Sediment broken free in pipes has likely caused lower water pressure

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ESP47

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Does anyone here know what I can do about this? My house is old and has a combination of galvanized, brass and copper pipe and fittings. I went to fix a couple of leaky valves outside and I noticed the pipe was jam packed full of rust and calcium. I took the pipes apart and replaced them and installed new valves and now the water pressure at every faucet inside the house is really low. I'm almost sure that a bunch of crap broke free and got pushed down into the pipes in the house when I removed the old galvanized stuff outside.

Is there any way I can somehow clean the inside of the pipes or shoot pressurized water from say the shower head all the way back to outside the house? It's not just sediment trapped inside the shower head or strainers. There has got to be a chunk sitting at a 90* bend or something like that at some point in the house that's causing the problem.
 
Try running a garden hose from the outside faucet at the front of the house to a faucet at the back or ?. - turn them both on.
That may /may not bypass the restriction, and improve flow till cold weather freezes the hose.

I see plumbing in your future.
Good luck.
 
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Junk can also get trapped in the faucet valves too. You might want too ck the flow on the line that GOES TO a kitchen or bathroom faucet on the flex line that you can disconnect from the faucet. Try to narrow it down a bit. If you've eliminated all other possibilities and its affecting the whole house I would think the problem is fairly close to where the pipe comes in to the house, before the pipes start to split off. We've back flushed plumbing before with mixed results. Start at the point that's closest to the line coming in.
You want an open pipe outside for the stuff to run out. Not thru a spigot.I would try it before I started tearing everything up to replace pipes. Unless you have a crawl space. Good luck
 
Thanks guys. I don't have a crawl space or anything so repiping would basically be a complete remodel. I think what I'm going to do is use the neighbors hose and try and hook it up to my shower and back flush the water from there since I'm guessing that's the first stop that the cold water hits when it gets to the house. Since every faucet has low pressure whether it's cold or not, I think the disruption is in between the shower and the water lines outside before the water splits off to the water heater. Hopefully it's just right there as it goes into the house. Going to need to call the water co. because I can't get my main to shut the water off completely. Too corroded.
 
I had a low pressure water line running under the kitchen floor of one of my rental properties.
Took the line loose on both ends.
Used a sump pump hooked to one end, and connected a garden hose to the other end.
Ran white vinegar thru it for several days.
It cleaned the line out.
Way easier than tearing the floor up to replace the line.
 
ESP47 said:
Thanks guys. I don't have a crawl space or anything so repiping would basically be a complete remodel. I think what I'm going to do is use the neighbors hose and try and hook it up to my shower and back flush the water from there since I'm guessing that's the first stop that the cold water hits when it gets to the house. Since every faucet has low pressure whether it's cold or not, I think the disruption is in between the shower and the water lines outside before the water splits off to the water heater. Hopefully it's just right there as it goes into the house. Going to need to call the water co. because I can't get my main to shut the water off completely. Too corroded.
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Back flush it to where? Unless you have a way to purge it outside, it will just come back and clog it again.
 
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Install a water softener, in time it will clean things up. I deal with water chemistry in boilers and chilled water systems. Boilers like clean water.
 
Ddaddy said:
Back flush it to where? Unless you have a way to purge it outside, it will just come back and clog it again.
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There is a whole janky looking spigot and sprinkler system out back where the water comes into the house. I'll just remove a couple of spigots and purge it out back.

I found the shut off by the water meter so I was able to change the water main coming up into the house. The line that goes into the ground is basically about 40% clogged with rust. That's not the source of my problem since my water pressure was decent enough just a week ago with the pipe like that but it's still concerning.
 
I cut a 2" black pipe (with a carbide Diablo sawzall blade, highly recommended!) coming from my washer/deep sink in the garage and the thing was 80% choked with solid sludge. Looked like I sliced a pecan log. That fed a leaking cast iron double Y that I posted a few months ago. I replaced the entire intersection with PVC and will do the washer run some other day but thats a straight 30' shot of 2" PVC. Good luck finding the blockage. Maybe a snake from the rental place?
 
340doc said:
Junk can also get trapped in the faucet valves too. You might want too ck the flow on the line that GOES TO a kitchen or bathroom faucet on the flex line that you can disconnect from the faucet. Try to narrow it down a bit. If you've eliminated all other possibilities and its affecting the whole house I would think the problem is fairly close to where the pipe comes in to the house, before the pipes start to split off. We've back flushed plumbing before with mixed results. Start at the point that's closest to the line coming in.
You want an open pipe outside for the stuff to run out. Not thru a spigot.I would try it before I started tearing everything up to replace pipes. Unless you have a crawl space. Good luck
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I would check the valves first. I had a problem with less flow, turned out the one at the sink had the screen for the aerator was plugged with mineral deposits. Cleaned it out and worked ok.
 
