Checking your pipework for faults is an essential element of home maintenance. It’s something everyone should be doing from time to time, particularly if they live in a traditional property.
Checking pipes is critical for a few reasons. The first is that it ensures your system continues to perform reliably. It can also help you reduce long-term plumbing costs in the future.
However, you don’t always know what you’re looking for when it comes to pipework. Most of us aren’t experts.
Fortunately, this post provides a few guidelines and pointers to put you on the right track. Here are some of the things you want to look out for to check your pipework for faults to see if you have a problem.
Watch Out For Excessive Water Bills
Checking your water bills is one of the most indirect methods for assessing your pipework for faults. If you notice a sudden spike in costs, you could have a cracked pipe on your hands.
Your water bill should be roughly the same from month to month, except when you have guests or spend time away (in which case you might expect it to go up or down a bit).
However, if you notice that it is off the charts and more than double what you’d usually pay for no obvious reason, you’ll want to investigate further. It might be because you left the tap running, but if you think that’s unlikely, the next most likely suspect is a damaged pipe.
Inspect Appliances And Fixtures
Another tactic is to inspect the appliances and fixtures in your home. Checking them regularly can help you identify problems with your pipes before they develop into something more serious.
Take a look at the Z brackets around your HVAC and boiler to ensure they aren’t coming loose or away from the wall. Look for excessive dust on the floor that might suggest movement or a loosening of the fittings.
Also, listen carefully to your appliances for unusual sounds. If your boiler or compressor unit sounds different from normal, it could indicate component failure you need to address immediately.
Finally, look for evidence of dripping or leaks. You can sometimes feel, smell, and hear it, even if you can’t see it. The exterior of components shouldn’t be wet unless you have a condensation issue.
Look For Sediment Buildup
Another sign of problem pipes is sediment buildup. When pipes crack, they can attract dirt from the surrounding area, which flows along with the water through into your sinks. Often, it comes out an orange or brown color, mixed with mud.
Dealing with this problem usually requires professional assistance. Pipes are often crushed many feet underground and require professional extraction.
Sediment inside pipes is also something you’ll want to check for. It can block them, leading to clogs of fresh water into your home and wastewater out of it.
You can buy products to remove sediment buildup that you pour down your sinks and toilets, but these aren’t always effective. Be on the lookout for excessive sediment in hard water areas prone to limescale buildup.
Look For Pipe Discoloration
You’ll also want to look for pipe discoloration. Changes in the color of metal copper pipes (usually green) indicate corrosion and could imply pipework is about to fail.
The modern solution to this problem is to use plastic pipes. Removing the old pipes and replacing them with new ones can prevent corrosion from leading to leaks and plumbing failures.
Most metal pipes will last around 40 years. However, some can fail before this, particularly if exposed to salty sediments from the inside.
Look For Moisture In Crawl Spaces
Another tactic is to check for moisture buildup in your crawl spaces. Your home’s humidity level should remain roughly the same over time, but it can increase if you have leaks inside your home. Condensation may appear on windows, pipes, or walls themselves in more serious instances.
Check the areas around your pipes for water stains. Even if leaks are hidden underground, you may still see damp rising from the floorboard level. You may also smell mold in certain rooms with failing pipework.
Check The Water Pressure
Checking the water pressure is another tactic you can use to find issues with your home’s piping system. If the pressure is lower than what you might expect, it could indicate the presence of a leak, stopping the water from flowing naturally.
You should have water pressure gauges on your boiler. However, if you don’t, you can also look for pressure sensors next to your meter.
You can also visually inspect the water pressure and note any changes from times you’ve used it in the past.
Home water pressures should be around 60 PSI. If you notice yours is significantly lower than that and water isn’t coming out of faucets at the rate you experienced in the past, then a leak is the most likely explanation. However, you may want to contact the local water board to ask them whether they lowered their pressure.
Check The Meter
Another super simple tactic is to check the meter to see if it moves when you turn off all the water in your home. It if continues ticking after switching off all faucets and showers, it almost certainly indicates a leak somewhere on your side of the meter. A meter malfunction is unlikely.
Leave your faucets switched off for at least an hour to give the meter time to move. Leaks can be small and take a long time to show up on meter readings. Check back again and see if it is still ticking. If it is, call out a plumber.
Listen For Weird Noises
You can also detect pipe problems by listening out for unusual noises coming from your system. If you can hear banging and gurgling, it usually indicates a problem.
Banging noises are the most common and usually indicate a water hammer or a sudden flow of pressure inside the pipes. You can deal with these by installing so-called “water hammer arresters” that interrupt the shockwaves that cause the banging.
If you can hear high-pitched sounds, it usually means you have trapped pockets of air somewhere in your system. Sounds often resemble a squealing noise.
The optimal approach for this is to simply remove the trapped air using a plumber’s snake. Professionals push these tools through the system while opening and closing faucets to remove the trapped air.
If you have a whistling noise, it usually means worn-out washers somewhere in your system, usually on the faucets. Again, these are an easy fix. Just replace the O-rings and seals with new ones until the irritating sound goes away.
Sometimes, you will notice gurgling sounds coming from sinks and drains. The source of the sound depends on the appliance. On toilets, it usually means a problem with your flappers, while for sinks and other drains, it is often a blockage causing it.
You can usually resolve these problems by replacing worn-out components or using a plunger on the drain to dislodge whatever material is blocking it.
Lastly, if you notice thumping noises, it usually means the pipes aren’t connected together properly. Tightening loose connections usually solves this problem.
Conclusion
You can usually see visible signs of damage on your piping. But, unfortunately, most pipework is hidden in modern homes, making it more challenging to diagnose the source of problems. Furthermore, trying to fix things yourself can be a risky business.
However, once you know how to identify issues, you can more easily tell what work you need to do and if you should hire a professional.