Increase water pressure in old neighbor hood home

[Vic Smith]

They close up, but mostly at the turns and after the HW tank. I've had galvanized in all my homes and never saw a leak. This house has 50 years old galvanized and the pressure is fine. I re-piped the scaled up 60 year-old galvanized in my last place, a

2-flat. Didn't bother replacing the verticals in the plumbing wall, as they looked good inside. Worst parts were the first el in the supply, and all the HW supply up to the veriticals. That was 30 years ago and I still have family living there with 90 year old galvanized in the walls and good pressure and no leaks. If I ever get a low flow problem in this house I know where to look. I've always been on Lake Michigan water, and I understand galvanized might have more problems elsewhere. The OP has a problem with one shower. He should find out why that shower is slow. A sink faucet screen with some pieces of scale in it can almost stop the flow, so the same can happen with a showerhead. Don't know if he has a tub shower and the tub faucets run strong. He didn't say. That's par for the course.

--Vic

[Ed Pawlowski]

Of course, all of this depends on the quality of water to begin with. That

90 year old pipe may be corroded in 2 years in another place in the country.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Andy" wrote

Different problem. If the pressure is low at one fixture, it is a piping or faucet problem. It may be as simple as cleaning or replacing the shower head. If all the faucets are turned off, the pressure in the system is going to be the same every place. If, when the faucet is open, the pressure of the shower drops there is a restriction of the flow. Find and fix it.

[Harry K]

So he has low pressure in ONE run of pipe to a shower and it _isn't_ an isolated problem? Weird.

Harry K

[hallerb]

well my buddy who had the leaky galvanized lines said at first only the bathroom is effected, probably because it was on the 2nd floor so pressure and flow were a little less.

then the problem became more widespread, and the leaks began....

its altogheter possible the OP here has poor flow everywhere from interior pipe rust but has adjusted, its now getting worse, and most noiticeable at that one fixture

[jamesgangnc]

:

So he should replace all his pipe because you had a buddy that had a problem with his pipe? Probably ought to tear down and rebuild his desk too, huh?

[Harry K]

:

You seem to be psychic. Somehow you just _know_ that his pipes are corroded. Must be nice to be able to do that. I have a house that was built back in the 40s. Bought it in 76. Replaced all iron pipe in the 80s - it was not corroded - replaced due to a total rebuild and floor plan rearangement (added an 18x30' additon).

In this area buried iron pipe has limited life, the soil eats it. I have dug up pipe that was double in size from rust with the interior still clean.

But please do continue with all your assumptions - they are good for laughs.

Back to the subject. It is one run. Sensible persons would examine that run for the problem (probably a clogged shower head). Only if that inspection showed corroded pipe as the problem would a sensible person set out to replace all the pipe in the house.

Harry K

[Harry K]

te:

He probably didn't even have that buddy. He just heard about it from the friend of a neighbor who heard it at the local bar :).

Harry K

[hallerb]

te:

no he will likely need to replace all his pipes because they are galvanized steel, and over 50 years old.

thats a common fail time for galvanized. he has now been informed leaks are likely coming, and they can do lots of damage...

espically if a leak occurs while he is on vacation, best to turn main off when away.

adding a boost pump is a bad idea in more than one way. disturbing the existing lines will likely cause leaks and even if it doesnt higher pressures can.

time to shop for friends who have used pex or plumbers in area. a replumbing is coming.

wait till he sees the tiny passage left on the inside of his galvanized, it will be very small, the vast majority scaley rust...

[hallerb]

:

e:

rote:

no it was my best friend who absolutely said i am not replacing the lines....

after many leaks he finally gave up and installed all copper.

he hates home repairs

[aemeijers]

On 2/24/2011 11:30 AM, Harry K wrote: (snip)

Hard to say without seeing it. And while I am no plumber, I have personally seen multiple instances of galv iron water systems, where once you disturb it, and stress joints and runs further upstream or downstream, they start leaking.

I've never used Pex, but have heard good things about it, especially once it got past the growing pains of the early fittings. I've long been of the opinion that if you can afford it, dedicated runs are the way to go, with a labeled shutoff valve manifold to shut off each run as needed if there are problems. Tees and other joints behind solid walls are a pain in the ass. And of course, when you are designing, back all wet walls up to a closet and build in access hatches from the start.

[Vic Smith]

You need 2 wrenches to work galvanized. Got no idea what you mean by "disturbing" or "stressing" it. I could guess, but why be impolite? I'm not saying anybody should choose it over copper or PEX, but for me galvanized is like riding a bicycle. Never even give a thought to galvanized joints leaking.

