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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Just How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Doing the repair services yourselves on these easy plumbing issues can save you bunches of cash. As a house owner, you will come across numerous different plumbing problems that periodically make a hassle.
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your home grumbling that there's low water stress from the sink? Examine if this concern impacts both the hot and cool water lines. The trouble is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low water stress if indeed. This is extremely simple to fix as you simply require to take it out and also scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running bathroom, which can be quite frustrating because the storage tank will not fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone relates to wasting water as well as increasing up your water bills. For beginners, figure out what's triggering it to run. You may require to change any one of the following bathroom systems:
Bathroom fill valve
Dripping flush valve
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying problem is additionally high on the checklist of common plumbing concerns. Your unit will certainly feature a clever key to unjam your machine. Yet if you lose it, you will require an Allen wrench to fix the trouble. You need to go under the sink as well as search for the area where you can place the key. Utilize your wrench to transform the device to release the electric motor when you find it. Don't fail to remember to switch off the system and reduced the breaker when working on your waste disposal unit system to stop unpleasant accidents.
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most typical issue of home owners, with the sink accumulating a lot of hair, oil, debris, as well as various other crud gradually. However, the only way to get a smooth streaming drainpipe once more is to remove the particles. Initially, you can make use of a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. From there, you can use a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky hassle since the bathtub is among the most pre-owned fixtures in your washroom. Much like the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and various other gunk swimming pool in the drain usually. You have to pop open the drainpipe cover and also utilize a bathtub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP before the drainpipe congests completely. After using the claw, you can pour drain cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
If all of these sound laborious for you, you can always employ a plumber to obtain professional help. Seeking specialist aid implies conserving effort and time. You may also wind up conserving cash in the long run since you can feel confident that your basic plumbing problem will certainly not intensify. Since you will be inviting strangers in your home, just make certain you call a trusted company with licenses and accreditations. Certainly, you have to ensure that you work with someone you can trust.
Some plumbing issues are more typical as well as can be easily fixed. Doing the repair work yourselves on these easy plumbing problems can conserve you tons of cash. As a house owner, you will certainly come across numerous different plumbing problems that occasionally make an annoyance. You can utilize a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. You may even finish up conserving money in the lengthy run because you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing issue will not intensify.
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