Why do I need to get my back flow preventer tested? A back flow preventer is used to prevent contaminated water to enter into public drinking water or into your buildings water supply. The reason for the test is to make sure your device is protecting your water and your neighbors water. These test can be required once a year or more depending on the contamination risk of your building. My water heater makes a crackling sound some times after I take a shower or when I run hot water, why? This is caused by a lime build up inside the water heater. This build up could cause your water heater to go out and start leaking. There are two ways to keep this from happening. Drain your water heater on a regular basis or install a water softener to get rid of the lime deposit. There is a valve coming off my water heater that is draining water. What do I do? This is called a temperature and pressure relief valve. This is a safety control for your water heater do not cap this valve off. When the pressure builds up inside your water heater past the setting of the valve it starts leaking. If you cap off the valve your water heater could blow up. This has happened several times. It even happened in San Antonio. The pressure build up can be caused by high water pressure or a house on a closed system with out a thermal expansion tank. If you install a pressure reducing valve you need a thermal expansion tank to accommodate the expansion of the water in your hot water heater being heated. I have foundation issues is it because of a plumbing leak? Yes it could be from your plumbing or your plumbing could be broken because of your foundation or you might not have a plumbing problem at all. All houses that were built on a slab have water and sewer pipes under the slab. There is a static test(sewer) and a hydro static test(water) that can be performed to find out if the piping under your slab is working. A static test consists of filling up all the sewer pipes to see if they hold water. A hydro static test is pressurizing the water system to see if there is a leak on the water system. I want a water softer but I heard the softer puts salt in the water and I dont want salt in my water. Water softeners pull the lime out of the water and replace it with salt or potassium. All softeners can use salt or potassium. The amount of salt or potash is about 2 aspirin per gallon of water so there is not a lot of salt in your drinking water.