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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5 Typical Household Plumbing Issues and How You Can Fix Them
As a property owner, you will experience many different plumbing issues that periodically make a problem. Doing the repairs yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can save you loads of money.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most typical problem of property owners, with the sink accumulating a great deal of hair, oil, debris, as well as various other substance over time. The only means to get a smooth moving drainpipe again is to remove the particles. Initially, you can make use of a plumbing device for angling out the particles. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky hassle given that the tub is just one of one of the most previously owned components in your shower room. Similar to the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and also other cruds pool in the drainpipe usually. You must stand out open the drainpipe cover as well as use a bathtub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe congests completely. After using the claw, you can pour drain cleaner to freshen the drain lines.
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your family grumbling that there's low tide stress from the sink? Inspect if this concern affects both the chilly and also warm water lines. The trouble is the aerator within the sink which might have a lot of sedimentation resulting in low water pressure if yes. This is extremely simple to take care of as you simply need to take it out and scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be fairly annoying because the storage tank will not fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to wasting water as well as spiking up your water bills. For beginners, find out what's triggering it to run. You may require to change any one of the complying with toilet devices:
Bathroom fill shutoff
Leaking flush valve
Commode flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This frustrating problem is likewise high on the list of typical plumbing problems. If you lose it, you will need an Allen wrench to take care of the problem. You have to go under the sink and also look for the spot where you can place the trick.
You can always call in a plumber to obtain expert support if all of these sound tedious for you. Seeking expert help means saving time and effort. You may even end up saving money in the long run since you can rest assured that your basic plumbing issue will not rise. Just make certain you call a reputable firm with licenses and accreditations due to the fact that you will certainly be welcoming unfamiliar people in your house. Naturally, you have to see to it that you work with somebody you can trust.
As a homeowner, you will certainly come across lots of various plumbing problems that occasionally make a nuisance. Some plumbing concerns are more common as well as can be conveniently fixed. Doing the repair services yourselves on these straightforward plumbing issues can save you bunches of money. You can make use of a plumbing device for fishing out the debris. You may even end up saving money in the lengthy run since you can rest guaranteed that your simple plumbing problem will certainly not intensify.
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