Clogged steel water pipes


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Old 02-01-09, 05:48 AM
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Clogged steel water pipes

Recently bought house. All steel piping. Cold water flows through piping but hot doesn't. Already replaced steel with copper to the kitchen sink. The steel pipe that was replaced is clogged up. Now the problem is the steel pipe to the upper floor bathroom can't be accessed without ripping into the walls. Is there anything that we could put into the steel line to unclog it?
Thanks
 
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Old 02-01-09, 09:00 AM
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If your house is old and there is galvanized steel pipe that has rusted closed from the inside there are not real fixes except replacement.Drain openers sometimes will open a small hole but usually not,sometimes send rust chunks down that reclog the drain and sometimes finish the process of rusting through for you.Depending on the situation one alternative can be running a new pipe through the wall and leaving the old one in place just tieing in where the old ties in but that is situation specific and often not possible.
 
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Old 02-02-09, 10:51 AM
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ok i am assuming you are talking about galvanized steel water lines and not cast iron drain lines. the are pipe re-linning companies like aceduraflow that might be able to help you. if they cant (and it aint cheap)

i would suggest biting the bullet and having a total repipe done since you will keep having problems until all the steel is gone from the system
 
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Old 02-08-09, 12:02 PM
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I bought a house built in 1942 and it had the same problem with the galvanized steel. Those pipes are crap. I tried replacing sections here and there where they were accessible, but the low hot water pressure continued. Not until I replaced ALL the pipes with pex did the problem stop.

It's amazing how plugged up the hot pipes were. You could take a 12" piece and hold it up to the light and NOT be able to see through.

Replace/repipe your whole house and you will be happy.
 
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Old 02-24-09, 11:11 AM
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galvanized pipe replacement...

ok so 1st glad to hear I'm not the only one with these crappy clogged galvanized steel pipes!

2nd where to start on the replacement... my husband & I will be doing the majority of the work ourselves to save some $. we have clogs in both kitchen & bath (bath is directly above) so I assume we should start up & work our way down? Like bathroom this year, kitchen next right? With that in mind we have a CI tub & the drain lines run directly under the tub horizontally to the wall where they turn 90* to go down to the kitchen, should we replace all the way to the 90* turn? Any pointers?
thank you muchly!
 
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Old 02-24-09, 12:16 PM
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You can start anywhere but if you want positive results as you go I suggest starting at the water meter.
 
 

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