Anybody Know Anything About Plumbing?

My first thought is that the shower head could have mineral deposits clogging the little holes. I have really hard water and we routinely have to clean the shower head. Another thought is that there could be an adjustment on the shower head that controls the flow.

Do yourself a favor....MOST plumbers will diagnose for a small fee (50-75 bucks) Get a plumber to tell you your problem FIRST, then you can go about self help. You could get a hundred guesses from women on a site that havent looked at your pipes, nor know anything about plumbing. You could do more harm than good by guessing.

GL:)

If it was sudden, my fear is a leak too. When we suddenly lost pressure, we had a leak (on our property, so our neighbors weren't affected either). If it's just the shower, I'd guess it's a leak just in that line. My fear is that by trying to save money not calling a plumber, you could end up with major water damage over time if it is a leak. I like the suggestion about calling someone for a diagnosis/estimate--get info for relatively cheap and then decide if it's something you could fix.

Good luck!!!

My husband grew up around plumbing and now works for a plumbing/HVAC company. He said that it sounds like there is no pressure in the cold water line. The hot water is fine because the cold water fills up the water heater, and then the water heater puts out the hot water. If the cold water has no pressure it is probably because there is a leak in the line somewhere.

The first thing to do is exactly what Tara P. suggested and call your water company to find out if your water usage is higher than normal. If it is then you can guarantee there is a leak in the cold water line. You will need a plumber to come listen and figure out where exactly the leak is in your house, and then remove the pipe that is ruined and replace it.

Right after my husband and I got married and living in our first house, we had a HUGE leak. The utility company showed we had used 72,000 gallons of water in a month! We were wondering why we hadn't found ourselves in the middle of a lake or something. Hubby had his uncle (a plumber) come over and he found our leak. Luckily ours was accessible from the back of the house. It was an easy enough fix, but we still had the water bill to pay. The utility company lowered it a little for us because they agreed that 72,000 gallons was a lot to use in a month's time. We still had to pay a good portion of it though, because the water lines at our house are our responsibility.

Good luck!

We had that happen last year, and one of the rubber washers was old and started to tear apart and clogged the shower head...the fix was about $1...hopefully yours is something simple like that. :)

Take the showerhead off and turn the water on full blast with both hot and cold water. See if you get any white chunks coming out. Reason I say this is cuz a while back there was a major recall on the dip tubes in the hot water tanks which caused them to crumble all inside the hot water tank and eventually they work their way through your lines. Also once you get that showerhead off soak it in CLR you can buy this at any hardware store. Hope this fixes your problems! Oh and u will need more plumbers tape before screwing the showerhead back on so you can have a tight seal! Its also at the hardware store! Good Luck!

Is the pressure only bad when showering? Well, I suppose I should have asked is this a tub/shower unit or shower only. I think the first thing I'd try is the shower head itself. We had problems with out shower once, and it turned out to be the shower head. We took it off, and the water flowed just fine. So all I had to buy was a new shower head, which (depending on your preference) can be very inexpensive.

are you only having problems in your bathroom or is it in all the faucets throughout the house. I was going to suggest that you make sure that the air pressure in you water pressure tank is at the proper level if this problem exists in your whole house but then I'm not sure that people who are hooked up to city water have a pressure tank in the house. If this is the case and you don't have a pressure tank then doesn't the city have some type of pressure regulator hooked up to your house-inside or outside. If they do then isn't it their responsibilty to check it out for no cost. I would think so but then I have never been a prisoner to city water. good luck

It night just be the washers in the handles. Cheap fix to try!

I also suggest that you shower head is plugged or if the flow is adjustable the adjustment was changed somehow. If the shower head is clogged I suggest that the flow would have been gradually getting slower until suddenly it's way too slow. You can take the head off and see what the water pressure is without the head.

The easiest way to clean the shower head is to remove it. Soak it in white vinegar to remove deposits.

The cold water flow in our br sink is greatly reduced. My cousin, who is a handyman sort suspects there is a clog in the pipe somewhere. He can't fix it himself and so we're living with it.

You can try to go to the hardware store and talk to the person in the plumbing department. They can usually offers some good tips.

My thought were a leak in the pipes somewhere. I would first try to clean everything up, as mentioned and then start looking for leaks. Is it an upstairs restroom? Start looking for leaks on the downstairs ceiling. Then look for overwatered plants or dying plants in the yard. One of my clients had flowers that kept dying. He and his wife took their shoes off and walked every square foot of the house until they found warm tiles. That is where the leak was. I thought he was coocoo, but they actually found the leak.

Best of luck.

One of my client

Can you call your water company and ask them to check your water usage? If there's leak somewhere, you could have a HUGE water bill coming and it might show up that way! That happened to us.

You might check the shower head to make sure there isn't some debri blocking it. Sometimes silt, sand etc. can build up, you can just clean it out and put it back on.

anxious to see your results....

If you haven't drained your water heater in a while, I would recommend you start there. First, turn off your water heater breaker if it's electric. There is a hook up for a garden hose and I drain it to my bath tub. Shut the water off and follow the instructions about opening your blow down valve on the tank to help it drain. I turn the water back on as needed a few times to get all the deposits out of the water heater.

Also if you have an air compressor, take the shower head off, and soak it in CLR and blow air into the shower pipe and it should blow out any calcium deposits, I would make sure that you have a bigger faucet open, the deposits can escape through like your bathtub faucet, if it is a combined unit, when you turn your water heater back on.
Good luck.
Oh and water treatment is my job, lol.