I was wondering if anyone had any advice about removing calcium build-up from pipes in a slab foundation, short of having to tear up the foundation?
Thanks

How old are your pipes and describe the water pressue you currrently have through out the house.

Also it would help to know what material the pipes are made of and if it is just the hot water pipes or all of the pipes.

Your pipes are likely under the foundation rather than in it. If we get to repiping going overhead could be an option. If you are hoping for someone to say you can put CLR in the pipes overnight and they'll be fine, you won't like me.

Thanks for the responses, to answer your questions:
(1) Copper pipes
(2) 1978 Construction
(3) Flow and Pressure: so far I've only measured the pressure at the main bathroom shower (I just bought a pressure gauge last night):
Main Bath: Flow: 3.4 gpm, 52 psi
Outside (right after main shut-off): 9 gpm
Kitchen: 4.5 gpm
Guest Bath: 6 gpm

So to me it looks like the pressure is OK, but the flow is low for some of the lines, which suggested obstruction to me. Also, the house does not currently have a water softener/filter and the water down here contains lots of iron (and probably a bunch of other minerals).

Any advice you might have would be great and if any of you have an idea of what certain options might cost (ball park) would also be super!

Thanks again
Chris

Oh, and so far I have only checked the cold water pipes, but hot water seems to be suffering from similar problems.

Chris

Actuallly your pressure is a tad high, optimal is 40-45 psi and your flows sound adequate. Manu shower heads are only 1.6 g/m You may have some blockage biuilding up in the faucet mixing valves or aerators. I'd sure check that out before planning to repipe, your copper is 30 years old but could last 100. Do you know the size of the supply lines to each sink stop cock and then the line size from the stop to the faucet, everything should be 1/2" or 3/8"

I actually removed the showerheads for the flow measurements to get a comparable reading, so the gpm values are right out of the pipe... which is why the flow reading for the master bath seemed a bit low. Also with the shower head attached it just seems like there is not much coming out. Our last house had a well, so we were excited about having city water and lots of water pressure but it really seems like things have gotten worse :(

Also the pipes seem to be 3/8" (extrapolating from the one access panel I have been able to get at behind the guest shower).
So, what I was looking for was something to clean out the pipes given that they are not terribly obstructed before installing a water softener and filter which we want to do anyway, since in our mind it's just not practical to have to clean the toilets everyday when we come home because of the iron in the water.
Thanks again, especially to balengerb!

Thanks for the responses, to answer your questions:
(1) Copper pipes
(2) 1978 Construction
(3) Flow and Pressure: so far I've only measured the pressure at the main bathroom shower (I just bought a pressure gauge last night):
Main Bath: Flow: 3.4 gpm, 52 psi
Outside (right after main shut-off): 9 gpm
Kitchen: 4.5 gpm
Guest Bath: 6 gpm

So to me it looks like the pressure is ok, but the flow is low for some of the lines, which suggested obstruction to me. Also, the house does not currently have a water softener/filter and the water down here contains lots of iron (and probably a bunch of other minerals).

Any advice you might have would be great and if any of you have an idea of what certain options might cost (ball park) would also be super!

Thanks again
Chris

The 52 pound pressure is plenty at the shower and the 3.4 gpm is also good, most shower heads are restricted to 3 pounds or less gpm.

All of the other reading you got seem to be in an acceptable range, you might go from faucet to faucet checking the supply stops and the aerators as each one of these type things can slow down the gpm. I actually think that you are in good shape.