Dealing with Typical Plumbing Issues: An Effective Approach
Dealing with Typical Plumbing Issues: An Effective 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
Doing the repair work yourselves on these straightforward plumbing issues can save you bunches of cash. As a house owner, you will come across many different plumbing problems that occasionally make a problem.
Low Water Pressure
Is someone from your household grumbling that there's low tide stress from the sink? First, inspect if this issue influences both the cold and hot water lines. If of course, after that the trouble is the aerator within the sink which may have a lot of sedimentation causing low tide pressure. This is very simple to fix as you simply need to take it out and also scrub away the natural resource.
Running Toilet
You might have experienced a running commode, which can be fairly frustrating since the storage tank will not fill. At the same time, leaving it alone relates to wasting water as well as increasing up your water bills. For starters, determine what's causing it to run. You may require to change any of the adhering to commode devices:
Toilet fill shutoff
Dripping flush valve
Toilet flapper
Malfunctioning Garbage Disposal System
This annoying issue is likewise high on the checklist of common plumbing problems. Your device will certainly include an awesome secret to unjam your device. If you shed it, you will certainly require an Allen wrench to fix the problem. You have to go under the sink and also search for the area where you can insert the key. When you identify it, use your wrench to transform the device to free the motor. When functioning on your waste disposal system to prevent horrible accidents, do not fail to remember to turn off the system as well as reduced the circuit breaker.
Slow Draining Sink
This is the most typical problem of property owners, with the sink collecting a lot of hair, oil, debris, as well as other crud gradually. Sadly, the only way to obtain a smooth moving drainpipe once again is to clear the debris. You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. From there, you can make use of a store-bought drainpipe cleaner to clean the lines.
Slow-moving Tub Drain
This is another pesky nuisance considering that the tub is just one of the most secondhand fixtures in your shower room. Much like the sink drainpipe, hair, soap scum, dead skin cells, and various other substances pool in the drainpipe typically. You need to pop open the drainpipe cover as well as utilize a bathtub claw to clear the debris. Do this ASAP prior to the drain blocks completely. After utilizing the claw, you can pour drainpipe cleaner to refresh the drainpipe lines.
You might also finish up conserving cash in the lengthy run due to the fact that you can relax guaranteed that your basic plumbing issue will not rise. Simply make certain you call a trusted firm with licenses and certifications because you will be welcoming unfamiliar people in your home.
Some plumbing problems are much more usual as well as can be conveniently fixed. Doing the fixings yourselves on these simple plumbing issues can conserve you loads of money. As a property owner, you will encounter numerous various plumbing problems that sometimes make an annoyance. You can use a plumbing tool for angling out the debris. You might even finish up saving money in the long run due to the fact that you can relax ensured that your easy plumbing issue will not intensify.
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