Common Plumbing Problems Demystified: What You Should Understand
Common Plumbing Problems Demystified: What You Should Understand
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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 homeowner, you will certainly come across various plumbing problems that periodically make a hassle. Some plumbing problems are extra usual as well as can be conveniently dealt with. Doing the repair services yourselves on these easy plumbing problems can conserve you tons of money. Take a look at 5 of one of the most common ones below:
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most typical complaint of house owners, with the sink gathering a lot of hair, grease, debris, as well as other crud in time. Regrettably, the only method to obtain a smooth flowing drainpipe once again is to remove the particles. First, you can use a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. From there, you can use a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky annoyance because the bathtub is one of the most previously owned fixtures in your restroom. Much like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, as well as other cruds swimming pool in the drainpipe frequently. You need to pop open the drainpipe cover as well as make use of a bathtub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe blocks totally. After making use of the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your household complaining that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Inspect if this problem impacts both the hot as well as chilly water lines. If indeed, then the issue is the aerator within the sink which may have a lot of sedimentation causing low water pressure. This is very simple to fix as you simply require to take it out and scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running commode, which can be quite irritating since the container won't load up. At the exact same time, leaving it alone equates to throwing away water and spiking up your water bills.
Toilet fill shutoff
Leaking flush shutoff
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This bothersome issue is additionally high on the listing of typical plumbing concerns. If you lose it, you will certainly require an Allen wrench to take care of the problem. You have to go under the sink and look for the place where you can place the key.
You might even finish up saving money in the long run due to the fact that you can relax guaranteed that your straightforward plumbing issue will certainly not rise. Simply make sure you call a reliable business with licenses as well as certifications due to the fact that you will certainly be inviting strangers in your residence.
As a homeowner, you will run into several different plumbing problems that periodically make a hassle. Some plumbing issues are much more usual and also can be easily fixed. Doing the fixings yourselves on these easy plumbing troubles can save you bunches of cash. You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. You might even finish up conserving money in the lengthy run since you can rest ensured that your easy plumbing trouble will not rise.
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