Addressing Typical Plumbing Problems: A Practical Approach
Addressing Typical Plumbing Problems: A Practical Approach
Blog Article
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.
https://www.acehomeaz.com/blog/common-plumbing-problems-older-homes/
Just How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing problems can save you bunches of cash. As a home owner, you will certainly experience several various plumbing problems that occasionally make a nuisance.
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your household whining that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Inspect if this issue affects both the warm as well as cold water lines. If indeed, after that the issue is the aerator within the sink which might have a lot of sedimentation leading to low tide pressure. This is very easy to deal with as you simply need to take it out and also scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running toilet, which can be rather annoying due to the fact that the storage tank won't fill up. At the very same time, leaving it alone equates to throwing away water and also spiking up your water expenses.
Bathroom fill shutoff
Dripping flush shutoff
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This irritating trouble is likewise high up on the list of typical plumbing issues. Your unit will feature an awesome key to unjam your maker. But if you lose it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to take care of the issue. You have to go under the sink and also seek the place where you can put the key. Once you find it, utilize your wrench to transform the maker to release the electric motor. Do not neglect to switch off the system and also reduced the breaker when dealing with your garbage disposal system to stop awful mishaps.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most usual complaint of homeowners, with the sink collecting a great deal of hair, oil, debris, and other crud gradually. The only way to get a smooth moving drainpipe again is to get rid of the debris. Initially, you can use a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. From there, you can use a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky nuisance considering that the bathtub is among the most previously owned fixtures in your restroom. Similar to the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and various other substances pool in the drain usually. You need to stand out open the drainpipe cover and also use a bathtub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP before the drain congests entirely. After utilizing the claw, you can pour drain cleaner to refresh the drainpipe lines.
If every one of these sound laborious for you, you can always contact a plumber to obtain professional aid. Seeking expert aid implies conserving effort and time. You may even end up saving cash in the future due to the fact that you can rest assured that your basic plumbing issue will certainly not rise. Simply make sure you call a reliable company with licenses and also qualifications since you will be welcoming strangers in your house. Of course, you have to ensure that you collaborate with somebody you can trust.
Some plumbing problems are much more common as well as can be easily fixed. Doing the repairs yourselves on these basic plumbing troubles can save you bunches of cash. As a home owner, you will certainly run into numerous various plumbing issues that sometimes make an annoyance. You can use a plumbing device for angling out the debris. You might also finish up saving cash in the lengthy run since you can relax assured that your basic plumbing issue will certainly not escalate.
Do you enjoy reading up on DIY Plumbing Fixes? Write a remark further down. We'd be delighted to find out your insights about this blog post. We hope that you come back again before long. I beg you take the time to distribute this post if you liked it. Thanks a bunch for your time. Visit us again soon.
Book Services Report this page