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 also How You Can Fix Them
As a house owner, you will certainly encounter lots of various plumbing troubles that occasionally make an annoyance. Doing the fixings yourselves on these basic plumbing troubles can conserve you lots of cash.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most usual complaint of house owners, with the sink accumulating a lot of hair, oil, debris, and also other substance with time. Sadly, the only method to obtain a smooth streaming drain again is to remove the particles. First, you can utilize a plumbing device for fishing out the particles. From there, you can use a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky annoyance since the bathtub is one of one of the most pre-owned components in your bathroom. Just like the sink drain, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, as well as various other substances swimming pool in the drain usually. You must pop open the drainpipe cover and use a tub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP before the drainpipe congests totally. After making use of the claw, you can put drain cleaner to refresh the drain lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your household grumbling that there's low water pressure from the sink? Initially, inspect if this problem impacts both the hot and cold water lines. If indeed, after that the trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low tide stress. This is really simple to take care of as you just require to take it out and also scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running commode, which can be quite frustrating because the tank won't load up. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to losing water and spiking up your water costs.
Commode fill valve
Dripping flush shutoff
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This irritating issue is likewise high up on the list of typical plumbing concerns. Your device will include a clever trick to unjam your device. If you lose it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to repair the trouble. You need to go under the sink and try to find the spot where you can place the secret. When you find it, utilize your wrench to transform the maker to release the electric motor. When functioning on your trash disposal system to avoid awful crashes, do not forget to turn off the system and also reduced the circuit breaker.
You might even end up saving money in the lengthy run since you can rest assured that your basic plumbing trouble will not escalate. Just make sure you call a reputable business with licenses and also accreditations because you will be welcoming strangers in your house.
As a home owner, you will come across many different plumbing troubles that occasionally make an annoyance. Some plumbing concerns are extra usual and can be quickly taken care of. Doing the repair services yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can save you bunches of cash. You can utilize a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. You might even end up saving cash in the lengthy run since you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing trouble will certainly not rise.
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