Common Plumbing Concerns: Insights into Frequent Challenges
Common Plumbing Concerns: Insights into Frequent Challenges
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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 as well as How You Can Fix Them
As a homeowner, you will certainly come across various plumbing troubles that sometimes make a problem. Some plumbing concerns are much more common as well as can be conveniently fixed. Doing the repairs yourselves on these easy plumbing problems can save you tons of money. Take a look at 5 of one of the most usual ones listed below:
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most common complaint of house owners, with the sink collecting a great deal of hair, oil, debris, as well as other substance gradually. Regrettably, the only method to get a smooth streaming drain again is to clear the debris. You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the particles. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is another pesky nuisance given that the bathtub is among the most pre-owned fixtures in your washroom. Just like the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and other substances swimming pool in the drain typically. You have to pop open the drainpipe cover and also use a tub claw to remove the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drain blocks entirely. After using the claw, you can put drain cleaner to freshen the drainpipe lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is someone from your family complaining that there's low water pressure from the sink? Inspect if this concern influences both the cool and also warm water lines. If indeed, then the issue is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation causing low tide pressure. This is very easy to fix as you just require to take it out and scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running toilet, which can be quite aggravating because the storage tank will not fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone relates to drainage and surging up your water bills. For beginners, determine what's triggering it to run. You may require to replace any one of the complying with toilet systems:
Toilet fill valve
Dripping flush valve
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying trouble is likewise high on the list of typical plumbing issues. Your device will include a clever trick to unjam your equipment. But if you lose it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to deal with the issue. You have to go under the sink as well as seek the area where you can insert the key. As soon as you identify it, utilize your wrench to turn the maker to free the electric motor. When functioning on your rubbish disposal system to stop unpleasant accidents, don't neglect to turn off the system and cut the circuit breaker.
If every one of these sound tedious for you, you can always call in a plumber to obtain specialist assistance. Looking for expert aid implies conserving time and effort. You might even wind up saving money in the future due to the fact that you can feel confident that your basic plumbing problem will certainly not rise. Due to the fact that you will certainly be inviting unfamiliar people in your house, just make sure you call a reliable business with licenses and also certifications. Obviously, you need to make certain that you collaborate with somebody you can trust.
As a homeowner, you will certainly encounter many various plumbing troubles that sometimes make an annoyance. Some plumbing issues are extra usual and also can be quickly repaired. Doing the repair services yourselves on these simple plumbing troubles can conserve you bunches of cash. You can utilize a plumbing device for angling out the particles. You might also finish up saving money in the lengthy run since you can rest assured that your straightforward plumbing trouble will not rise.
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