I recently bought a water pressure gauge and learned that the pressure at two outside faucets on my house is 51 psi. I bought the gauge because I thought our pressure was pretty lousy. For example, if I try to run a lawn sprinkler on the front and back lawns at the same time, the area the sprinkler will cover is about half of what it is with only one running. The massage setting on the shower head really is useless because there doesn't seem to be enough pressure to make it work properly. When we asked the builder about this, his comment was that when the development is completed, the pressure will be better. I'm not sure I understand how more families using water can increase the pressure for everyone but that was the answer. Anyway, is 51 psi good, bad or fairly standard for a single family home? Thanks!

The builder is probably right according to my boyfriend who has been a plumber for 20 years. Since the development isn't finished, they wouldn't open the main line's valve all the way because it would create too much pressure. When the rest of the development is completed, they will open the main the rest of the way to supply the other houses, creating more pressure in the existing homes. 51 psi's is low, but be patient. How many homes are finished and occupied in your development? If it's only like ten, or only a small part of the development, then it's low but expected. If the development gets finished and nothing changes, the township main line might not be turned on all the way where they made their tap to bring it from the main line which is 8 inches into the development.
On the other hand, if no one else is having difficulty, when they built your home and filled in on top of the pipe running to your home, a rock may have kinked the pipe, if it is copper. Copper is relativily soft and can be kinked fairly easily. A quick check of whether the valves inside your home may help. If the valves aren't on full, it may slow down the pressure. Do you know if you have a one inch main line coming from the curb to the house? Is it poly (black plastic pipe) or copper?

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Originally Posted by karma

The builder is probably right according to my boyfriend who has been a plumber for 20 years. Since the development isn't finished, they wouldn't open the main line's valve all the way because it would create too much pressure. When the rest of the development is completed, they will open the main the rest of the way to supply the other houses, creating more pressure in the existing homes. 51 psi's is low, but be patient. How many homes are finished and occupied in your development? If it's only like ten, or only a small part of the development, then it's low but expected. If the development gets finished and nothing changes, the township main line might not be turned on all the way where they made their tap to bring it from the main line which is 8 inches into the development.
On the other hand, if no one else is having difficulty, when they built your home and filled in on top of the pipe running to your home, a rock may have kinked the pipe, if it is copper. Copper is relativily soft and can be kinked fairly easily. A quick check of whether or not the valves inside your home may help. If the valves aren't on full, it may slow down the pressure. Do you know if you have a one inch main line coming from the curb to the house? Is it poly (black plastic pipe) or copper?

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To disagree with your boyfriend on two consecutive posts but 51 PSI is not considered "low prerssure" in homes. The average house pressure's 45 PSI. That's why most water towers are 100 feet high. Because at 100 feet the water pressure's close to 45 PSI at the base. Pump stations along the way keep the pressure in the mains steady at 45 pounds. Some localities, however, do increase the main pressure but that would compell the home owner to install a pressure reducing valve on his house service. For the last 40 years I have installed plumbing, here on the West Coast of Florida, in high raise condos, housing developments and shopping centers and have never heard of a developer cutting back on the water pressure for any reason, let alone the fact that the development was still under construction. There would be no sense or reason to do so.

Now Indiana Guy, Your builder was blowing smoke when he told you the pressure would get better after the development was finished. Tippty-tap-tap and soft shoe slide! I hope you enjoyed the dance because that's what he gave you.
If your house had 51 PSI at the sill cocks that indicates that you have plenty of pressure coming into your house. Is the stream steady at the hose bibs? This raises the question of volume. All the pressure in the world won't do you any good if you don't have the volume to back it up. So the question of your house pressure comes down to two things. Outside volume or a problem in the house piping.
This can be checked very easily. Go to tne far end of the system, usually the master bath, and open a faucet. If you have a strong stream at first that peters out rapidly then you don't have enough volume coming in to support 51 pounds of pressure. If you turn on the faucet and a small stream comes out my guess is that while working on the water mains some dirt got into the main lines and got pulled into your houses system when you flushed or made a draw. This is not a big thing, I've seen this happen time and time again, but requires that the faucets be opened and the inlet ports of the cartridges be cleaned and the house pipes be flushed to clear them of any dirt. Hope this may clear things up a bit. Good luck and please keep me informed about how this comes out. Tom