4 plumbing tasks best left to the pros

While certain tasks are within the domain of handy homeowners, others are best left to the professionals. Avoid disaster and potentially catastrophic expenses by leaving these four plumbing tasks to trained professionals.

A layperson may not be well-versed in all the latest local and national regulations but keeping up with them is a plumber's job. If you're remodelling your kitchen or running a gas line through your backyard for a new grill, a plumber can help you navigate the permit world without incurring extra time or costs.

Your pipes are frozen -- time to break out the hair dryer? Not if you want to turn a small problem into a major one. If thawed too quickly or in the wrong way, pipes can crack or burst. A plumber understands the best methods for thawing frozen pipes, so step away from that hairdryer and pick up the phone instead.

While you may be tempted to consult the Internet, grab a wrench, and get to work, you could be setting yourself up for a much bigger problem. There's no one simple issue that leads to low water pressure. Potential causes are many, and trying to troubleshoot the issue without access to the right information can be tedious and unproductive work.

This also applies to situations when you suddenly run out of hot water. While a leaking tank can tip you off to the source of the problem, often there's no evidence of the cause, leaving uneducated homeowners taking potentially dangerous shots in the dark.

A toilet backing up into a bathtub, sink or shower can encourage people to rush to an immediate and easy fix. Attempting to fix the problem yourself can lead to even more damage, particularly when the average homeowner doesn't have access to the equipment and tools necessary to get the job done. While it's costly to call in a professional for a main line replacement, it's less expensive than dealing with the cost of fixing a job gone wrong.