Russell in Florida, you’re on the line. What can we do for you?
RUSSELL: I am – well, I have horrible water pressure in my house and I was wondering if there was an easy way of fixing that.
TOM: How old is your house, Russell?
RUSSELL: The original part of the house was built in 1976.
TOM: Oh, that’s pretty young. And you have city water or do you have well water?
RUSSELL: City water.
TOM: Hmm. Well, the first thing to do is to contact the city water department and have the water pressure checked at the curb to make sure …
RUSSELL: I did.
TOM: And what did they say?
RUSSELL: It was good. Going from the street to my water box was good. I don’t remember exactly what the water pressure was but it was good water pressure. I have about 60 feet from the water box to the entrance to the house with an oak tree in the middle.
TOM: Well, I mean that shouldn’t have an effect on it. What you really need to do is to sort of trace this water pressure issue right through into the house. In a 1976 house, my feeling is it’s probably not anything to do with the plumbing. It’s probably a valve.
RUSSELL: Oh, really?
TOM: You probably have an obstructed valve. Yeah.
RUSSELL: Wow, that would be a lot easier than replacing the whole line, wouldn’t it?
TOM: Well right, because in a 1976 house you probably have either a plastic water entry pipe or you have a copper water entry pipe. In either case, it’s not going to suffer from any type of interior corrosion like old, metal steel pipes do that clog down and they sort of rust inward like clogged arteries. So I think this is a mechanical issue where you have a valve obstruction somewhere. So if the street pressure is good, I would have a plumber check the pressure at the main where it comes into your house and try to figure out where the – where this restriction is. It shouldn’t be that complicated to track this down.
RUSSELL: OK, perfect. Then I will start with that.
TOM: Russell, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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