Plumbing in Maine is wells, ledge, septic, and pipes that freeze in ells the heat forgets. Coastal houses add salt air at the hose bibs and basements that take water in a driving storm. Inland houses from Augusta to Aroostook add a deeper, longer freeze. Galvanized pipe clogs and stains. Old metal services still enter cellars in town. Say well or street, and whether the house is heated every night of the winter.
A gurgle is often a vent. A pump dead after a power cut is not a clog in the trap. Septic smells and wet spots in the yard belong in the call, and ledge may mean the field is not where a new owner thinks it is. Hose bibs split and confess later. Know the shutoff. A stiff valve may weep the first time it turns. Do not sand an old metal line. Note its color and any change after street work.
A radiator leak is heat piping. A leak under the lavatory is supply or waste. In a cape the stain may be in the crawl. Heat that never reaches the ell is why that ell freezes, so mention the boiler or the stove when you describe the ice. Sump pumps on the coast run hard when a storm drives water at the foundation, and a discharge aimed at the sill only soaks the wood the ants will find. Say where the water shows up.
A rocking toilet has started a leak into the floor. Kitchen stacks clog when a camp becomes a daily house. Island and peninsula calls should mention access, because a part that is an hour away on a calm day is not an hour away in a blow. Mud and frost change when a line in the yard can be dug. If the ceiling is active tonight, that is the fact to lead with.
Name the town, the water source, and the symptom. Freeze, leak, clog, no water, or backup. Mention septic and whether a storm changes the water. Call the number on this page.