Bathroom repair is always an impressive list of tasks, each of which puts its difficulties before us and replenishes the already impressive cost of expenses. One of these tasks is the replacement of drain and water pipes. But, as practice shows, it is here that many owners have a temptation to save. Indeed, why spend time, effort and money to replace communications, if nothing flows or flows, but it can be easily repaired?
Let’s try to figure out in what cases such savings are appropriate, and when the overhaul of bathrooms is needed with the replacement of all pipes.
Of course, the first alarming signals that indicate the wear of engineering communications are:
water under the bathroom or sink, which indicates the presence of leaks;
Increased dampness, putrefactive smell – signs of insufficient tightness of pipes, which often turns into the occurrence of mold and fungal colonies;
Slow down water drain into the sewer is a signal that the lumen of the pipe “overgrows”.
In order to find out whether pipes are possible, it is necessary to find the source of the problem. In the event that the leak is localized in the external sleeve, the crane, the place of the drain of the drain or drain -overflow, then the problem, most often, can really be solved by “low blood” – replacing the outer areas of communications. However, it should be remembered here that some methods of repair give only a temporary effect. So, for example, by minting the edge of the sewer pipe with a cement mixture, we cannot count on the fact that the connection will retain its tightness until the next cosmetic repairs (15-20 years).
There is another important nuance, which the owners in pursuit of momentary economy not so often pay attention to. We are talking about the normative service life of communications. So, how much pipe should be operated?
Steel water supply – 15 years;
galvanized water supply – 30 years;
drain -over -over – 15 years;
Cast iron drain pipes – 40 years.
“But what these numbers give us?” – you ask. In fact, these standards easily explain, masters-equipment so persistently offer to change pipes, even if there is no visible problem. After all, if communications have already exhausted their factory life resource or close to whether no one can vouch for their reliability – a flow or even a serious breakthrough can manifest itself at any time.
In practice, this means that even the most expensive decoration of bathrooms in Moscow or anywhere else can lose its meaning if in a year an unexpected flood causes damage to the quality of repair of your bathroom (and at the same time – the bathroom from below), and the brigade of masters will complete the case which dismantles the bath and several rows of brand new tiles in order to get to the gap site. Thus, the savings in replacing old pipes during the repair of the bathroom are always the risk of becoming another living proof of the proverb about the mean that always pays twice.
Source: – Article on the website of the company “Heating at home” (Moscow).