Common Plumbing Problems Demystified: What Every Homeowner Must Understand
Common Plumbing Problems Demystified: What Every Homeowner Must Understand
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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 How You Can Fix Them
As a home owner, you will experience various plumbing issues that sometimes make a hassle. Some plumbing problems are more usual and can be quickly dealt with. Doing the repair services yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can conserve you lots of cash. Have a look at 5 of one of the most typical ones below:
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most common grievance of property owners, with the sink accumulating a great deal of hair, grease, particles, and also other crud over time. Unfortunately, the only way to get a smooth flowing drain again is to remove the debris. First, you can make use of a plumbing tool for fishing out the debris. From there, you can use a store-bought drain cleaner to cleanse the lines.
Sluggish Tub Drain
Just like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap residue, dead skin cells, and various other substances swimming pool in the drain commonly. After making use of the claw, you can put drain cleaner to freshen the drain lines.
Low Water Pressure
Is a person from your home complaining that there's reduced water pressure from the sink? If yes, then the issue is the aerator within the sink which might have a lot of sedimentation resulting in reduced water stress.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running toilet, which can be fairly aggravating due to the fact that the tank won't fill out. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to wasting water and also spiking up your water bills. For starters, figure out what's causing it to run. You might need to change any one of the adhering to commode devices:
Bathroom fill valve
Dripping flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying trouble is likewise high up on the checklist of usual plumbing issues. Your unit will certainly feature a cool key to unjam your equipment. If you shed it, you will need an Allen wrench to repair the problem. You have to go under the sink and also look for the spot where you can insert the key. Utilize your wrench to transform the maker to release the electric motor when you detect it. When functioning on your rubbish disposal system to avoid unpleasant mishaps, don't forget to turn off the system and also reduced the circuit breaker.
You can constantly call in a plumber to get professional aid if all of these sound tiresome for you. Looking for professional help suggests conserving effort and time. Because you can rest guaranteed that your easy plumbing problem will not rise, you may even finish up saving cash in the long run. Due to the fact that you will certainly be inviting strangers in your house, simply make certain you call a respectable company with certifications as well as licenses. Naturally, you have to make certain that you deal with a person you can trust.
As a house owner, you will come across several different plumbing troubles that periodically make a nuisance. Some plumbing problems are more typical as well as can be quickly fixed. Doing the repairs yourselves on these easy plumbing issues can save you tons of money. You can use a plumbing device for fishing out the debris. You might also finish up saving cash in the long run due to the fact that you can relax ensured that your simple plumbing problem will not intensify.
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