With the shift in the housing market, more and more homeowners are buying older homes. We love the idea of a fixer upper, but our 24 hour plumber would like to warn about one plumbing problem that can arise from a common material of the time, galvanized pipe.
First, the easiest way to check if your home has galvanized pipes is to go to a frequently used faucet and turn on the hot water. If this temperature produces low pressure, your home, most likely, has galvanized pipes. This type of piping that, over years of use, can begin to corrode and plug up plumbing lines. Due to high temperatures, the hot-water pipe lines are generally the first to start undergoing this process.
If the water pressure is not noticeably low, there is still a chance that your piping needs to be replaced. Previous homeowners may have replaced only the galvanized pipe that was in dire need, however, there may be some lines underneath that are soon to fail. When galvanized piping does start to wear out, it can be a huge cost to replace the entire system, so many homeowners opt to replace the certain pipes that need immediate attention. This is the more economical option, however, this simply postpones the inevitable.
Another way to see if the galvanized pipes have been updated is to look under the sink to inspect where the piping is coming from. Old plumbing is typically run through walls, while newer plumbing runs up through the floor to connect under the sink. Also, if the home has a crawl space, you or your plumber can get a better look at the inner workings of your plumbing.
Have you recently purchased an old home? What kinds of plumbing stories do you have? We’d love to hear about it! Go to our Facebook page and post your story on our wall.
To prevent a small plumbing problem, like low water pressure, from becoming a huge nightmare, contact our 24 hour plumber to give you a plumbing evaluation.
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