Water heater repair in Birmingham, AL

Reservoir water from the Birmingham Water Works

The Birmingham Water Works serves the city and a wide ring of Jefferson, Shelby and Blount county communities from several surface supplies. Lake Purdy, impounded on the Little Cahaba south of Irondale, and the Cahaba River itself feed the southern side of the system, while Inland Lake up in Blount County sends water down from the north. The Shades Mountain filter plant and the treatment works serving Lake Purdy are two of the facilities that clean that water before it heads through the hills to Birmingham taps.

Because the supply is mostly rain-fed reservoir and river water rather than deep wells, it tends toward the softer end for Alabama. That spares Birmingham tanks the heavy white scale seen in parts of the Tennessee Valley. The tradeoff is silt: after a wet spring, fine sediment that slips past treatment collects as a brown layer in the tank, and softer water can also chew through a magnesium anode a little faster than owners expect.

Water service lines and mains climb and drop with the terrain, so pressure varies a lot from a valley street in Ensley to a ridge-top home in Redmont. High pressure on low-lying streets is hard on relief valves and tank seams, and an expansion tank or pressure-reducing valve is worth checking on any Birmingham heater that keeps dripping from the discharge pipe.

Hillside basements, bungalows and post-war ranches

Neighborhoods that grew with the steel mills and streetcar lines, including Highland Park, Forest Park, Glen Iris, Avondale, Crestwood and Norwood, are full of Craftsman bungalows, foursquares and Tudor revivals built into slopes. Many of them have a walk-out or partial basement on the downhill side, and the heater stands on a damp concrete floor next to the furnace, sometimes beside an old coal chute that was bricked shut decades ago.

Redmont Park and the streets climbing Red Mountain hold larger homes on steep lots where getting a 50-gallon tank down narrow exterior stairs takes two people and patience. Out in Roebuck, East Lake, Huffman and Center Point, mid-century brick ranches more often sit on crawlspaces with the heater in a hall closet, a utility room or a carport storage room.

Loft conversions downtown and around Southside and Lakeview usually rely on compact electric tanks in closets or small tankless units, which brings its own repair pattern, mostly elements, thermostats and breaker trips rather than gas controls.

Storms, tornadoes and humid summers

The April 27, 2011 outbreak sent a long-track tornado through Pratt City, Concord and Pleasant Grove, and Birmingham families still treat spring storm season seriously. Water heaters in damaged homes need inspection before use, because twisted gas piping, a dislodged flue or a cracked tank can follow a storm even when the house looks repairable. Power surges from summer lightning also take out electric elements and the electronic controls on newer gas units.

Birmingham basements stay humid much of the year. Rust forms quickly on the steel jacket, the burner door and the bottom of the tank where condensation pools, and a corroded combustion chamber is one of the more common reasons a gas heater here stops lighting reliably. Winters are mild most years, yet a hard freeze every few seasons cracks supply lines in crawlspaces and carport closets in the east and west suburbs.

The problems plumbers see most in Birmingham

• Rusted burner chambers on gas tanks in damp hillside basements in Avondale and Crestwood.
• Silt-filled tanks that start to knock after a few rainy years on reservoir water.
• Dripping relief valves on low-elevation streets where line pressure runs high.
• Back-drafting flues in bungalows where an orphaned masonry chimney now serves only the heater.
• Burned elements in downtown loft closets after a surge or a dry-fired restart.
• Frozen supply lines to carport-room heaters in Roebuck and Center Point ranches.

Typical water heater prices in Birmingham

Birmingham labor rates land in the middle for the Southeast, a little under Atlanta. The jobs that climb to the top of a range here are almost always about access, a heater wedged behind the furnace at the bottom of an outside basement stair, or a bungalow whose clay-lined chimney cannot safely vent a new tank and needs a liner or a different heater.

Permits and licensing in Birmingham

Inside the city, a replacement heater calls for a permit through Birmingham's Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, and an inspector checks the relief line, gas connection, venting and the stand or strapping. Homewood, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and the other municipalities over the mountain run separate building departments, so the right office depends on which side of a city line your house sits.

Statewide, the examining board for plumbers and gas fitters in Montgomery issues the certificates a Birmingham contractor needs. A plumber can handle the water side, but connecting or relighting a gas tank on a Spire line properly belongs to someone holding gas fitter credentials too. It is reasonable to ask for both certificate numbers when you get a quote.

Venting older Birmingham chimneys

Many pre-1950 homes in Glen Iris, Highland Park and Five Points South once had a coal furnace and a gas heater sharing one brick flue. Later furnace upgrades moved combustion out through PVC in the side wall, stranding the heater by itself in a flue built for far more exhaust. Exhaust cools before it can rise, and condensation can eat away the mortar and the vent connector.

Signs include soot at the draft hood, a rusty vent pipe, or a carbon monoxide alarm that chirps on cold mornings. Fixes range from a properly sized stainless liner to a power-vent tank or a sealed-combustion unit, and a plumber should test draft with the heater firing before recommending one.

Keeping a heater healthy on reservoir water

On Birmingham Water Works supply, the main enemy inside the tank is silt rather than hard scale. Drain a couple of buckets from the valve at the base each fall, before cold-weather demand peaks, and watch for cloudy brown water. If the drain clogs immediately, that is a sign a full professional flush is overdue. See the flush guide for what that involves.

Softer water consumes the sacrificial anode faster than hard water does, so a tank in Crestwood may eat its rod sooner than a similar one in Decatur. Pulling the anode for a look at the halfway point of the warranty is cheap insurance. In basements, keep boxes and paint cans away from the burner and leave the floor around the heater clear so a slow leak shows up early.

Repair or replace in Birmingham

A gas tank under about eight years old with a bad thermocouple, valve or relief valve is generally worth fixing. Once a basement tank shows rust weeping from the seam or the combustion chamber has rotted, replacement is the sensible move, because no part fixes a failing shell. Hillside basements with tough access make a planned swap far less stressful than an emergency one on a Saturday night. Ask whether Alabama Power or Spire is running an efficiency offer, as both have at times, before you settle on a new heater.

Around Birmingham

Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills sit over Red Mountain on Water Works supply, each with its own building inspector and plenty of older basement homes. Hoover spans Jefferson and Shelby counties and permits work through its own office. Trussville has its own gas utility for many homes, and Bessemer runs its own water system. Irondale, Pelham and Gardendale each issue permits locally, so a heater swap just across a line may follow different rules.

Water heater questions from Birmingham