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having trouble with water pressure

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Me and my family moved into a home that was built roughly around 1860s, and it was converted into a duplex at some point. when we first moved in, we weren't having trouble with water pressure, but now we are. I should also note that the pressure drops when someone downstairs uses water. this affects all sinks and the shower. is there a way that I can fix this without calling a professional?
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install a water tower
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Turning off your water at the mains will fix pressure issue
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>>1145171
Dig the well deeper
>inb4 someone poisoned the water hole
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Sure, run a new 1" water service line. Sound easy enough?
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op here, I'll add that when we moved in, a sink hole formed at the base of the house close to the water line although we're not sure how it happened.
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What kind of piping is it? You
May have luck just redoing it with pex and running a valve system.
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>>1145295
Okay woody
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>>1145392 it's roughly 35 to 40 years old, so I imagine it'd be copper. it runs perpendicular from the bathroom on the 2nd floor all the way to the basement.
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>>1145295 Yee-haw!
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>>1145171
You probably don't have a cutoff inside the house do you?

Is it galvanized steel in the yard or copper?

dig up the water line just outside the house.
If might end up being a couple of feet out, but you probably have a stop/waste style cutoff outside (old houses had the main cutoff outside instead of inside the house(not including the city cutoff on their side of the meter), you'd have a bent piece of square metal rod as the handle. And they were supposed to be buried in rock or gravel and sand, so that when you turned it off it'd let the pressure off and let the water drain out through there) good chance that it was leaking through the waste when you moved in, especially if the handle is buried in a flower bed and someone was fucking with it, or someone saw the handle and screwed with it.
That would cause a sink hole to wash out. It would eventually close itself off with rust and shit from the water and stop letting out as much water. But the valve itself would start to fuck up more. And clog up slowly.

Or galvanized pipe over long enough time starts to get smaller inside, but since you mention the sinkhole, I think it's the old main valve for the house.

Even if it's a regular valve and not a stop/waste, if the valve handle was fucked with, or even just naturally started leaking at a joint or the packing nut, or even if it's just a transition and not a valve you still end up with the same symptoms, leaking out washing away soil, then fucking up more inside.

I can't find a good picture to show you what it all looks like, but go get a shovel and dig up that sinkhole/waterline at the house and then work your way out anywhere from 6 inches to 3 feet where it changes or has a valve.
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>>1145415 op again. I doubt there's a cutoff located in the house, and I believe it's copper. the previous owners were rather negligent of the house (they insisted that the 40 year old water heater downstairs worked perfectly, burned out about a fucking week after moving in) so I doubt they did anything with the water main.
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>>1145171
>>1145375

It sounds like the buildings water service (main pipe feeding the house from the meter) has developed a hole.

Steps to confirm service leak:
1. If you don't know where your house shut off is, turn off all fixtures.
2. Go out to your water meter and mark on the glass where the dial is at on the meter with a removal ink.
3. Wait 5 to 10 mins.
4. If the dial has moved and you can guarantee that no fixtures are leaking (like your toilet fill valves), then there is likely a leak in the service.
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>>1145463
I don't mean someone did anything anything actually work, I mean like hitting it with a shovel, standing on it, kicking it, trying to plant next to it, thinking it's trash and trying to yank it out of the ground, etc.

Even if noone touched it and it hasn't been used in 50 years, it can rust up and fail in weird ways, or if there is a transition there, etc. I've dealt with plenty of those over the years.

It could even still be leaking and just have found a way to drain off somewhere underground, like following a root, crack underground, or pipe, where you can't see the water.
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>>1145612 here's the sinkhole which is nearest to the bathroom downstairs.
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>>1145834
Great thumbnail sized pic. Did you take it from the roof then crop it?

Get your ass out there with a shovel and start digging. Dont punch a hole in the pipe with your shovel though.
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>>1145612
Ugh a plumber, surprised you didnt try and charge him for your advice.
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>>1146067
Kek. Plumbers have such an inflated sense of self importance.

