Gunk n' Rust in pipes - help

[Cletus Milsap]

Howdy, Bought a home that's a 1959 built and goin' nuts "Home Improving." Need some help.

I had replaced a vanity and figured to replace the faucet as well. Got some nice stuff. Started installing. I saw the Hot an' Cold shut off valves not shutting off too well, and figured I'll replace those as well. Oh the gunk! What came out was not pretty.

The pipe coming out of the wall was almost solid shut with this rusty hard crap. I had chipped away at it with the screwdriver to open up the pipe. It was horrible. the first thread was damaged as well. Chipping away. So I went to the store and got new pipes. Replaced them. They went into the elbow behind the wall. I had cleaned that as well as I could from the entrance before piping into it.

Put it all together. After a half hour I still got specs of crap coming out. The house was vacated for several months before I bought it. Nice house. But it seems, there are some problems. Expected some.

The big question. How do I clean these pipes out, without ripping them all out and replace them. Big job. Very little money left after closing on the house. Is there anything at all that can be done? I don't believe it can be roto rooted or anything like that. Besides. If the bathroom one was full of crap, I expect the rest of the house is like that.

All help will be appreciated with extreme prejudice.

Cletus

Bytolier®

[Speedy Jim]

Sorry. Rip out and replace the ol' galv iron w/ PEX or copper.

Jim

[Dick Smyth]

[Cletus Milsap]

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 08:45:42 -0500, Speedy Jim Spoke an' said.. :

That's kind of what I thought I have to do. Much as I hate to.

Thanks for the help.

Do you know a good way to prevent more damage? More deposits, in the meanwhile?

Cletus

[Cletus Milsap]

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 10:46:41 -0500, "Dick Smyth" Spoke an' said.. :

Sounds interesting. This is kind of what I was looking for, short of replacing all the pipes. Adds up to a few miles of it under the crawl space.

I'll try and see if I could hook into the system. Should not be too hard. The pipes are galvanized steel. But oh the gunk. I'm not even allowing the family to drink out of the faucets. Even when it looks clear. I wonder if there is a tester for drinking water safety. I bet there is. I'll look into that one.

And I ask you as well. Is there something a person can do on a budget to pre filter water so this won't happen? Or is this the way the galvanized pipe flakes over the years and just collects the flakes and clog things up?

Al help will be appreciated with extreme prejudice.

Cletus

[George E. Cawthon]

You have two choices, replace pipe sections as they fail, or replace the whole system. The stuff in the pipe is simply rust and won't affect water quality, but you do need to flush the system by letting water flow through it, especially anytime you do some plumbing work. But from what you found it appears you really need to replace the pipe.

Clean>

[Childfree Scott]

You have galvinized pipes (steel coated with something). It has tursted through to the point where it's clogged the pipes. It needs to be replaced. All of it. Do not replace it with new galvinized pipe! Replace it with something good like copper.