My house is about 10 years old. When we bought the house the basement had already been fully finished. The problem is I only can get hot water out of the fixtures - the cold water trickles out - barely. The water pressure in the rest of the house works great - so I am confused as to what is going on. I can only assume the guy who did the plumbing in the addition may have made a mistake?

I have done all the "normal" quick checks: i.e. made sure a valve wasn't shut off, etc.

In the basement there is a Shower (mixing valve) and sink in the bathroom, and there is an additional sink at the bar area. All (3) fixtures are having the same issue.

On a side note, the toilet in the bathroom seems to work (it flushes and fills), however, it fills very slowly. Also if I turn any of the fixtures on at the same time the cold water is almost completely non-existent - basment only the rest of the house still operates normally.

Any thoughts??
Thanks!

massplumber2008

Hey Jimmy...


Here is what I would do..(if in fact, you have eliminated all other possibilities and are absolutely sure there are no shutoffs that you missed.... )...

I would shut the cold water shutoff that goes to the bathroom, then I would cut into the pipe right after the shutoff and then open the shutoff and see if have full pressure after that valve. If full pressure then you would need to use a coupling and reattach pipe (could use a sharkbite type of coupling...just pushes onto copper and all set...no soldering) and you would then move onto the cold water shutoffs to each fixture.

If low pressure at the first shutoff...then need to replace that shutoff!!

If full pressure at the shutoff then I would go next to the shutoffs at each fixture.....Here, shut water off to bathroom and disassemble each shutoff by looseneing the packing nut and then remove the stem. Then want to have someone turn the water on for a second or two and see if can get pressure restored this way.

If restored at one fixture, then go to each shutoff and repeat procedure.

In terms of the shower, may be shutoffs that are integral to the valve (under trim plate) so may need to work at this there..

Anyway, need to work at this step at a time and work forward...OR could also work backwards I guess!!

Basically, when I get a call like this I work my way from where I know I have full pressure toward area that doesn't have it!! Answer usually shows up somewhere, including finding that a pipe was oversoldered or something silly like that. Take a step at a time...you should discover issue!!

AND shame on your home inspector for not noticing this in beginning when he inspected home!!

Hey let me know what you think....MARK

.

jimmystyle

Mark,

Thanks for the ideas! I'll start trying things out tomorrow... good thing it's a 3 day weekend. With regards to the home inspection - i think what happened is the inspector simply turned on hot and cold water at the same time and saw there was pressure? who knows??

Like i said - I'll try this out and keep you posted. Thanks again.

truck 41

Hello, to add to marks advice, I would try to back flush the cold side before you tie the line together again, if infact you do have full pressure at the cold valve. tie the hot and cold supply lines together under the lav or bar sink, just discunnect the supply lines off the faucet then using a 1/2" threaded nipple to tie the two together open the cold valve and control the hot side turning it on and off and try to push any debre that may be plugging the system out of the cold side through the open end by the shutoff valve. have someone controling the valve beneath the sink and someone at the open end of the line. good luck---Zeke