Plumbing FAQ
|
Here are some more plumbing questions that I get asked frequently. Rather than respond to them individually - which is starting to take up time - here are the answers. Please remember - this is for your information only! If you start fixing any of this yourself then you are on your own! Use your browsers "search" to find what you are looking for.
What is "Polycop" pipe? It's a brown/red pipe available in three major diameters (15/22/28mm) used to replace galvanised pipe for the distribution of COLD water. It's a particularly strong and resilient pipe that is most suited for use underground. The pipe itself is cheap although the "Conex" type fittings are much more expensive than traditional steel fittings. Please note that it is not meant to convey HOT water! What are the advantages of using copper pipe? There are a number of pros and cons in the use of copper water pipe. The main advantage is it's almost total resistance to corrosion. You can chase copper pipe into a wall and be confident that it will probably outlast the wall! When the pipes are soldered together properly you create a very resilient and hassle free distribution system that is going to last for a very, very long time. It is also very quick and easy to join (cut/solder) and you can create elaborate systems within very confined spaces. There are a few potential problems however - the main one is that it's actually quite fragile when exposed to external forces like bending, crushing or freezing. Copper pipes are more prone to freezing and bursting and must be lagged if they are exposed. Copper pipes are not generally used underground - they are too easily crushed and there are better materials to use - polycop. Copper pipes are not used as tap standpipes, again because the external forces will eventually break the pipe. Copper pipe is expensive when compared to composite and steel pipes. Why are plumbers often unreliable/late? We try to be punctual and reliable but we have a number of issues conspiring against us :-). Work schedules are seldom planned - we react to a series of emergencies. We are not able to staff our businesses with spare capacity because then we would have to double our rates. When I go out on my first job of the day I actually have no idea how long it's going to take. I base my estimates on how long it normally takes, but I seldom have an accurate explanation of what lies ahead. When I get to my first job I assess it and based on that I ether get cracking or start phoning my subsequent customers to tell them that I will be late. In other cases I may work on the problem and fix it only to find that the pipe is now leaking somewhere else! Now I am stuck - I have to fix it and my schedule is out the window. In many cases we have to stop the leak or fix the flow before we can leave. This sometimes results in us working late into the night. Can I fit a 200l geyser to a wall? No. The feet on a 200 litre geyser are not designed to support the weight of the geyser. This is because there is a possibility that the geyser will overload the wall itself. I have seen 200l units mounted on (strong) walls using special brackets. In general I would say that this is best avoided. What is the power requirement of a domestic type geyser? Typically 3000 to 4000 Watts. Why do some pipes always freeze and others not? The dynamics of freezing water pipes is very interesting. There is obviously good solid science behind every pipe burst, but some cases are hard to explain. Firstly, pipes that have a flow in them are very hard to freeze. The water in the pipe is constantly being "replaced" so it will not freeze easily. Also it often looks like vertical pipes are resistant to freezing? If you have horizontal and vertically oriented pipes its the horizontal ones that burst! We think that we have figured out why :-). When it gets very cold the temperature gradient moves in a vertical orientation. In other words the cold moves "up" from the ground and the layer of air say at -2 degrees gradually moves up and past the pipe. When it moves up a vertical pipe it freezes the water as it moves and you eventually end up with a pipe that is progressively iced. In the case of a horizontal pipe it freezes in a number of places at the SAME TIME. So you end up with a number of ice plugs in the pipe - further icing expansion then has nowhere to go so the pipe bursts. This contrasted with the vertical pipe where the expansion is always moving beyond the frozen section as the cold moves up. On a wall of copper pipe in an exposed area ALL the pipe freezes but not all of them will burst - the vertically orientated pipe is generally better able to cope with the icing expansion. Having said all this I have seen vertical pipes burst, but not that often. I installed ceiling insulation this winter and now I am having problems with burst pipes in my roof space. Why? In a house without ceiling insulation a lot of heat from the living area goes straight up into the roof space. This ensures that the pipes will never freeze and burst. If you then install a particularly effective ceiling insulation you remove that heat source from the roof space and you may now find that in very cold weather the temperature goes below 0 Degrees. When you install ceiling insulation you MUST either make sure your pipes are underneath it (on the warmer side) or you must lag them individually. This is the primary cause of burst pipes in ceilings - the roof space gets too cold. The pipes feeding my house are rusted and are leaking. Why did they use steel pipes that rust? Have a look at rust for a full explanation.