Had some good success getting the pressure up a bit. It's not back to where it was but it's manageable at the moment.

Changing the main valve that comes into the house helped a lot. It was so corroded that it wasn't opening up all the way and it obviously wasn't closing all the way either. I changed that to a ball valve style shut off and I cleaned out the aerators on all the faucets and the shower. I removed the shower head and it shot a good amount of gunk into the tub. Almost looked like someone was panning for gold in the tub. Got all that cleaned up and soaked everything in CLR overnight and I'd say the pressure is at about 75% of what it was. I still think I'm going to try the backflow deal from the shower and purge it outside and see if that helps get it back to where it was.

One problem I have is I can't change all of the galvanized pipes and connectors outside because they are so corroded I can't get them apart. If I break the pipe going into the house I'm going to be in deep **** so hopefully I can get it back to where it was without dicking around with that.
 
Hard water is a pain to live with.
 
ESP47 said:
Does anyone here know what I can do about this? My house is old and has a combination of galvanized, brass and copper pipe and fittings. I went to fix a couple of leaky valves outside and I noticed the pipe was jam packed full of rust and calcium. I took the pipes apart and replaced them and installed new valves and now the water pressure at every faucet inside the house is really low. I'm almost sure that a bunch of crap broke free and got pushed down into the pipes in the house when I removed the old galvanized stuff outside.

Is there any way I can somehow clean the inside of the pipes or shoot pressurized water from say the shower head all the way back to outside the house? It's not just sediment trapped inside the shower head or strainers. There has got to be a chunk sitting at a 90* bend or something like that at some point in the house that's causing the problem.
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Did u check the airerators on each faucet ? do that first---------- OLD GALVANIZED WILL MORE THAN LIKELY NEED REPLACED. I T WOULD BE COST EFFECYTIVE FOR U TO BUY A "PEXS" TOOL , PIPE AND FITTINGS , AND START REPLACING IT UR SELF, ANY ONE CAN DO IT !
I JUST REPLACE MINE AS EACH LINE GOES BAD, SOME NEVER WILL.
 
famous bob said:
Did u check the airerators on each faucet ? do that first---------- OLD GALVANIZED WILL MORE THAN LIKELY NEED REPLACED. I T WOULD BE COST EFFECYTIVE FOR U TO BUY A "PEXS" TOOL , PIPE AND FITTINGS , AND START REPLACING IT UR SELF, ANY ONE CAN DO IT !
I JUST REPLACE MINE AS EACH LINE GOES BAD, SOME NEVER WILL.
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Yep I looked there first since that was the easiest to deal with. I left them off until I got everything back together and it seems to be working a bit better now. Shower is nearly 100% but the kitchen faucet isn't so I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on that end.

If I had to change the pipes out I'd definitely go with PEX but unfortunately it's not a realistic way to go at the moment. I would either have to tear down the stucco on one entire side of my house or I'd have to tear the kitchen cabinets and my bathtub surround out as well as the sheet rock in 4 rooms. It's seriously a last ditch in the world resort for me. Concrete slab here.
 
ESP47 said:
Yep I looked there first since that was the easiest to deal with. I left them off until I got everything back together and it seems to be working a bit better now. Shower is nearly 100% but the kitchen faucet isn't so I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on that end.

If I had to change the pipes out I'd definitely go with PEX but unfortunately it's not a realistic way to go at the moment. I would either have to tear down the stucco on one entire side of my house or I'd have to tear the kitchen cabinets and my bathtub surround out as well as the sheet rock in 4 rooms. It's seriously a last ditch in the world resort for me. Concrete slab here.
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There are ways to re plumb and not destroy everything !! If u have to go that route, u should get to know some one that " knows" how.
I have done total repipes on houses and not tore much up except where it comes thru the slab., and go goes up to the attic. The crossbracing between studs will be ur biggest enemy.
 
ESP47 said:
Yep I looked there first since that was the easiest to deal with. I left them off until I got everything back together and it seems to be working a bit better now. Shower is nearly 100% but the kitchen faucet isn't so I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on that end.

If I had to change the pipes out I'd definitely go with PEX but unfortunately it's not a realistic way to go at the moment. I would either have to tear down the stucco on one entire side of my house or I'd have to tear the kitchen cabinets and my bathtub surround out as well as the sheet rock in 4 rooms. It's seriously a last ditch in the world resort for me. Concrete slab here.
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Some times debris will get caught in a stop too. ( shut-off valve under k sink )
 
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