Common Plumbing Problems You May Experience With Your Aging Covina Home
Many people decide to invest in older homes because they have a lovely charm to them and can be more affordable than building a new home. While older homes can be great for many things, it’s important to remember that they’re likely going to need more repairs than newer homes. When it comes to your home’s plumbing system, there are a few distinct and common plumbing problems that you may run into due to the age of your home.
Lead Piping
One of the first issues you may run into is that you have lead piping. Lead has been shown to be very dangerous to your health when consumed. If any of your water supply lines are made out of lead, they could be leaching this toxic metal into your home’s drinking water. It’s vital to upgrade any lead water supply lines that you have promptly to prevent further toxins from entering your body.
It’s also important to note that lead was used as a soldering material for copper piping. Just because you have newer copper piping in your home doesn’t mean that it may not have lead soldering at some of its joints. You can typically tell the difference by the color of lead compared to copper. Any places where lead is used as solder for these joints can allow lead to penetrate into your water supply. One of our professionals can assess your home to determine if you have any of these pipe repair issues and fix them swiftly.
Low Water Pressure
One rather annoying issue you can run into is that your home seems to have low water pressure. In a lot of cases of older homes, this low pressure is simply the result of internal corrosion inside your water supply lines. This corrosion partially blocks the flow of water and hinders its overall pressure level. Unfortunately, the only solution to this issue is to replace the corroded piping with fresh piping.
Missing or Faulty Shut-Off Valves
One really pesky issue that you can run into with older homes is that they don’t have adequate shut-off valves in necessary locations. Newer homes will have shut-off valves at the main fixtures, such as underneath your kitchen or bathroom sink. This allows you to shut off the water supply quickly when there’s an issue and perform necessary repairs without having to shut off the entire water supply to your home. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy fix, as we can install shut-off valves in these locations for you.
One other problem you may experience with an older home is the existing shut-off valves being faulty. Due to their exposure to water, these shut-off valves can start to corrode over time. Many of them will corrode in their open position and won’t allow you to shut them off when necessary. In fact, you may find that the handle breaks on them when you go to shut the valves off. The way to solve this issue is to cut out the old valve and replace it with a new one.
Inefficient Water Heater
Your water heater is likely one of those appliances that you don’t really give much thought to. Many of them are simply put in the basement and out of sight and out of mind. Unfortunately, if you live in an older home you may still have an older water heater. These water heaters are much less efficient than the ones that are available today. In addition, water heaters will start to lose their efficiency as they age. If you have a very old water heater, it’s likely that it’s consuming way too much energy that you could be saving if you were to upgrade to a new one.
Pipe Bellies
One distinctive plumbing problem that older homes are well known to have is pipe bellies. These are created when a pipe sags over time due to a shifting foundation or similar issue. It essentially looks like it sounds, as the pipe drops down and has a belly in it where water and other debris can get stuck instead of flushing the whole way down through the pipe. This is most common when it comes to your sewer line and can cause frequent clogging to occur at your home. In some cases, you may be able to fix the issue with trenchless sewer repair service.
Reliable Plumbing Repair Service
Drain Doctor Plumbing & Rooter offers reliable residential plumbing services for the Covina, CA area. We can also help with all your plumbing installation, replacement, and maintenance needs. Simply give us a call today to get the professional assistance you need with your home’s plumbing system.
