dylane
New Member
I have been helping a friend through some pressure issues in his new home. The shower on his second floor barely works. And I mean barely works. The toilet also seems to fill slowly, but the bath sink seems to work just fine (however it is the old dual faucet style).
The house only has one wet wall which runs from the mechanical room in the basement up to the first floor in the kitchen and then up to the second floor in the bathroom. The basement plumbing has been changed from galvanized pipe to copper (3/4 inch from the city, 3/4 inch throughout the basement). The pipe from the basement to the first and second floor is all galvanized, and by the looks of it, it is about 80 years old.
My first impression was to remove the galvanized pipe, run 3/4 inch copper to the first floor, branch 1/2 inch to the kitchen sink and then run 3/4" cold to the second floor and 1/2" hot to the second floor. But a plumber told me to first buy a pressure gauge and make sure the pressure was good. So I purchased a pressure guage and at the hose connection on the outside of the house (3/4 copper) we got 70PSI and 15 GPM when we did a flow test. I proceeded to test the pressure at the kitchen sink and at the tub on the second floor. Both tested at 65-70PSI, but when we did a flow test in the tub (through the faucet with hot and cold running) we only got about 3.3 GPM, which seemed low even though we were going through the faucet. We did not do a flow test in the kitchen sink, it does seem to run slow to me, but that could be the style of sink as it is one of those sink spout/sprayer combined faucets.
So, here is my question, am I over thinking this too much? Is the problem most likely the galvanized pipe and I shouldn't worry about the pressure and flow at the faucets? Or should I look at maybe replacing the bath faucet first? We took apart the shower head and made sure it wasn't clogged and the faucet handles are in good working order. I am a little concerned about the bath faucet because it is a claw foot tub and the feed from the top of the faucet to shower head is restricted to a 3/8" fitting. But that could be normal for older claw foot tub faucets.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I would hate to rip apart the walls and find that we did a bunch of unnecessary work.
I have posted some pictures of the project.
https://picasaweb.google.com/dylan.ebner/SVSPlumbingProblem#
The house only has one wet wall which runs from the mechanical room in the basement up to the first floor in the kitchen and then up to the second floor in the bathroom. The basement plumbing has been changed from galvanized pipe to copper (3/4 inch from the city, 3/4 inch throughout the basement). The pipe from the basement to the first and second floor is all galvanized, and by the looks of it, it is about 80 years old.
My first impression was to remove the galvanized pipe, run 3/4 inch copper to the first floor, branch 1/2 inch to the kitchen sink and then run 3/4" cold to the second floor and 1/2" hot to the second floor. But a plumber told me to first buy a pressure gauge and make sure the pressure was good. So I purchased a pressure guage and at the hose connection on the outside of the house (3/4 copper) we got 70PSI and 15 GPM when we did a flow test. I proceeded to test the pressure at the kitchen sink and at the tub on the second floor. Both tested at 65-70PSI, but when we did a flow test in the tub (through the faucet with hot and cold running) we only got about 3.3 GPM, which seemed low even though we were going through the faucet. We did not do a flow test in the kitchen sink, it does seem to run slow to me, but that could be the style of sink as it is one of those sink spout/sprayer combined faucets.
So, here is my question, am I over thinking this too much? Is the problem most likely the galvanized pipe and I shouldn't worry about the pressure and flow at the faucets? Or should I look at maybe replacing the bath faucet first? We took apart the shower head and made sure it wasn't clogged and the faucet handles are in good working order. I am a little concerned about the bath faucet because it is a claw foot tub and the feed from the top of the faucet to shower head is restricted to a 3/8" fitting. But that could be normal for older claw foot tub faucets.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I would hate to rip apart the walls and find that we did a bunch of unnecessary work.
I have posted some pictures of the project.
https://picasaweb.google.com/dylan.ebner/SVSPlumbingProblem#