The Impact of Water Quality on Household Plumbing Systems in Vancouver

It is important to understand that the water flowing through household pipes affects those pipes for better or for worse. In today’s blog article, we are going to talk about the impact of water quality on plumbing systems, in general, and then as this topic pertains to the water specifically in Vancouver. 

General 

The water flowing through household plumbing systems affects the system in countless ways. And it is not just the water that you have to look at, but it is also the type of pipe, as different types of piping are affected differently by different scenarios. 

To give you some examples, if the water is “hard” and has lots of dissolved solids or salts, these can get deposited inside the pipes over time narrowing the area for flow. In some cases, this can lead to complete blockages. 

Contaminants can cause other problems. For example, heavy loads of microorganisms can cause illness in those drinking the water. High levels of chlorine—which is typically added to disinfect the water—can break down rubber gaskets or seals creating leaks. 

Specific 

As far as Vancouver is concerned, the water flowing through our pipes is naturally acidic or having a relatively low pH and also “soft” or having relatively few dissolved solids. Acidic water has a corrosive effect on copper pipes, shortening their service lives and causing them to leak and fail. 

In recent years, the City of Vancouver has been making efforts to raise the pH of the drinking water to make this water less acidic and less corrosive. And the water is considerably less corrosive to copper pipes than it was 20 years ago. Vancouver has plans to raise the pH even higher than the current pH of 7.7. 

That said, those living in older homes may already have significant damage to copper pipes which should be evaluated by professionals like us. The older your home is, the more likely your copper pipes need some attention and possibly some repiping. You can take a proactive stance, and get your piping evaluated, or you can wait until you have a disaster, a leak or a flood that may cause thousands of dollars in damage. The choice is yours.

Please call us on the Lower Mainland at (604) 349-5325 if you need help evaluating your home’s copper piping and are wondering if you need repiping. This is our area of expertise. If you contact us, we can examine your plumbing system and give you a free estimate for what it will cost to fix it.

Repiping Vancouver is a division of 604FixLeak offering leak detection, plumbing repairs and restoration services in the Greater Vancouver area. Repiping Vancouver concentrates on whole home or office repiping. 

If you have any questions about this article or need some help with repiping in your home or office, call us today at (604) 349-5325.