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Sink discoloration from water is caused by any of a number of different kinds of minerals in hard water, including iron and manganese. To avoid the staining that hard water can cause, install a water softener to remove minerals from the water as it enters your home. Rusty pipes can also cause discoloration, and may be the culprit if only one sink is stained.

This depends on how old your home is and residential construction norms where you live. Most modern homes have outdoor shut-off valves, but many older homes have the water meter indoors. You're most likely to find this valve in the basement or utility closet if it's indoors. If you have an outdoor shut-off valve, it should be somewhere on the perimeter of your home.

A back pressure valve is a control valve used on production vessels, such as separators, treaters, and free water knockouts. The valve holds pressure until a set point is reached, and then releases upstream pressure to reset. Back pressure valves are not safety mechanisms. Instead, they are regulators designed to keep the fluid, gas, or liquid mixture in a system at a certain pressure level to prevent bursts and other incidents.

Meanwhile, a backflow preventer is a safety mechanism that kicks in when the pressure has already failed and contaminated water flows in the reverse direction. Most backflow preventers consist of two one-way valves, or check valves assembled together. This design only allows water to pass through in one direction but not the other.

The time it takes to fix a burst pipe depends on the location and severity of the problem. A minor burst can be cleared up in a day. But if more than one pipe burst or cracked, or the source of the burst and leak is more complex, it can take a week or longer for a licensed local plumber to fix it.