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 homeowner, you will come across various plumbing issues that periodically make a hassle. Some plumbing problems are much more usual and can be easily repaired. Doing the repair work yourselves on these easy plumbing troubles can save you tons of cash. Have a look at 5 of the most common ones listed below:
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most common issue of house owners, with the sink gathering a great deal of hair, grease, debris, as well as various other crud gradually. Regrettably, the only method to get a smooth moving drainpipe again is to remove the particles. First, you can use a plumbing device for fishing out the particles. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to clean the lines.
Slow-moving Tub Drain
This is one more pesky annoyance since the bathtub is just one of one of the most secondhand fixtures in your shower room. Similar to the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, as well as various other gunk pool in the drain usually. You must pop open the drainpipe cover and also make use of a bathtub claw to clear the particles. Do this ASAP before the drainpipe clogs up entirely. After using the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drainpipe lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is a person from your family grumbling that there's low water pressure from the sink? First, check if this problem influences both the cold and hot water lines. The trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in reduced water pressure if yes. This is very simple to fix as you simply need to take it out as well as scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running toilet, which can be quite frustrating due to the fact that the container will not fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone relates to drainage and also increasing up your water expenses. For starters, find out what's triggering it to run. You may need to replace any one of the adhering to commode devices:
Bathroom fill shutoff
Leaking flush valve
Commode flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying problem is also high up on the checklist of usual plumbing concerns. Your unit will certainly include a great trick to unjam your maker. If you lose it, you will require an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You have to go under the sink and look for the spot where you can insert the secret. Once you identify it, utilize your wrench to turn the machine to release the motor. Don't neglect to shut off the system as well as reduced the circuit breaker when dealing with your waste disposal unit system to prevent nasty mishaps.
You can constantly call in a plumber to get specialist assistance if all of these audio tedious for you. Seeking professional aid means saving time and effort. Because you can rest ensured that your straightforward plumbing problem will not rise, you might even end up saving money in the lengthy run. Due to the fact that you will certainly be welcoming strangers in your home, simply make sure you call a trustworthy firm with qualifications and also licenses. Certainly, you need to make sure that you work with somebody you can trust.
As a property owner, you will certainly experience lots of different plumbing issues that periodically make a hassle. Some plumbing issues are extra usual and also can be easily taken care of. Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can save you lots of money. You can utilize a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. You may even end up conserving money in the long run because you can rest guaranteed that your easy plumbing issue will not escalate.
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