(Newswire.net — May 23, 2014) Durham, NC –Water pressure is probably the first thing people notice whenever they go to a new house, visit a friend or family member, or stay in a hotel room. If the pressure is to low it can be very frustrating and cumbersome. High pressure can always be scaled back easily at the faucet but low pressure is a different story.
How does it work though? City water has to have high pressure to get around to all the places it needs to go so the problem usually lies with the house itself. Friction reduces water pressure and this friction can be increased or decreased by the size of the pipes.
Half inch pipes have more friction that three quarter inch pipes. If there is low water pressure replacing the visible half inch pipes with the larger will immediately increase water pressure. This happens because the larger pipes have less friction than the smaller pipes.
What if the pipe size isn’t the problem? Then there could be a blockage especially if the reduction in water pressure is recent.
John Dietz, owner of JD Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning has this to say, “Water pressure in the house can be the cause of a lot of problems. Too high and it can break fixtures, too low and water can’t get to where it needs to go. The nice thing is that both of these problems are easy fixes.”
On the other side when building a brand new house make sure to check the size of the piping going in and get the correct size for the water pressure you are trying to get, it’s always easier to adjust before it has gone into the house.
If the house is already built then it is much less expensive to replace the visible pipes first and see how that affects the water pressure before trying to get at the pipes that are lot harder to reach.