Aging Pipes

My house is having a stroke. I just checked out the basement construction. The walls are sealed and the drainage tile installed, so no more rainwater will leak in. But the pipes are the next challenge. The plumber replaced one, in the closet ceiling, which had been dripping for a year or so. But doing so meant replacing a pipe that had been narrowed by rust with a nice clear new one. And that meant more water pressure for the pipes down the line. So now the whole chain of pipes in the bedroom ceiling are leaking and will need to be replaced. Salvador showed me the pipe that had been taken out - it looked like a diseased artery, filled with plaque. Its capacity must have been less than half that of the new pipe. The plumber thinks that just about every horizontal pipe in the house is in a similar situation. This might mean that just about every horizontal pipe in the house will need to get replaced. We shall see.

In the meantime, the house is having a stroke. The water pressure on the first floor is fine, but it's slowed to a trickle in the second floor bathroom. The plumber thinks that a chunk rusty gunk got forced loose and is causing a clog somewhere. Our poor house! It's like a frail old lady these days!