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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Exactly How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Some plumbing concerns are more usual and also can be easily fixed. Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can conserve you lots of money. As a homeowner, you will certainly run into many different plumbing issues that periodically make a problem. Have a look at 5 of one of the most typical ones below:
Low Tide Pressure
Is someone from your household grumbling that there's low water pressure from the sink? First, examine if this problem influences both the cold and also warm water lines. If of course, then the trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation causing low water stress. This is extremely easy to take care of as you simply need to take it out and scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running toilet, which can be fairly frustrating due to the fact that the storage tank won't fill. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to drainage and surging up your water expenses. For beginners, determine what's causing it to run. You might require to change any one of the adhering to bathroom mechanisms:
Toilet fill valve
Dripping flush valve
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This irritating problem is also high on the checklist of common plumbing concerns. Your unit will include a cool secret to unjam your maker. If you shed it, you will certainly require an Allen wrench to fix the issue. You have to go under the sink as well as search for the area where you can put the trick. When you identify it, utilize your wrench to transform the machine to free the motor. Don't fail to remember to switch off the system as well as reduced the circuit breaker when servicing your waste disposal unit system to prevent awful mishaps.
Slow Draining Sink
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 Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky nuisance because the bathtub is one of the most secondhand components in your bathroom. Just like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, as well as other gunk swimming pool in the drainpipe commonly. You have to stand out open the drain cover as well as utilize a tub claw to remove the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe blocks entirely. After utilizing the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
You can constantly call in a plumber to get professional assistance if all of these audio tiresome for you. Seeking professional help suggests conserving effort and time. You may also end up conserving cash over time because you can feel confident that your easy plumbing trouble will certainly not escalate. Since you will certainly be welcoming complete strangers in your home, just make sure you call a trustworthy company with licenses and certifications. Certainly, you have to ensure that you deal with somebody you can rely on.
Some plumbing problems are more usual and also can be easily taken care of. Doing the fixings yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can conserve you lots of money. As a property owner, you will certainly come across lots of various plumbing issues that sometimes make an annoyance. You can make use of a plumbing device for fishing out the debris. You may also end up conserving money in the lengthy run because you can relax guaranteed that your simple plumbing problem will not intensify.
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