Dealing with Common Plumbing Problems: A Practical Approach
Dealing with Common Plumbing Problems: A Practical Approach
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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 services yourselves on these basic plumbing problems can conserve you bunches of cash. As a property owner, you will certainly experience several various plumbing problems that periodically make an annoyance.
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your family complaining that there's low water pressure from the sink? Check if this issue influences both the cool as well as hot water lines. The trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a whole lot of sedimentation resulting in reduced water pressure if of course. This is really simple to repair as you just require to take it out as well as scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be quite irritating because the storage tank will not fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to wasting water and surging up your water bills. For starters, determine what's causing it to run. You might need to replace any one of the adhering to bathroom mechanisms:
Bathroom fill shutoff
Dripping flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This irritating trouble is additionally high on the listing of typical plumbing issues. If you shed it, you will need an Allen wrench to deal with the problem. You have to go under the sink and also look for the place where you can insert the key.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most usual grievance of home owners, with the sink gathering a lot of hair, grease, particles, and also other substance gradually. The only way to obtain a smooth flowing drainpipe once more is to get rid of the debris. You can utilize a plumbing device for fishing out the debris. From there, you can use a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is another pesky hassle given that the bathtub is among one of the most previously owned components in your bathroom. Much like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, as well as other substances pool in the drain usually. You must stand out open the drain cover and use a bathtub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe clogs up entirely. After making use of the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drain lines.
You may even finish up saving money in the long run due to the fact that you can relax guaranteed that your straightforward plumbing problem will certainly not escalate. Just make sure you call a reputable business with licenses and also qualifications since you will be welcoming strangers in your residence.
Some plumbing concerns are extra common and also can be conveniently fixed. Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can conserve you tons of money. As a home owner, you will certainly encounter several different plumbing problems that sometimes make a hassle. You can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. You may also end up conserving cash in the lengthy run due to the fact that you can rest ensured that your straightforward plumbing issue will not escalate.
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