Jorge Ortiz

Direct Answer: A single slow drain is often a local clog you can clear yourself. But multiple drains backing up, recurring blockages, or gurgling sounds point to a deeper problem that needs a professional. The question I hear more than almost any other is some version of this: ‘Do I actually need a plumber, or

Direct Answer: No hot water usually points to a pilot light failure, a faulty thermocouple, an error code on a tankless unit, or a water heater that has simply reached the end of its life. The type of unit you have determines where to start. You turned on the shower and the water never got

Direct Answer: Locate your main water shutoff valve and turn it off. If you smell gas, leave the building immediately and call from outside. Then call a licensed plumber. Most of the damage I see from plumbing emergencies didn’t happen because of the original failure. It happened in the first five minutes, before anyone made

Direct Answer: In Santa Cruz County, the sewer lateral from your house to the public main is your responsibility to maintain and repair — and the City of Santa Cruz requires a licensed inspection before you can sell. Most homeowners in Santa Cruz County have no idea their sewer lateral — the underground pipe that

Direct Answer: California is moving toward phasing out new gas water heater sales, with a statewide target around 2030. Your existing unit can stay until it fails — but if it’s aging, now is the time to understand your options. If you own a home in Watsonville or anywhere in Santa Cruz County, you’ve probably

Direct Answer: One slow drain usually means a localized clog. Multiple drains backing up at the same time almost always points to a main sewer line problem — and that’s a different repair entirely. One of the most common calls we get at Maverick Plumbing is from homeowners who describe their drains as “backing up”

Direct Answer: Turn off every water fixture, then watch your meter. If the dial moves with everything off, you have an active leak somewhere in the system. A water bill that’s higher than last month. The faint sound of running water when every faucet is off. A spot on the living room floor that feels

Direct Answer: A sewer camera inspection shows the inside of your sewer lateral on video — identifying cracks, root intrusion, pipe offsets, and blockages so a plumber knows exactly what’s wrong before any digging starts. If your sewer has backed up twice in the past year, you already know something is off. The question most

Direct Answer: Intermittent hot water, error codes, and cold bursts mid-shower are common tankless water heater problems — but each symptom can point to several different causes, some fixable and some not. I get calls about this more than almost anything else in the water heater category. A homeowner has had a tankless unit for

Direct Answer: Watsonville’s hard water leaves mineral scale inside pipes, which narrows the passage for grease and debris. That buildup is why drains here slow down and clog faster than homeowners expect. Most homeowners in Watsonville assume a slow drain is just a slow drain — a minor annoyance that’ll work itself out or maybe