Teach me a little about big building plumbing

In My Humble Opinion
1

… so I might have an idea about what’s going on and what to expect from the plumber.

I’m in an apartment in a 40-unit, 4-storey building (sub-grade ground and three levels above). Vintage building, partially rehabbed about 10 years ago, on Chicago city water supply. I’m on the top floor. Sometimes my water pressure is nearly nonexistent and I barely get a trickle out of the kitchen sink cold water while the hot water seems affected but close to normal. Water pressure isn’t fantastic in the first place, but it’s fine, usually, until July of this year. In July, I started getting intermittent drops in pressure that would last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. These drops in pressure are significant, as in trickle, and can’t get enough to run the shower head.

A plumber was sent out, and he seemed to already suspect the problem, he just needed to get into my apartment to verify. He came in, turned on the bathroom tub tap full, and asked me how the kitchen tap was running. It was a trickle. He then turned the tap off, nodded, and said the problem is in the basement, not any of the units, and they would have to put up notices that the water would have to be turned off in order to fix it.

That was August, and as far as I know, the water hasn’t been turned off. Now, the problem seemed to be much better for a couple of months, but the problem seems to have started up again, and this time for 20 minutes to an hour or more.

This is a huge problem if I need to get ready for work. It’s weird, it’s happened the last two Saturdays right around 4pm - just when I need to hit the shower to get ready for work at 6. This last Saturday the pressure never came back and I had to wash my hair in the sink.

I’ve spoken with management and a plumber is coming back out this week. What I want to know is what to expect, and if the above is enough information for someone with knowledge to be able to tell me if this is a problem that could have been “band-aided” temporarily and now is back a couple of months later.

My management company is good, but there’s no manager on-site (living here), and she manages 8 buildings, so she’s responsive but can’t always be present when workers come to fix stuff. I’m the sort who prefers to be aware of whether a service person is jerking around with either me or the management company. If I am able to tell them this guy is half-assing a problem that’s really a big one, I’m pretty sure they’ll get a different plumber out here, pronto, to fix it right.

My google-fu was not strong when trying to search for this.

2

My guess is that your building has old galvanized pipes that are rusted and have blockages and the whole building needs new water lines. The owner might be aware of the situation, but knows it is a major expense that he can’t or doesn’t want to deal with at this time. I hope I’m wrong.

Here is a link that deals with homes, but would also apply to your apartment building:

http://www.single-family-home-remodeling.com/galvanized-pipe.html

Good luck!

3

Thanks for that link, I did get rusty water when I turned the taps on for the first time when I moved in here about a year and a half ago. Again when they had to fix the hot water heater and the hot water was off for a few hours. When the building was upgraded about 10 years ago, it seems they did the windows, floors and electric, but not the plumbing. We have steam radiator heat, too, which I love.

Got delayed today, plumber at least called me, due to another emergency. We made another appointment for Saturday, he said something about hooking up a pump and flushing the pipes to get the rust out, and will take about 30 minutes. We’ll see. I explained before that this is intermittent, and not low-flow all the time, but when it is, it’s pretty bad. I guess as long as I have consistent showers, it’s ultimately not my problem. If it continues after this “fix” that sounds temporary, I may have to escalate and contact the main management company directly rather than use the building manager as a go-between.

Anyway, thanks for the info from that link, that sounds like the problem, and at least if I have to speak with higher-up people I’ll sound like I have some idea what’s going on.

4

Not only is it temporary, but flushing out the rust can leave iron pipes weakened and/or leaky. My water flow also sucks, and the water is visibly rusty. My landlord won’t hear of replacing the pipes, so I’m using a renter’s stratagem – I have the water heater turned up all the way, so that I can blend it with a bit of cold water and take a reasonably hot and not too terribly weak shower.

5

So, the plumbers were just here and gone in less than 30 minutes. All they had to “flush” was the tub, the younger guy said it all comes up on the same riser. Ultimately, yes, the pipes need to be replaced he agrees, but I guess that’s really not his or my problem as long as my pressure is reasonable. There’s not much else I can do as far as building maintenance, yanno?

The difference is - astounding. The shower makes a straight stream from the shower head now, instead of the limp-dick shape it made before. Hopefully it will stay reasonably normal now when someone else is running their tub, too, unlike before that made mine basically unusable. Some fluctuations are normal, and expected, but what happened since July would have made me move if it kept up. The kitchen faucet, when I take the aerator/limiter off, comes out so well that it hits the sink and sprays everywhere.

I guess we’ll see if it needs to be done again while I live here. I plan to be here a few more years. They probably won’t do any replacing until the pipes give out completely. Glad I’m on the top floor.

6

Thanks for the update. I’m glad that the temporary fix worked, but I suspect that you will have more water pressure problems in the future, unfortunately.