Repair issues like these are the same as for any tap or faucet. A dripping tap usual requires a replacement washer or valve cartridge, just as with any other tap or faucet in your home.

Every home serviced by a municipal water supply will have a pipe entering the house (typically a 3/4” diameter line in the basement), a shutoff valve and a water meter. It’s not enough to just find the valve, but actually try closing it. Most main valves are round knobs that close with clockwise rotation. Try closing the valve to make sure it hasn’t gotten too stiff to move.

If your home is serviced by a private water system, you are responsible for maintaining the pump, pipes, switches, valves, gauge and pressure tank. Has your water stopped flowing? Check to make sure the fuse or breaker supplying the pump isn’t tripped. Replace or reset as needed. All private water systems should also have a pressure gauge near the pressure tank. If the gauge shows pressure between 30 pound-force per square inch (psi) and 60 psi, your system is delivering water. Call a plumber familiar with private water systems for help.

Washing machines are the only appliance that connects to water supply pipes with two short hoses that have female garden hose fittings on both ends. One hose threads onto the hot water supply pipe valve and hot water inlet port on the washing machine, and the other hose connects to the cold supply valve and the cold water inlet port on the washer. All four of these connections require washers and sufficient tightness for leak-free operation. If any of these connections are dripping water, use a pair of pliers to tighten the fittings clockwise no more than 1/8 turn past finger tight. This can be a bit tricky, so it’s recommended that only handy homeowners try this themselves. If the leak persists, shut off the water supply valve, unscrew the garden hose fitting completely, replace the washer, then do the connection back up again, snugged up with pliers.

Assuming the rest of our house has sufficient water pressure, a lack of water at the washing machine could be caused by two things. Most modern washing machines shut themselves down and display a warning code if insufficient water pressure is present. Check to make sure both hot and cold water supply valves are turned all the way ON. Most washing machines also have a screen filter where the water supply hoses connect. Shut off the water supply to the washer, remove the garden hose fittings from the machine, then look inside the port for debris on the inlet screens. Use tweezers and a toothpick to remove the debris. If you have hard water, mineral build up could also be partially blocking the filter screen. Apply vinegar to the filter screen with a spray bottle, let it sit for 30 minutes to dissolve the build up, then use an old tooth brush to remove the minerals. Re-establish the hose connections, turn on the water and test washing machine operation. If your washing machine still displays a code for insufficient water, remove the hoses from the washer again, put the ends in a bucket, then turn the water ON to check flow rate and pressure. If both hot and cold flow seems normal, call an appliance repair technician to look at your washer. If water flow and pressure really are low, have a plumber investigate the cause.

If you see water bubbling up from the main floor drain in your basement, it’s a serious issue. This could be caused by a blockage in the main drain pipe leaving your house, or the entire municipal system could be saturated. This happens most often after heavy rains and will cause sewage to back up in some or all homes in the neighbourhood. If the problem is isolated to your home only, call a plumber and avoid flushing toilets or putting any water down the drain until the problem is resolved. If the problem is caused by a saturation of the municipal system, there’s nothing much anyone can do until the wet conditions subside. The ultimate protection against sewage backup is to have a backwater valve installed on your main drain pipe in the basement floor. This one-way valve allows waste water to leave your home, but not to come back inside.

There are two kinds of outdoor taps: one operates in all four seasons, even during cold winter weather. The other outdoor tap is a three-season installation that only operates when temperatures are above freezing. The year-round tap has a valve inside the home with a long handle mechanism that extends to a knob outdoors. When you turn the valve ON or OFF, you’re turning a shaft that controls the valve that’s inside where it’s above freezing. You know you have a year-round outdoor tap if you can see an air vent extension off the top of the valve, just behind the valve handle. In order to work properly during winter, the water in this year-round valve must be able to drain out completely. Nothing can be connected to it. This is necessary to allow water inside the valve to drain out immediately after use. If you leave, say, a garden hose connected to a year-round tap, trapped water will freeze inside the valve and break it.

Every three-season outdoor tap needs to be drained in the fall, then re-activated in the spring. Start by finding and shutting off the shut-off valve controlling the tap. This is typically in the basement or some other heated part of the home. Next, go outside and open the outdoor tap all the way. Go back indoors, then find and open the small drain cap on the body of the shutoff valve, if your valve has a drain. Opening this drain cap allows the water in the pipe to come out, emptying that portion of the pipe that extends outdoors. Have a small container ready to catch the water as it comes out of the open drain cap. turn the shutoff valve back ON.

A heat recovery ventilator (HRV) is a permanently installed ventilation appliance that’s now common in new home construction. During operation in winter, HRVs generate internal condensation that must drain away. A plastic tube extending from the bottom of the HRV is the usual approach. The amount of condensed water generated is not large, but it can leak from a faulty connection between the tubing and HRV. Also, the tubing can sometimes get plugged, preventing proper draining from the HRV.