What to Address Frequent Plumbing Problems: A Practical Approach
What to Address Frequent 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
Some plumbing issues are more usual and also can be easily fixed. Doing the repairs yourselves on these basic plumbing issues can save you lots of money. As a property owner, you will certainly run into various plumbing issues that occasionally make a nuisance. Take a look at 5 of one of the most typical ones below:
Low Tide Pressure
Is somebody from your household grumbling that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Examine if this concern affects both the warm and also cold water lines. If indeed, after that the problem is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation leading to low tide stress. This is extremely easy to repair as you simply require to take it out as well as scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running commode, which can be quite bothersome since the storage tank will not fill up. At the very same time, leaving it alone corresponds to wasting water and also spiking up your water costs.
Toilet fill shutoff
Leaking flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This aggravating issue is also high on the list of usual plumbing problems. Your unit will include a clever key to unjam your maker. Yet if you lose it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to repair the trouble. You need to go under the sink and try to find the place where you can place the secret. Once you find it, use your wrench to transform the equipment to free the motor. When working on your waste disposal system to prevent horrible mishaps, don't forget to turn off the system and also cut the circuit breaker.
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most typical grievance of property owners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, oil, debris, and various other gunk gradually. Unfortunately, the only means to get a smooth moving drainpipe once again is to get rid of the particles. You can use a plumbing tool for fishing out the particles. From there, you can use a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky hassle given that the bathtub is one of one of the most secondhand components in your shower room. Just like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and various other gunk swimming pool in the drain frequently. You have to pop open the drain cover as well as utilize a tub claw to get rid of the particles. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe clogs up totally. After using the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drain lines.
If every one of these sound tedious for you, you can always employ a plumber to obtain specialist support. Seeking expert assistance implies conserving effort and time. Due to the fact that you can relax assured that your basic plumbing trouble will certainly not escalate, you may also finish up saving money in the long run. Simply make certain you call a reputable company with licenses and also accreditations due to the fact that you will be welcoming complete strangers in your home. Of course, you have to make sure that you work with someone you can rely on.
Some plumbing concerns are a lot more typical and can be conveniently dealt with. Doing the fixings yourselves on these easy plumbing problems can conserve you loads of cash. As a home owner, you will encounter several different plumbing problems that periodically make a nuisance. You can make use of a plumbing device for angling out the debris. You might even end up conserving money in the lengthy run due to the fact that you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing issue will not rise.
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