Frequent Plumbing Problems: How to Handle
Frequent Plumbing Problems: How to Handle
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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 home owner, you will encounter various plumbing troubles that sometimes make an annoyance. Some plumbing concerns are more common as well as can be quickly dealt with. Doing the repair work yourselves on these straightforward plumbing problems can conserve you tons of money. Have a look at 5 of one of the most usual ones listed below:
Slow Draining Sink
You can make use of a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
This is one more pesky problem since the tub is among one of the most previously owned fixtures in your bathroom. Similar to the sink drain, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and various other gunk pool in the drainpipe usually. You should pop open the drain cover as well as use a tub claw to get rid of the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe congests totally. After making use of the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to rejuvenate the drainpipe lines.
Low Tide Pressure
Is somebody from your house complaining that there's low tide stress from the sink? Initially, check if this concern affects both the cold and hot water lines. If indeed, after that the problem is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation causing low water pressure. This is extremely easy to take care of as you simply need to take it out and scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running commode, which can be rather frustrating due to the fact that the tank will not fill. At the same time, leaving it alone corresponds to wasting water and also surging up your water expenses. For starters, determine what's creating it to run. You might require to change any of the complying with bathroom systems:
Commode fill shutoff
Leaking flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This frustrating trouble is additionally high on the listing of usual plumbing problems. Your system will feature a nifty trick to unjam your maker. If you shed it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to deal with the trouble. You need to go under the sink and look for the place where you can place the secret. Once you identify it, utilize your wrench to transform the machine to release the electric motor. When functioning on your rubbish disposal system to stop nasty mishaps, don't neglect to turn off the system and also cut the circuit breaker.
You might also finish up conserving cash in the long run since you can relax guaranteed that your straightforward plumbing trouble will certainly not rise. Just make certain you call a reputable firm with licenses and qualifications due to the fact that you will certainly be inviting unfamiliar people in your home.
As a house owner, you will experience numerous different plumbing problems that sometimes make a nuisance. Some plumbing concerns are much more typical and can be conveniently repaired. Doing the repair services yourselves on these simple plumbing problems can conserve you loads of cash. You can utilize a plumbing device for angling out the particles. You might even end up conserving cash in the long run due to the fact that you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing problem will certainly not escalate.
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