They are all like

>But my job is so hard and crap so I can charge 9999 dollars an hour

Funny, I don't see concrete placers or plasterers with such an inflated sense of importance despite the fact they have objectively more hard and crap jobs.
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>>1146074
Guys I know are all the reverse. They all know they are dumb as hell, so they don't understand how the homeowners are even more clueless when it comes to really basic shit. It's one of those "I know I'm a moron, but you're just straight out fucked"
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>>1146079
The major problem is that in a lot of the world you aren't legally allowed to do your own plumbing. While it doesn't stop rednecks or vaguely intelligent homeowners, it does stop people who are scared of the law from doing it and thinking they have to hire a plumber.

For example in New Zealand where I live, you are legally allowed to do all of your own plumbing, nothing is off limits if you own the place. However the government puts out so much garbage lies that most people and even most building inspectors think it is illegal to even clean your own fucking traps.
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>>1146067
Last plumber I had is still in the crawl space, snapped off the date tags on my non return valves and said I need new ones.
I am a plumber catching out rip off plumbers.
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>>1146064 no, I took it from my porch which you can clearly see. the file size was too large, so I had to reduce it. I'm not going to start digging in a fucking sinkhole because it'll only make it worse, granted I could always fill it in afterwards. without knowing the exact location of the water line, I'm not risking accidentally putting a hole in it.
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>>1146446
why don't you take a pic from the yard about 10 foot out, facing the hole/house and we might be able to tell you where it is. If you have a garden hose faucet within a foot or 2 of there, it's probably almost right under it. If you can find your yard drain clean out, they normally bury the fresh water pipe in the same ditch above/near the yard drain line

That's why you dig carefully, if you push the shovel in with your foot on it slowly, you'll feel feedback to tell you if you are going through topsoil, soil, clay, roots, rocks, or a wire or pipe.

Since you seem to be new to digging holes, dig to the side of where the pipe should be, 3 foot down, then scrape the dirt wall down and shovel the loose dirt from there, keep going towards the pipe til you find it.

Here's a secret, most plumbers don't know exactly where the pipe is until they actually see it. you just narrow it down to within 2 or 3 feet, then start digging and making it wider as needed.

The ground penetrating radar needed to make it exact location, would be around 100K. Using a pipe locator and blasting rf along the pipe would still only get you within a 3 or 4 foot. and that'd still be 2 thousand of equipment you don't need.
Even with a really expensive metal detector, the way the metal ions leach out, especially rust from iron pipe, it would again only get you within a couple of feet.

If you aren't competent, don't DIY, call a pro and watch them do it.
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>>1146516 what's strange is that the garden hose faucet is right above a stone patio. but, the hole isn't that from it, maybe about 9 feet away. I'm not at home, but if the thread is still up tomorrow I'll post a new picture at ground level.
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>>1146446
There's a hole in it already.

>how do i fix?
>i don't want to fix

kill yourself.
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>>1147465 no, I don't want to make it deeper, fucking brainlet. if it turns out that the water line is right next to or under the sinkhole, then I'll dig it up more to get to it.

>I don't want to fix

when did I say I didn't want to fix it, fag?. are you trying to say that I need to dig deeper into the sinkhole (which might not even be near the pipe)?
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>>1145396
Could also be cpvc
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>>1147684 the pipe behind my toilet is pvc, but I'm not sure if it was fitted as a replacement just for the toilet or if it runs all the way through the house
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Plumber here. HaHa. Not giving advice for free. Y'all DIY weekend warriors are idiots.
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>>1146084

Here in the US you can do your own work as long as you are just doing maintenance. To switch a whole system over to Pex or to add onto a system requires permits though. Honestly, unless you're doing something like plumbing a brand new addition to your house, the government won't know anyway.

When my parents built their house, my dad did all the plumbing and then just had a friend who was a licensed plumber sign off on it.
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>>1146446
>>1147681
I hope your shitty house explodes with you and your family inside it.
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>>1147986 wew lad, surely you don't venture outside of /b/ very often.
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>>1147986 actually, the house itself is in great shape besides the piping. why are you so triggered?.

>low resolution thumbnail

the things that can send a person on the warpath.
Thread posts: 33
Thread images: 5


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