Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

Bad water pipes
It is common in older houses that the cold water pipes are wholly or partly made of galvanized iron. These iron pipes rust
internally and in the end it will be holes in them. It is a serious problem because it is so high water pressure in those pipes that
it will spray large amounts of water before someone comes to turning off the water. In addition to this serious risk, the flow in
them will gradually decrease with time, because of that the internal corrosion cake expands and makes the active diameter
smaller and smaller. Moreover, there will be rust spots around the taps because the water carry small amounts of rust through
the pipes. It is most urgent to replace the iron pipes where they are connected with coppe ones. This because the metal ions
will migrate from the less noble metal iron to the more noble copper ditto if there is some water on the pipes. which often is
the case because cold water pipes in general is colder than the air in the space in general, and thus there is condense on them.
Bad sewer pipes
Drain pipes in cast iron will rust. Which in turn leads to the hole that sewage is running through becomes smaller and smaller
in the same way as in cold water pipes. Also sewer pipes may rust so that it becomes leakage and sewage flows into the floors
and walls. The most sensitive points of the system are the horizontal bends because there water hits the tube walls and the
wastewater can also become stagnant instead of just run through as it does in the following sections. Moreover the horizontal
pipes in the kitchen and bathrooms is made of much smaller dimensions than the standing sewage tribes, and that in turn
makes them easier to to clogg.
Replacing old sewer pipe is not expensive but many times these are built into floors and walls. Why it is expensive to expose
the tubes and the remake the floors/walls afterwards. It is therefore reasonable to take the opportunity to renowate the surface
layers of the bathrooms or kitchens in the same time. But otherwise there are simple and affordable ways to renovate old
sewer pipe without replacing them, such as relining.
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