--Vic

[hallerb]

old galvanized fittings tend to rust and weld together, no matter how careful you are its easy to twist a connected line and cause another leak either immediately or in the future.....

old galavanized is generally packed with rust, making you wonder how water even managed to get thru the rust

[Harry K]

For sure on Pex but one does not instantly assume a problem like Halliburton has done and proceed to tear out pipe without _knowing_ it is a problem.

As for "disturbing" pipe. Two pipe wrenches properly applied will only disturb tht one fitting. I have worked on...umm...4 houses now and all of them were galv and all older than 50 years. Never had a leak develope anywhere in the system..other than a couple on the joints I worked. In this area 50 year old galv pipe _not buried_ will be very clean inside.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Keep riding that hobby horse!

Harry K

[Vic Smith]

First off, I've only dealt with Lake Michigan water. That's all I'm talking about. Probably pretty much the same water as in the other Great Lakes. Don't know how many millions use that water. But I'm just talking about Chicago area Lake Michigan water. It' s not rust restricting the pipes. It's scale. Deposited minerals. Some rust, but mostly scale.

It ain't "easy to twist a connected line" unless you just don't know how to handle two wrenches at the same time. Fittings don't "tend to rust and weld together." I've taken apart plenty of 50 year old fittings and only the first 2-3 threads were rusted. In the steel mills we would routinely hit an old threaded end with a wire brush, re-dope, and crank it back in. When I re-piped the 50 year old galvanized in my last house 30 years ago I left all the old galvanized pipes in the plumbing wall - they weren't scaled up - and had no trouble connecting the new feeds to them. Nothing has leaked since.

Looks like the water is different where you're at. I can see examples of what you said all over the net, so I don't doubt that galvanized will rust and scale up faster in some places. Around here that takes +50 years.

Here's the funny thing I found when I looking around the net. It looks like copper leaks more than galvanized and doesn't last as long. Pinhole leaks, different types of corrosion, joints starting to leak after repairing other leaks, etc. It doesn't scale up. Looks like if it could scale, leaks and corrosion would kill it before that would happen anyway. Didn't do a "scientific" survey, but copper sure doesn't look good. I was surprised by the copper horror stories. Kind of thought copper was the cat's meow.

I considered using copper when I re-piped my last house, but since I cut/threaded a lot of pipe and had the tools I went with galvanized. Hadn't sweated copper either, and still haven't. Like I said, galvanized is like riding a bike to me. Now I wouldn't even consider copper if I have to re-pipe this house. Galvanized or PEX.. But I don't know if PEX meets code here.

--Vic

[Ed]

We had our pipes replaced a few months ago using a company called Repipe Specialists. They knew exactly what walls to open and where. They tore out the galvanized and installed copper--in one day--in out split level with 2.5 bathrooms. We had them install all new faucets as well. After the city inspector checked it out they came back and patched the walls ready for painting.

My main issue was dealing with ceramic tile. They had to remove tile in one bathroom and I could not find new tile that exactly matched. Rather than tear all the walls out I elected to remove about 40 tiles so they could be reused. Using a Multi-Max and heat gun I was able to save almost all the tiles for reuse. I bought a few that were a close match for use behind the toilet. The 60 year old tiles came off rather easily. Those that had been taken down and replaced 20 years ago for drywall repair were harder to remove.

[hallerb]

often galvanized lines crush when they are badly rusted, so using any wrench can cause more troubles.

at least with this info the OP will be aware he might need replumbed, and for safety sake should turn off his main valve when not home, so he doesnt come home to a flood.

[Ed]

We had our pipes replaced a few months ago using a company called Repipe Specialists. They knew exactly what walls to open and where. They tore out the galvanized and installed copper--in one day--in our split level with 2.5 bathrooms. We had them install all new faucets as well. After the city inspector checked it out they came back and patched the walls ready for painting.

My main issue was dealing with ceramic tile. They had to remove tile in one bathroom and I could not find new tile that exactly matched. Rather than tear all the walls out I elected to remove about 40 tiles so they could be reused. Using a Multi-Max and heat gun I was able to save almost all the tiles for reuse. I bought a few that were a close match for use behind the toilet. The 60 year old tiles came off rather easily. Those that had been taken down and replaced 20 years ago for drywall repair were harder to remove.

[Harry K]

I repiped (total remodel right down to the studs) with CPVC/PVC. Simple, cheap, no special tools, easy to change, patch etc. All that is needed is a hacksaw, can of glue and a handful of fitting that are cheap, cheap, cheap. Need to change or add something in middle of run? 2 minute job of which 30 seconds is waiting for the glue to dry.

Harry K