How are two geysers interconnected? This is a fairly common question asked by those who wish to increase the amount of available hot water - say 2 x 200 liters = 400 liters. The most common way is to install them in series. The outlet from the first goes into the inlet of the second. One pressure control valve (PCV) is used at the inlet of the first. Four vacume breakers are used in the normal way. Each geyser must retain it's own safety valve. The geysers should both be the same pressure rating - either two 400's or two 600's. If there is a 400 and a 600kpa then all the valves - pressure and safety must be de-rated to 400kpa. Each geyser must have it's own isolator. Each geyser must have its own vent pipe - they cannot be "common". We often set the thermostats at 45 for the first unit and 65 degrees for the second, although I doubt that there is really a "correct" setting for every application. How much water should drip out of the overflow pipe? Kwikot have told us that you can expect up to 5-8 liters a day on a busy geyser. I think that the criteria should be that it "drips" rather than actually flows. What can I do about poor hot water pressure? There are a number of possible causes. If the cold water pressure is also poor then you need to fix that first. The problem has nothing to do with the hot water system. If the cold water pressure is good and the hot water poor then the first thing to check is the filter on the PCV valve. If it's only one tap or shower head then check the filter on that first! Failing that you need to get a plumber to investigate the cause. I am experiencing poor water pressure for some time now. Should I buy a booster pump? No. A booster pump is the last resort. A booster pump does not solve the problem, it just uses brute force to make it look like there is no problem. Before you get a booster pump you need to get a plumber to assess the situation. There are a multitude of reasons for poor water pressure, or more correctly poor FLOW. How do I know if I have a leak somewhere? This is actually very easy to establish. Switch off all the things in your house that use water - taps, washers and let the toilets fill. Make sure that nobody is using any water. Go outside and look at your water meter. Watch it for 5 minutes. It should not move at all. If you can see it moving then you have a significant leak that needs to be attended to quickly. It's costing you. If there is a very slight movement over 5 minutes then you have a smaller leak that you will have to attend to before it becomes a big leak. Leaks never get smaller! How do plumbers find leaks? There are a number of ways to find a leak. It really depends on the prevailing circumstances. Sometimes you don't need any technology other than your eyes to see the water bubbling out the ground! In most cases we can find a leak with a stethoscope and a bit of wandering around. Often we don't really need to know exactly where the leak is because we are going to replace the whole leaking pipe with a plastic one. In this case we only need to find the start and end. There are times however when a leak is hard to find and we need to know exactly where it is. In these cases we use Hydrogen/Nitrogen trace gas that is pumped into the pipe and then detected on the surface. This allows us to pinpoint the leak. This leak finding technology is particularly useful in tight areas or where the pipe is embedded in the structure. Replacement is not really an option and the leak must be fixed with the minimum damage to the surrounding structure. Should I remove the trees near my sewerage pipes? NO! The tree's are not the problem! It's the sewerage pipe that is damaged or broken and this has allowed the roots to get in. Trees are opportunistic when it comes to sewerage - they thrive on the nitrates (fertiliser) that we provide them by not repairing our sewerage pipes. In 95% of drain cleaning jobs it is roots that are causing the pipes to block - but how did the roots get into the pipe? There is some sort of damage to the pipe that lets them get in. Once they are in they can further damage the pipe. A drain line cleared of roots WILL ALWAYS block again. This until the damage to the pipe is repaired. Is there anything I can throw down my drain to remove or kill the roots? No - not safely. Drain cleaners - liquid or powder do nothing to roots. Even if you kill the tree the roots are there and have to be removed. Drain cleaners are only effective on smaller (40/50mm) waste pipes and help remove fats and other residue like soap powder. Drain cleaner often works to clear gullies (open drains) that are contaminated with the above. Throwing propriatory drain cleaner down the toilet in the hope that it will clear the 110mm sewerage line is just that - you may as well just throw the money into the bowl - it will have the same effect. I have heard that Copper Sulphate works but after hearing the quantities required I decided that it was a bad idea - dont do it. Can multi-ply toilet paper block the sewerage line? In a normal sewerage line with no breaks or issues, the