Common Plumbing Troubles: A Look at Common Challenges
Common Plumbing Troubles: A Look at Common 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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Just How to Fix Common Household Plumbing Issues
Some plumbing issues are extra common and also can be quickly dealt with. Doing the repair work yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can conserve you tons of cash. As a homeowner, you will come across several plumbing problems that sometimes make an annoyance. Take a look at 5 of one of the most common ones below:
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your household whining that there's low water pressure from the sink? First, examine if this issue affects both the chilly and also hot water lines. The trouble is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low water stress if of course. This is very easy to deal with as you simply require to take it out and scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You may have experienced a running toilet, which can be quite bothersome due to the fact that the storage tank will not fill. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to wasting water as well as surging up your water expenses. For starters, determine what's causing it to run. You might need to replace any of the following toilet systems:
Toilet fill valve
Leaking flush shutoff
Commode flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying issue is also high up on the listing of typical plumbing issues. Your device will certainly include an awesome secret to unjam your machine. If you shed it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to fix the trouble. You have to go under the sink and look for the area where you can put the secret. When you find it, utilize your wrench to transform the machine to release the motor. Do not forget to turn off the system as well as cut the breaker when servicing your waste disposal unit system to avoid awful crashes.
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most usual problem of property owners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, oil, debris, as well as other substance with time. Regrettably, the only means to get a smooth moving drainpipe again is to get rid of the debris. You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is another pesky annoyance given that the bathtub is among the most secondhand fixtures in your restroom. Just like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and also other gunk pool in the drain usually. You should stand out open the drainpipe cover and also use a tub claw to clear the particles. Do this ASAP before the drain congests totally. After using the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drain lines.
You can constantly call in a plumber to obtain specialist assistance if all of these sound tiresome for you. Looking for specialist aid suggests conserving effort and time. Because you can rest assured that your simple plumbing trouble will certainly not escalate, you might even finish up saving cash in the long run. Simply make sure you call a credible business with licenses as well as qualifications since you will certainly be welcoming strangers in your home. Of course, you have to make certain that you deal with someone you can trust.
Some plumbing problems are more typical as well as can be easily taken care of. Doing the repair services yourselves on these easy plumbing issues can save you tons of money. As a property owner, you will certainly experience several various plumbing problems that periodically make a hassle. You can use a plumbing tool for fishing out the particles. You may also finish up saving money in the lengthy run since you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing trouble will certainly not escalate.
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