Fixer Upper Homes; Pipes That need Work

While it’s true that the fixer upper is often a good deal when it comes to a solid real estate purchase, many people get involved with these homes before they really know what it is they’re getting themselves into. Generally, they’re a task for the person who knows how to do all those handy things or the professional and they can be a real chore for the first time buyer to try and keep up with. Still, if you get a little help, you can make some money by flipping one of these homes or fix it up so that you and your family have a nice place to live.

One of the considerations that you’ll need to look at regardless of whether you want to keep or sell the home is the plumbing and a thorough look at the pipes will tell you what you’ll need to do there. When water drips or forms puddles near pipes, leaks are obvious and although you may think that these are the worst kind, it’s often more difficult to detect the problem when there’s a hidden leak. These are sometimes only apparent through a high water bill. Or, if you hear running water, follow the sound to the source. There are several ways that you can patch a pipe.

It’s always a good idea to keep C clamps and pieces of rubber on hand for emergencies. If you don’t have any clamps, you can stop a pinhole leak with a pencil point. Hose clamps or sleeve clamps provide a more long term solution, and you can only use epoxy putty as a stopgap measure. There are other pipe related problems as well and one of these is called water hammer.

Most water sections have short sections of pipe rising above each faucet or appliance that are called air chambers or vents. These cushion the shock when the faucet is closed quickly and when they fill with water they don’t work any longer. This is where the sound of water hammer comes from. To restore them, check to see that the toilet tank is full, and then close the supply shut off just below the tank. Close the house shutoff values as well and then drain the highest and lowest faucets in the house. Then, close those two faucets and reopen the main water value.

The pipes may or may not be a concern in the fixer upper kind of real estate purchase. More often than not, the more obvious issues like the roof and windows catch a prospective buyer’s eyes first, but anyone thinking about buying a home that will need some work will want to make sure that they check the pipes as well. While windows and a new roof can be an expensive renovation, the cost of retrofitting the plumbing could run into the thousands as well.         

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