answer is a qualified no. Any toilet paper can block a sewerage line if you use an entire roll! The type of toilet paper makes no difference as long as it is REAL tissue paper. A true "toilet paper" block often clears itself after a while. However - other materials like hand towels and "wet wipes" do block sewer pipes pretty effectively - especially if there are already some roots in the pipe! Sanitary towels and tampons are a guaranteed blockage if there are roots in the pipes to catch them! If the pipe is in good condition then these things flush away without any problems but in a system that is compromised by roots then they will team up with the roots to block the pipe. What is the best way to remove the roots in the pipe? Without a doubt it's a spiral coil drain machine. These machines use a cutting head to cut and wrench the roots out of the pipe. Water jetting is not particularly effective on roots and drain rods don't go around corners. My septic tank is not working - what should I put in it to make it work again? This is a very common question. Firstly we need to establish what is meant by "not working? If it's overflowing and causing the drains to back up then it's in fact not the "septic" part that's bust. It's the "drain field" or french drain that is in fact bust. In other words nothing to do with the "septic" part. Over time the drain field gets contaminated with things like fats that cause the flow into the surrounding soil to slow down and eventually stop. because there is no water flowing out of the system the whole thing backs up and stops working. There are only two things you can do. Pump out the septic tank into a tanker or dig a new drain field. The symptoms of the septic part not working is a very bad smell and failure of the solid matter to decompose properly. There are a number of causes, but this is fairly uncommon. We may be able to revive it - the process is quite simple but not always sucessfull. It must first be pumped out and cleaned up a bit. Then we temporarily install and aerator and stirrer and we run the settling tank in aerobic mode for a while (weeks) - this promotes better aerobic decomposition in the drainfield and often "revives" it. I cannot install a septic tank because of legislation/soil type/area/by laws but have no access to a municipal sewerage connection. What do I do? You can install an aerobic type septic tank. This is a three chamber tank that uses a small pump to stirr and aerate the liquid in the middle settling tank. This means that the tank decomposes the sewerage aerobicly - this is far more effective and the water quality at the discharge will be clean enough to water the garden with. Contact me for more onformation on aerobic systems. 083 458 4836. I have a borehole in my suburban property - can I drink the water? No, I wouldn't. In fact I would have it tested before I fed it to my animals or veggies. Why? Because I work with sewerage systems I have an idea of how many broken systems are out there. Broken sewerage pipes are common in all areas. There is a high level of contamination of near surface ground water by sewerage seeping out of broken pipes - So you may be lucky and stay in a "clean" area but the chances are that you are not, so avoid borehole water for domestic type use. Water the garden. My municipal water has suddenly gone brown and I notice what looks like sand and other material in it. Can I drink it? No - wait for it to clear first. Wait a day before you drink it. Although the drinking water in the metropolitan areas is generally of a high quality, local contamination can occur. I have seen it happen. Here is a scenario. A large diameter main line is leaking and is dug up. So you may have a big pipe exposed by an equally big ditch that has been dug by an excavator. While the guys are working on pipe the leaking pipe breaks properly. The remaining water in the pipe quickly fills the ditch even though it has been shut off further up. The consumers at the other end of the pipe (down stream) continue to use water and at some point the water in the ditch is syphoned back into the pipe. The ditch is empty again! Now if the ditch was contaminated by something - a dead animal, feces, chemicals then that contamination has been sucked into the water pipe and will ultimately come out of somebodies tap. It is an uncommon occurance but it does happen. A plumber unblocked my drain 6 months ago and it's blocked again. Did he clean it properly? A very common question. In all fairness to the unnamed plumber - he may well have cleaned it "properly". When I get asked to unblock a drain the measure of my success is that the water flows again. That is what the customer wants. I always advise my customers that the blockage has an identifiable cause and tell them that it will block again. I further give them the option to do a camera inspection so that we can assess the cause and come up with a price to fix the cause. In 95% of jobs the customer only wants the thing unblocked. So how will I know that the blockage is cleared - only because my machine has