Plumbing Services in Lilburn, GA

Builders used different pipe, fittings and fixtures in different decades, and each generation has its own typical failures. Whatever the age of a Lilburn home, Alpha Plumbing and Sewer begins its plumbing services with a simple question: when did the house go up, and what has been replaced since?

Houses built before the mid-1960s

Supply water in older houses often runs through galvanized steel. Its zinc coating wears away and the steel rusts from the inside, so flow drops, hot water comes out brown after sitting, and leaks start at threaded joints. Drains are usually cast iron inside the house, with clay or similar pipe out to the sewer. Cast iron can serve for a long time but eventually scales up and cracks along the bottom of horizontal runs, and clay joints let roots in. In homes like these, a sewer camera inspection before major drain work and a talk about whole house repiping are common starting points.

Houses from the mid-1960s through the 1970s

Copper became the usual supply pipe in many houses of this period, and the pipe tends to hold up, though valves of this age are often stiff or weeping. Cast iron still carried most drains, with plastic drain pipe appearing toward the end of the era. Original fixture shutoffs, tub valves and hose bibs from these years are frequently worn out, and replacing them is routine faucet and valve repair. The buried sewer line may still be the original, so roots and sags remain worth watching.

Houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s

This is the polybutylene window. Flexible gray plastic supply pipe went into a great many homes in those years, and it has a reputation for failing at fittings and in the pipe wall with little warning. If a house of this age has gray plastic lines at the water heater or under the sinks, identify them before deciding how to handle a single leak. Drains are typically PVC or ABS plastic, which will not rust but can sag over long runs or pull apart at a joint. Interior drain trouble in these homes usually falls to drain repair.

Houses built since the late 1990s

Newer homes usually have CPVC or PEX supply lines and PVC drains, and the pipe itself rarely causes trouble. Calls shift toward equipment and settings: a water heater near the end of its service life, a pressure-reducing valve that has drifted, a missing or waterlogged expansion tank, or a fitting that was never fully tightened. A gauge test and PRV service fix more problems in these houses than new pipe does, and the first water heater replacement often comes due in these houses; on an electric tank, electric water heater repair usually starts with the elements and thermostats.

When one house mixes several eras

Few homes still have only their original plumbing. A 1960s house may have a remodeled bathroom piped in PEX, a newer water heater and the original cast iron stack, all tied together. Transitions between materials are frequent trouble spots, especially where copper was joined straight to galvanized steel without an insulating fitting between the two metals. Knowing which sections are original helps decide where to look first, and it explains why leak detection sometimes traces a stain to a pipe several feet away.

Permits for plumbing work in Lilburn

Plumbing systems appear on the city's list of projects that call for a permit, with water heaters named specifically. The Business Services Department asks residents to check with it before work begins, and a plumbing subcontractor pulls a separate trade permit and files an affidavit with proof of its state and business licenses. Lilburn's code lets ordinary minor repairs skip a permit only with the planning director's approval, so ask before assuming a small job is exempt.

House age and pipes: questions from Lilburn

How do I know if my Lilburn house still has galvanized pipe?

Look where supply pipes are exposed, such as at the water heater, under a sink or near the main shutoff. Galvanized steel is dull gray metal with threaded joints, and a magnet will cling to it. Brown water after the tap sits, weak flow at several fixtures and leaks at threaded fittings are typical symptoms. Many houses have a mix, so one copper section does not rule it out.

Should a house with polybutylene be repiped right away?

Not necessarily at once, but it deserves a plan. Polybutylene can go years without trouble and then fail suddenly at a fitting, so many owners repipe on their own schedule rather than after a burst. The condition of the fittings, how much pipe is reachable and whether leaks have already occurred all shape the timing. A plumber can examine the exposed sections and talk through the choice.

What tends to need replacing first in a newer home?

Usually equipment rather than pipe. Water heaters, pressure-reducing valves, toilet fill valves, washing machine hoses and expansion tanks wear out well before PEX or CPVC lines do. Testing the water pressure once in a while and reading the water heater's age from its label give you warning before one of these parts fails and leaves water on the floor.

Tell us when the house was built

Share the approximate building year and what has been updated over time, and we can point you toward the likely weak spots. Reach Alpha at (404) 409-4448.