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 a lot more usual and also can be conveniently fixed. Doing the repairs yourselves on these simple plumbing problems can conserve you tons of money. As a homeowner, you will certainly experience many different plumbing troubles that occasionally make an annoyance. Have a look at 5 of the most common ones listed below:
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your house grumbling that there's reduced water pressure from the sink? If yes, then the issue is the aerator within the sink which may have a great deal of sedimentation resulting in low water stress.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be quite aggravating because the tank won't fill. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to drainage as well as spiking up your water expenses. For beginners, figure out what's creating it to run. You may need to replace any one of the complying with toilet mechanisms:
Bathroom fill shutoff
Dripping flush shutoff
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This frustrating trouble is additionally high on the listing of usual plumbing problems. If you lose it, you will certainly need an Allen wrench to deal with the issue. You have to go under the sink as well as look for the area where you can insert the key.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most typical grievance of homeowners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, grease, debris, and other substance over time. The only way to obtain a smooth moving drainpipe once more is to remove the particles. Initially, you can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Slow Tub Drain
This is an additional pesky hassle because the bathtub is one of the most used components in your restroom. Much like the sink drain, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, and various other substances pool in the drainpipe typically. You have to pop open the drainpipe cover and make use of a bathtub claw to get rid of the particles. Do this ASAP before the drain clogs up totally. After using the claw, you can put drainpipe cleaner to freshen the drainpipe lines.
If all of these audio tiresome for you, you can always call in a plumber to get expert aid. Seeking specialist assistance means conserving time and effort. You might even end up conserving money in the long run because you can feel confident that your basic plumbing trouble will not intensify. Since you will be inviting complete strangers in your house, simply make certain you call a trusted company with accreditations and also licenses. Obviously, you have to see to it that you collaborate with somebody you can trust.
Some plumbing issues are much more typical and can be easily fixed. Doing the fixings yourselves on these straightforward plumbing issues can save you loads of money. As a homeowner, you will certainly experience several various plumbing problems that sometimes make an annoyance. You can use a plumbing device for fishing out the particles. You might even end up conserving cash in the long run since you can relax assured that your simple plumbing problem will not intensify.
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