a chalky taste from the kitchen tap. Inspected the unit and found the resin bed was exhausted and hadn't been regenerating properly because the brine tank had run low on salt for an extended period. Recharged the resin bed, refilled and set the brine tank, recalibrated the regeneration cycle based on the home's actual water usage, and tested hardness levels at the kitchen and master bath. Scaling's going to clear up as the softened water works through the system.

Pulled into a commercial kitchen on Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach after a restaurant manager called saying the prep sink and the floor drain near the fryer station were both draining slow and there was standing water at the end of the shift. Opened up the grease trap and it was well past capacity, baffles coated and the outlet line partially obstructed from accumulated fats and solids. Pumped it out, scraped the interior walls, flushed both inlet and outlet lines, and confirmed proper flow before the next service opened. Got them set up with a maintenance schedule so they don't end up in violation on their next health inspection.

Dispatched to a home in Cape Sable over in Margate where the resident called saying the water heater hadn't been producing enough hot water and she'd been turning the thermostat up higher and higher to compensate. Drained the 40-gallon unit and found a significant amount of calcium sediment packed around both heating elements, which had been insulating them from the water and killing recovery capacity. Flushed the tank completely, replaced the lower element that had burned through from operating dry against the sediment layer, re-calibrated the thermostat to a safe temperature, and confirmed full hot water recovery. The water heater is back to normal, and she doesn't have to scald herself to get a warm shower.

Got called out to a waterfront home in Lighthouse Point where the owner was seeing an unexplained wet area near the base of the exterior wall by the garage and the water meter was ticking even with every fixture shut off inside. Used acoustic detection and a moisture meter to trace the source to a pinhole in the underground copper supply line running along the foundation. Salt air had been attacking the exposed fitting connections on the exterior for years and finally found a weak spot. Excavated the affected section, replaced it with new copper fitted with protective wrap, backfilled, and pressure-tested before restoring service. Meter stopped moving and the wall's drying out.

Responded to an older home in the Broward Highlands neighborhood of Deerfield Beach where the owner had noticed rust-colored water coming from the hot side only. The cold side was clean, but the hot looked like tea. Inspected the water heater and the connected supply lines and found the original cast iron hot water distribution line showing heavy interior corrosion. This is a textbook failure pattern in Broward County homes built before 1970; the acidic groundwater just eats cast iron from the inside until you're essentially running water through rust. Replaced the corroded line with new PVC, flushed the system clean, and verified clear water at every hot tap before wrapping up.