traversed the blocked area and I know that the roots have been removed in that area. But it can block somewhere else, or that same area can block again in 6 months time when the roots grow back. This is why my "re-clean" guarantee is 30 days. If I have done a camera inspection then I know what I am dealing with and can sometimes guarantee the job for much longer. Is there any particular species of tree that one should avoid planting near sewerage pipes? Yes. In my opinion that has got to be a palm tree! They are very aggressive and will find weaknesses that other trees don't :-). When I do an unblocking job the palm tree always marks the location of the problem. I have a broken sewerage pipe running under my house/garage/paving. How do I fix it? There are two options. Re-route the pipe or use pipe bursting or re-lining to fix the broken pipe. These new methods are often cheaper and less disruptive than re-routing the system. In some cases re-routing is not really an option. My drain is blocking repeatedly and my plumber says that I have black pipe and that it will have to be replaced. What is black pipe? Have a look at fibre/pitch pipe for an explanation of "black" pipe. It is going to have to be replaced at some stage. We are having problems with water pressure that nobody seems to be able to fix. Is there a silver bullet? There is if you are talking about a fairly large and complex distribution. It's called "hydraulic flow simulation". You capture the layout into the computer and press a button. It tells you how much water should be coming out of every tap. It can also tell you how to correct any inbuilt design flaws. Are you able to clean/clear ALL sewers? No. In some cases we do get to a pipe that has to be dug up. The pipe has collapsed or has been destroyed by too many drain cleaners and it is no longer viable as a pipe. Although our success rate is fairly good with the mechanical drain cleaning machine we sometimes have to use water jetting to clear the pipe. This is due to the nature of the blockage and/or the diameter - typically 160mm or more. Water jetting is particularly effective in cleaning storm water pipes that have various solids inside them. Is water jetting effective in cleaning typical domestic systems - 110mm pipe? Generally not. It's better to use the mechanical machine first. if the mechanical machine is unable to clear the obstruction then a water jet may be the answer. You have to be careful though. Careless jetting can damage the pipes - especially fibre/pitch pipes. Water jetting is not effective in clearing roots unless the pressure is around 400 Bar. At this pressure it cuts roots like butter. Water jetting is effective in removing solid obstructions and "plugs" and often works after the mechanical cleaner has failed - especially in larger bore pipes. Water jetting can be used to unblock unusually long lines - 40m+. Water jetting is always the better choice when it comes to cleaning storm water pipes. How long does it take for a geyser to fill? It should in fact only ever have to be filled once - just after it's installed. If you find that it drains out when the main supply is interuppted then it is not installed correctly. The water is being sucked out via the supply side. This has the potential to burn out the uncovered element and should be avoided. Switch off the geyser if you get hot water out the cold tap during a supply interuption. Having said all that it can take a while (5 to 10 minutes) to fill depending on the pressure and size of the pipe. You must open a hot tap to allow it to fill. My sewer line blocked and all the sewerage from the flat above flooded into my flat! Why? This is actually a design problem typical of modern cluster living. Modern complexes often use a 110mm stack outside the bathroom. The waste water from the bath, shower and basins is piped directly into the 110mm stack. Previously the design would use an open drain or "gully". The water from the shower, bath and basins would be dropped into the open gully. The key is the word "open"! In the event of a sewer line blockage the sewerage would push back along the pipe and up the gully. It would eventually over top the gully and spill out onto the ground. It could not get pushed up into the waste pipes - nor could it be pushed out through the toilet. Without the gully the sewerage pushes back into the shower, bath and ultimatly comes out the toilet. This only happens if there is sufficient pressure building up - like from a flat/s above. The consequences of this are catastrophic! Solution? Get a gully fitted. If you actually see this happening then there are a few things you can do in an emergency (before the drain cleaners get there). First you must open a rodding or inspection eye - the lowest one you can find. This will cause the sewerage to escape at a lower point outside rather than push up into your house. As a last resort I would smash the outside 110mm pipe so that the sewerage spilled outside. It's cheaper to repair the pipe that to clean the house! Blockbuster drain Cleaning - The Drain Brains
|
