Understanding Typical Plumbing Challenges: Pro Advice
Understanding Typical Plumbing Challenges: Pro Advice
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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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Exactly How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Doing the repair work yourselves on these easy plumbing troubles can save you lots of cash. As a house owner, you will certainly encounter several different plumbing issues that periodically make a nuisance.
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your household grumbling that there's low water pressure from the sink? If yes, then the problem is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low water pressure.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be fairly annoying since the storage tank won't fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to wasting water and also spiking up your water bills. For beginners, identify what's causing it to run. You may need to change any of the complying with commode mechanisms:
Toilet fill shutoff
Dripping flush valve
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This bothersome problem is likewise high on the listing of common plumbing concerns. Your system will certainly come with a nifty secret to unjam your machine. If you shed it, you will certainly require an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You have to go under the sink as well as try to find the area where you can insert the trick. When you detect it, use your wrench to transform the machine to release the electric motor. Do not neglect to shut off the system and also cut the circuit breaker when dealing with your garbage disposal system to prevent awful mishaps.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most common problem of home owners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, oil, debris, and other crud in time. However, the only way to obtain a smooth streaming drainpipe once again is to get rid of the debris. You can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to clean the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is one more pesky hassle given that the bathtub is among one of the most pre-owned fixtures in your bathroom. Similar to the sink drain, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, and also various other substances swimming pool in the drainpipe usually. You must pop open the drainpipe cover and utilize a tub claw to get rid of the particles. Do this ASAP before the drain clogs up completely. After using the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drain lines.
You might even end up conserving money in the long run because you can relax ensured that your simple plumbing issue will not intensify. Simply make sure you call a trustworthy company with licenses and qualifications since you will be welcoming unfamiliar people in your home.
Some plumbing issues are more usual and can be easily dealt with. Doing the repairs yourselves on these straightforward plumbing problems can conserve you loads of cash. As a home owner, you will come across several different plumbing troubles that occasionally make a nuisance. You can use a plumbing tool for fishing out the particles. You may even end up conserving money in the lengthy run due to the fact that you can rest ensured that your basic plumbing issue will certainly not escalate.
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