MOST COMMON PLUMBING PROBLEMS IN OLDER HOMES
Galvanized Pipes
The galvanic process means coating an iron pipe with molten zinc to prevent the iron from corroding. The zinc lasts a while, but not forever. As the zinc erodes, the exposed iron begins to rust. This can cause pipes to fail, but the warning signal is easy to spot: Your water will become discolored from the rust in it.
The answer is to have galvanized pipes professionally replaced by modern alternatives, such as copper or PEX (Cross-Linked Polyethylene). A well-trained plumber and assistant can perform this work in relatively short time, ensuring a constant water pressure, no odd taste or color to your water and no leaks.
Pipe Bellies
As your Phoenix home rises and falls in its surrounding soil, the pipes leading into your home will rise and fall, too. When they buckle or bow, they form a pipe belly, a low spot that defies gravity’s pull on sewage. While this settling occurs slowly, you will eventually notice poor drainage, slow-flushing toilets and, ultimately, a clogged sewer line.
Similar to pipe bellies are pipe channeling, where hard water carves its own channel in the bottom of a sewer pipe, rendering it very weak.
Polybutylene Pipe
Once thought of as a great water pipe product, polybutylene pipe (PB) was used from the late ’70s into the early ’90s because of its low cost and easy installation. It breaks down with exposure to water and water’s dissolved solids, so it is not acceptable anymore. As time goes on, homeowners experience more and more polybutylene pipe problems.
If you have an entire house piped in PB, you need the services of an experienced local plumber to replace every run, every elbow and tee, and every connection to fixtures throughout your house. Otherwise a leak could destroy furniture, furnishings, flooring and more.
Sewer Lines
Sewers and sewer lines are definitely at the top of a lot of people’s old house plumbing problems. Sewer lines take your home’s gray and black water from drains to the sewer main, where it travels on to a municipal treatment plant. Sewer lines are always wet, so they attract tree roots. Cast iron pipes are particularly susceptible to cracking and intrusion by tree roots, which can completely clog a line.
Professional plumbers can send a camera into your home’s sewer pipe to diagnose channeling and bellies, and they can find and fix tree roots that clog your pipe. This is a much more affordable option than the disgusting and expensive issues created by a sewer backing up.
Drains
Fifty years of draining water, soap scum, sewage and shampoo can take a toll on your older Phoenix home’s drains. Clogs develop in pipes in all drains, but toilet, kitchen, and bathroom sink drains are particularly prone to clogs.
Toilets are infamous targets for children, fascinated by the disappearing act. While you may never know a small action figure or toy car went down the toilet, you will know a backed-up toilet when it strikes. A small item could start a very slow-building clog.
Kitchen sink drains also tend to accept things that should not go down the drain, like kitchen fats, bits of food that should go through a sink strainer and even bone. You can do your part, of course, by keeping waste out of the kitchen sink or having a garbage disposal installed, but in an older home you will not know what others have stuffed down there before you.
Original Fixtures
While some original fixtures are notably sturdier and of better quality than their corresponding modern fixtures, many older ones simply wear out with time. Washers and valves degrade and cause leaks. Stems and handles break. If your home still has its original spigots, faucets, handles and valves, you may not notice the tiny leaks that lead to higher water bills and unpleasant smells.
A worry spot in any home is the shut-off valve for a toilet. This little-used valve attaches where the rigid pipe exits the wall, down below the tank, and a flexible metal and plastic tube connects the water supply to the tank. That shut-off valve can get stuck in its typical, open position, so any attempt to close it may actually cause it to leak. A trained plumber can replace not only the flexible tube to the toilet tank, but the antiquated or stuck shut-off valve. This means you never have to worry about turning off the water to the toilet should a bowl clog cause your toilet to back up.
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How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Doing the repairs yourselves on these basic plumbing troubles can save you tons of money. As a homeowner, you will experience lots of different plumbing issues that sometimes make a nuisance.
Low Water Pressure
Is a person from your family complaining that there's low water stress from the sink? Inspect if this issue influences both the hot as well as cool water lines. The problem is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low water stress if yes. This is really simple to deal with as you just require to take it out as well as scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running toilet, which can be rather irritating because the container won't fill. At the same time, leaving it alone relates to wasting water and also spiking up your water expenses. For beginners, determine what's triggering it to run. You might need to replace any of the following bathroom devices:
Bathroom fill shutoff
Dripping flush valve
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This bothersome problem is also high on the listing of usual plumbing concerns. Your device will come with an awesome secret to unjam your machine. If you lose it, you will require an Allen wrench to take care of the problem. You need to go under the sink and also try to find the area where you can place the key. Once you spot it, use your wrench to transform the device to release the electric motor. When working on your rubbish disposal system to protect against horrible mishaps, do not fail to remember to turn off the system and cut the circuit breaker.
Slow Draining Sink
You can use a plumbing device for fishing out the particles. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
Simply like the sink drain, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, as well as various other gunk pool in the drain commonly. After making use of the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drainpipe lines.
You can constantly call in a plumber to obtain expert support if all of these sound laborious for you. Seeking specialist assistance implies saving effort and time. Due to the fact that you can rest assured that your straightforward plumbing problem will not escalate, you might also finish up saving money in the long run. Just ensure you call a respectable company with licenses as well as certifications due to the fact that you will be welcoming unfamiliar people in your home. Obviously, you need to see to it that you work with somebody you can rely on.
Some plumbing concerns are much more typical and also can be easily repaired. Doing the repair services yourselves on these easy plumbing troubles can conserve you tons of cash. As a property owner, you will come across lots of various plumbing troubles that periodically make a hassle. You can use a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. You may even end up saving money in the lengthy run because you can rest guaranteed that your basic plumbing problem will not rise.
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