Common Plumbing Problems: What to Expect
Common Plumbing Problems: What to Expect
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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 come across many different plumbing issues that periodically make a nuisance. Some plumbing concerns are extra common and can be easily repaired. Doing the repair work yourselves on these straightforward plumbing problems can conserve you tons of money. Have a look at 5 of the most common ones below:
Slow Draining Sink
You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drain cleaner to clean the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky nuisance given that the bathtub is just one of the most used components in your bathroom. Much like the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and also other cruds swimming pool in the drainpipe typically. You should pop open the drainpipe cover as well as use a bathtub claw to clear the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drain clogs up entirely. After making use of the claw, you can put drain cleaner to revitalize the drainpipe lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your household grumbling that there's low tide stress from the sink? Check if this problem affects both the cool and also warm water lines. The issue is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in reduced water pressure if of course. 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 might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be quite frustrating because the tank won't fill. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to drainage and surging up your water bills. For beginners, figure out what's creating it to run. You might need to change any one of the adhering to toilet devices:
Bathroom fill valve
Dripping flush shutoff
Commode flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This frustrating trouble is also high on the listing of common plumbing issues. If you shed it, you will require an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You have to go under the sink as well as look for the place where you can insert the key.
If every one of these sound laborious for you, you can always call a plumber to get expert support. Seeking expert help means saving effort and time. Because you can relax guaranteed that your simple plumbing issue will not escalate, you might even finish up saving cash in the lengthy run. Just make sure you call a reliable company with licenses and also accreditations due to the fact that you will rate strangers in your house. Naturally, you have to ensure that you work with someone you can rely on.
As a homeowner, you will certainly experience several different plumbing troubles that sometimes make a hassle. Some plumbing issues are a lot more typical and also can be conveniently taken care of. Doing the repairs yourselves on these easy plumbing issues can conserve you loads of money. You can utilize a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. You might even finish up saving cash in the long run since you can relax ensured that your straightforward plumbing problem will certainly not escalate.
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