Does your home have galvanized plumbing? If so, you may be wondering if you should spend the money to upgrade to all of those old pipes. Here are some reasons to act on this home renovation project sooner rather than later.
Avoid A Pipe Burst
Those galvanized pipes in your home are essentially a ticking time bomb. The question is not if the pipe will eventually burst but when it will burst. It could happen within the next week, or it could happen 30 years from now. If that happens when you are not home to catch it, you'll have water empty out into your home and create a lot of damage in the process. You'll be wishing you took the time to replace your galvanized plumbing while it was still in working condition. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell when galvanized plumbing will break. All of that corrosion happens inside the pipe, and you can't see it unless you cut into the pipe to replace it.
If you're on a budget, you may consider replacing the horizontal run of pipes in your home since that is where the water rests and the most corrosion is likely to happen. This makes it easy to swap out the pipes that are exposed in a basement or crawlspace but not open up the walls to replace the vertical runs to your second floor.
Improve Water Pressure
Do you have faucets in your home where the water pressure is not that great? All that corrosion can lead to a smaller pipe where the water struggles to flow through. You'll need to replace the galvanized plumbing with copper to improve the water pressure. Copper is not going to rust inside the pipe, so the improved water pressure should remain constant afterward.
Improve Water Purity
Have you noticed that the water in your home has a slight brown color to it? This is actually the rust inside the pipe causing the water to become impure as it passes through it. You can use a filtration system on the faucet in your kitchen to improve the purity of the water, but it will not affect the water for the entire home. Even a home water filtration system won't help since the water is coming in contact with the rust as it flows to each faucet. Fixing this problem will require new pipes to keep the water as pure as possible.
A company like Laroc Refrigeration-Metal Division can help answer your questions about replacing plumbing.
