A Comprehensive Look at Common Plumbing Issues: Solutions
A Comprehensive Look at Common Plumbing Issues: Solutions
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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 property owner, you will run into numerous different plumbing issues that sometimes make a problem. Doing the repair services yourselves on these basic plumbing problems can save you lots of money.
Slow Draining Sink
This is one of the most common complaint of house owners, with the sink accumulating a great deal of hair, oil, particles, and also various other crud in time. The only way to obtain a smooth streaming drainpipe once again is to get rid of the debris. You can use a plumbing tool for fishing out the particles. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drain cleaner to clean the lines.
Slow-moving Tub Drain
This is another pesky hassle given that the tub is one of one of the most previously owned fixtures in your washroom. Similar to the sink drain, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, and also various other gunk swimming pool in the drain often. You should stand out open the drain cover and use a bathtub claw to get rid of the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drainpipe blocks totally. After utilizing the claw, you can put drain cleaner to revitalize the drainpipe lines.
Low Tide Pressure
Is a person from your home whining that there's low tide pressure from the sink? Inspect if this problem affects both the warm as well as chilly water lines. If yes, then the trouble is the aerator within the sink which might have a great deal of sedimentation causing low water pressure. This is very simple to deal with as you just require to take it out and scrub away the mineral deposits.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running bathroom, which can be rather bothersome because the container will not fill up. At the same time, leaving it alone equates to throwing away water and also spiking up your water bills.
Bathroom fill shutoff
Leaking flush shutoff
Bathroom flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This frustrating trouble is additionally high up on the list of common plumbing problems. Your device will come with a great key to unjam your device. However if you lose it, you will need an Allen wrench to repair the issue. You have to go under the sink and also seek the place where you can put the secret. When you detect it, utilize your wrench to turn the equipment to free the electric motor. When working on your trash disposal system to avoid unpleasant mishaps, don't fail to remember to turn off the system as well as cut the circuit breaker.
You may also finish up saving cash in the long run since you can rest guaranteed that your simple plumbing trouble will not intensify. Simply make certain you call a reliable firm with licenses and also qualifications because you will be welcoming complete strangers in your residence.
As a home owner, you will certainly experience many different plumbing troubles that sometimes make a problem. Some plumbing problems are more usual as well as can be quickly repaired. Doing the repairs yourselves on these straightforward plumbing troubles can save you loads of money. You can make use of a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. You might even finish up conserving money in the lengthy run since you can relax assured that your straightforward plumbing problem will not escalate.
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