Understanding Common Plumbing Issues: A Complete Guide
Understanding Common Plumbing Issues: A Complete Guide
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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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How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can conserve you heaps of money. As a homeowner, you will encounter numerous various plumbing troubles that periodically make a problem.
Low Water Pressure
Is a person from your home complaining that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Initially, inspect if this concern influences both the cold and hot water lines. If indeed, after that the trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation leading to low water stress. This is extremely easy to take care of as you simply need to take it out and also scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running commode, which can be quite aggravating because the storage tank will not load up. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to throwing away water and surging up your water costs.
Toilet fill valve
Dripping flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This aggravating issue is likewise high on the listing of typical plumbing issues. If you lose it, you will need an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You have to go under the sink and look for the spot where you can insert the key.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most typical grievance of house owners, with the sink gathering a lot of hair, oil, particles, as well as other gunk with time. The only way to obtain a smooth streaming drain once more is to remove the debris. You can utilize a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. From there, you can use a store-bought drain cleaner to clean the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky nuisance because the tub is among the most pre-owned fixtures in your restroom. Similar to the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, as well as other substances swimming pool in the drain frequently. You have to pop open the drainpipe cover as well as make use of a tub claw to get rid of the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drain blocks totally. After making use of the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drain lines.
You can constantly call in a plumber to obtain professional aid if all of these sound tedious for you. Seeking expert aid suggests saving time and effort. Because you can relax assured that your basic plumbing problem will certainly not rise, you might even end up saving money in the long run. Simply make sure you call a trusted business with licenses as well as accreditations since you will be welcoming complete strangers in your house. Naturally, you need to see to it that you collaborate with somebody you can trust.
Some plumbing issues are extra typical and can be conveniently taken care of. Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can save you tons of cash. As a home owner, you will encounter several various plumbing issues that sometimes make a hassle. You can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. You might even end up conserving cash in the long run due to the fact that you can relax ensured that your simple plumbing trouble will certainly not rise.
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