I live in a townhouse complex. My townhouse and my neighbor’s townhouse (in the same physical building) are having water pressure problems.
Symptoms:
whenever water is being used by more than 1 faucet / toilet / shower / etc. the amount of water coming out is reduced by about 50%. For example, turn on the water in the bathroom sink - good pressure. Then flush the toilet and the output is reduced by about half while the toilet tank is filling. Pressure in the sink returns when the toilet tank is full.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using hot water or cold water. For example, turn on the hot water only in the bathroom sink - good pressure. Then flush the toilet, which presumably uses only cold water, and the output is still reduced by about 50%.
Turn the hot water all the way on in the sink. Now turn the cold water all the way on, and there is no difference in the amount of water coming out.
If the washing machine is running (and filling) downstairs, the shower upstairs doesn’t have enough pressure for an adequate shower.
These problems occur in the 2 townhouses in the building I am in, but not in the adjoining buildings which were built at different times. Our building is about 20 years old.
There are no wet spots on the ground around my building which would indicate broken pipes in the ground.
Anybody got any ideas what could be causing this problem in our units? What can a plumber do to diagnose the problem?
I am going to report it to the HOA, but I’d like to have some ideas or suggestions about the problem before I do.
My neighbor and I have separate shut off valves. Seems unlikely that both of our valves are partially closed. I’ll go check mine just to be sure, though.
The symptoms definitely make it sound as if there could be a restriction (e.g. a partially-closed master valve) upstream of the two separate valves. I’d investigate this possibility.
I know you say there are no wet spots in the yard, but water from a leak doesn’t always come to the surface, at least not a small leak. I just repaired a ruptured supply line at my daughter’s house recently. When we got that repair done she remarked how much better the water pressure was in her house, especially when multiple faucets were running. There had been a leak in the supply line for quite some time, but it was small enough that the ground absorbed it and it wasn’t apparent on the surface. Once the crack n the pipe inevitably got bigger it began showing up on the surface.
Just saying that no wet ground doesn’t necessarily mean no leak, even one that causes pressure issues.
Sounds like the OP has some type of upstream constriction in the line.
I had a piece of solder break loose upstream from my water softener and lodge against the inline filter screen about 2 years after it was installed. The line it broke from was larger and the debris didn’t caused problems until it hit the smaller orifice.