9 Things That Cause Low Water Pressure in a House
- Leaks
- Clogged Pipes
- Corrosion
- Valve Issues
- Filtration System
- Faulty Pressure Regulator
- Issues with Other Consumers in a Shared Setup
- Failing Faucet
- Problems With Your Provider
1. Leaks
Some of the most common causes of low water pressure are water leaks. Even a small leak can dramatically impact your house’s water pressure. It could also affect only specific parts of the house, which can help diagnose the problem. Leaks should be addressed as soon as they’re discovered because they have a high potential to cause further damage to your house over time.
2. Clogged Pipes
Clogged pipes are another common cause of low water pressure. This can be more difficult to identify, especially if your home’s plumbing is older and more complicated. If you can, try shutting off key valves and turning on specific faucets sequentially to determine if the issue is localized to a certain area in the house. If you don’t see any leak in that area, you’re likely dealing with clogged pipes.
3. Corrosion
Pipes can also corrode over time, which can cause a combination of the above issues. It can lead to leaks in thin, poorly insulated pipes and cause debris to build up inside the pipe. Corrosion is challenging to address because it often requires replacing entire sections of your home’s plumbing. This can be expensive to resolve, so make sure to work with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Be prepared to have entire sections of your plumbing replaced if that is the case. Depending on how old your current plumbing is, it may be impossible to simply swap out individual pipes. With a large house, the cost can add up very fast. Unfortunately, it’s also not a problem you can postpone for too long, so if you don’t have the budget for this repair, you’ll be stuck in a difficult situation.
4. Valve Issues
One malfunctioning valve can sometimes be enough to drop the water pressure in the entire house, depending on how everything is set up. In other cases, the problem might be small enough to go unnoticed for a long time until the valve breaks down completely and you experience a sudden drop in pressure throughout your home.
Sometimes it’s possible to replace a single broken valve on your own, as long as you take the necessary safety precautions like shutting off your water supply first. In other cases, you’ll need to hire a plumber. This is especially true when the valve is difficult to reach or when replacing it could have a more major implication on your home’s safety in general.
5. Filtration System
A water purification system can help improve the quality of your water supply significantly. It can also occasionally cause problems if you’re using a system with active pumps or other elements which contribute to the water flow. This is often something that can be difficult to investigate on your own. Some water filtration systems are easy to take apart and take a peek inside. If you have a UV water purifier, it has a very small number of components to disassemble.
Once you’ve identified it as the root cause of your problems, that’s where the possibilities for DIY end. You have to get in touch with the company’s customer support to figure out what to do. In most cases, that would involve sending out a technician to your home.
6. Faulty Pressure Regulator
A malfunctioning pressure regulator can also cause your home’s water pressure to drop. This is a trickier issue to sort out. Other than looking at the regulator and taking some basic measurements about the water flowing before and after that point in your plumbing, there’s not much you can do. You have to contact a plumber. Even with their help, it can take some time to diagnose and fix a problem of this type. Water pressure regulators can sometimes fail in strange ways that require much more work by your plumber.
7. Issues with Other Consumers in a Shared Setup
If you’re sharing your water supply with other households or individual consumers, there might be a problem on their end. Talk to your neighbors and see if anyone else has experienced similar issues recently. This can be more challenging in remote areas where you don’t have good access to your neighbors, especially if some don’t use their properties actively.
8. Failing Faucet
It’s also possible that you’re just dealing with a faulty faucet that’s on its way out. If you don’t notice any pressure problems through the rest of the house, just at one specific access point, you’re likely dealing with a failing faucet. Identifying it as the leading cause of your problems and replacing it afterward is easy in most cases and doesn’t require professional assistance.
9. Problems with Your Provider
Talk to your water provider as well. They might be doing routine maintenance that’s causing issues in your water flow. Or there could be a problem on their end that they’re not even aware of yet. Alerting them to the situation as early as possible will improve your chances of seeing it resolved promptly. If you don’t speak up, it may take weeks before they realize something is wrong on their end if you live in a remote area with few other consumers.
Low Water Pressure Bottom Line
You should investigate your home’s water pressure issues as thoroughly as possible before calling a professional. In some rare cases, it may be possible to resolve the problem yourself. Otherwise, you should always contact an experienced plumber to take a deeper look into your situation. You may be dealing with something particularly nasty that’s not immediately obvious.