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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5 Typical Household Plumbing Issues and also How You Can Fix Them
As a home owner, you will experience several plumbing troubles that sometimes make a problem. Some plumbing issues are more typical and also can be conveniently repaired. Doing the fixings yourselves on these straightforward plumbing issues can save you tons of cash. Take a look at 5 of one of the most typical ones below:
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most typical issue of home owners, with the sink accumulating a lot of hair, oil, particles, and various other substance in time. The only means to obtain a smooth flowing drain once again is to get rid of the particles. You can make use of a plumbing device for angling out the debris. From there, you can utilize a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow-moving Tub Drain
Simply like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and also various other gunk pool in the drainpipe often. After making use of the claw, you can put drain cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
Low Tide Pressure
Is somebody from your family whining that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Examine if this concern affects both the cold and hot water lines. If of course, then the trouble is the aerator within the sink which might have a lot of sedimentation resulting in low water pressure. This is extremely simple to take care of 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 rather annoying because the storage tank will not fill up. At the exact same time, leaving it alone equates to losing water and also spiking up your water expenses.
Bathroom fill valve
Dripping flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This aggravating problem is also high on the listing of typical plumbing problems. If you lose it, you will need an Allen wrench to take care of the issue. You have to go under the sink as well as look for the place where you can place the secret.
You may even finish up saving cash in the lengthy run since you can relax assured that your straightforward plumbing issue will not intensify. Simply make sure you call a credible firm with licenses and accreditations because you will be inviting complete strangers in your house.
As a house owner, you will run into lots of different plumbing problems that sometimes make a nuisance. Some plumbing concerns are a lot more typical and can be conveniently dealt with. Doing the repair work yourselves on these basic plumbing problems can save you lots of cash. You can make use of a plumbing device for fishing out the debris. You may also end up saving money in the lengthy run since you can relax assured that your simple plumbing issue will certainly not rise.
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