Typical Plumbing Issues Demystified: What You Need to Know
Typical Plumbing Issues Demystified: What You Need to Know
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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
Some plumbing problems are more typical as well as can be easily fixed. Doing the repair services yourselves on these easy plumbing troubles can conserve you lots of money. As a home owner, you will certainly come across many different plumbing troubles that sometimes make a hassle. Have a look at 5 of the most usual ones listed below:
Low Water Pressure
Is somebody from your house whining that there's reduced water pressure from the sink? If yes, then the issue is the aerator within the sink which might have a lot of sedimentation resulting in reduced water pressure.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running bathroom, which can be fairly bothersome due to the fact that the container won't fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to drainage and spiking up your water bills. For beginners, figure out what's triggering it to run. You may need to replace any of the complying with toilet devices:
Commode fill shutoff
Dripping flush shutoff
Commode flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This aggravating problem is also high up on the list of usual plumbing concerns. Your unit will certainly include a cool trick to unjam your equipment. If you lose it, you will need an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You need to go under the sink as well as seek the area where you can insert the secret. When you detect it, utilize your wrench to turn the machine to release the electric motor. When functioning on your garbage disposal system to prevent awful crashes, don't forget to turn off the system and cut the circuit breaker.
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most typical issue of house owners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, oil, debris, as well as other substance over time. Regrettably, the only way to get a smooth streaming drainpipe again is to remove the debris. First, you can utilize a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drain cleaner to clean the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky nuisance because the bathtub is just one of the most previously owned components in your shower room. Similar to the sink drainpipe, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, as well as other substances swimming pool in the drain frequently. You have to pop open the drain cover and also make use of a tub claw to remove the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drain clogs up entirely. After using the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
You can always call in a plumber to obtain specialist aid if all of these audio tedious for you. Looking for expert aid implies conserving effort and time. You might even wind up conserving cash in the long run due to the fact that you can feel confident that your straightforward plumbing problem will certainly not rise. Simply make certain you call a credible business with licenses and accreditations because you will certainly rate unfamiliar people in your home. Of course, you need to see to it that you deal with someone you can rely on.
Some plumbing problems are more common and also can be easily taken care of. Doing the repairs yourselves on these straightforward plumbing troubles can save you bunches of money. As a house owner, you will certainly come across lots of various plumbing problems that sometimes make an annoyance. You can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. You might even finish up saving cash in the long run due to the fact that you can relax assured that your straightforward plumbing issue will certainly not escalate.
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