Advice Needed. Low Pressure

Hello people. I've come up against a problem that I can't seem to solve. Here's the particulars...

An old 2 story Chicago building, built in the early 20's. First floor houses an office, with 2 apartments on the second floor. The building was converted from 2 buildings into one, so there's two water lines (2 shut offs) in the basement coming in from the outside

About 3 months ago, I installed a new (cheap) kitchen faucet in one of the apartments, & the pressure was fine. All of a sudden, the water came out very slowly with little pressure

The other faucets in the apartment bathrooms have good pressure, as do the faucets in the other apartment & the faucets in the office below, although the tub spout is pretty slow

I installed a better faucet today, but still had the same problem. I also installed new turn off valves on both the hot & cold lines under the sink, but the problem persists

I haven't checked the flow from the water lines under the sink, but there must be some obstruction somewhere. Maybe sediment? It just seems weird to me that both the hot & cold lines could get clogged up at the exact same time, & far enough into the system where it wouldn't effect any other faucets in the building on the same lines

Any thoughts? And how can I clean out old 1/2 inch iron water lines?

Thanks for any help

Moz said:

I installed a better faucet today, but still had the same problem. I also installed new turn off valves on both the hot & cold lines under the sink, but the problem persists

I haven't checked the flow from the water lines under the sink, but there must be some obstruction somewhere. Maybe sediment?

Any thoughts? And how can I clean out old 1/2 inch iron water lines?

Thanks for any help

Click to expand...

First thing I would check is the Aerator - Then check the "The flow from the water lines under the sink"

?? clean out old iron water lines ?? you can't. Well maybe someone can. They put a man on the moon. It would probably be less costly to just replace the piping if that's the problem.

Yeah, forgot to say that I checked the aerators on both the old & new faucets. Both were clean. Ran the water with them out & had the same problem

What perplexes me is the water pipes run throughout the building, & no other faucets run slow. That, &, if it's a blockage occurring past all the other faucets except the one in question, what are the odds both the cold & hot pipes would clog up at the same time?

Do the pro's use air compressors to blow out water lines?

have you checked the Pressure Reducing Valve or the shut-off valve at the water meter? These are two common places where low pressure can start. Also, could have a water leak or sediment build up as you stated earlier. and yes you can you air pressure to blow out the lines I found a video of a guy using a device (forgive me I researched and couldnt find what it was called) He is not using compressed air though its more like a bike pump but for plumbing and pipes. Heres the vid [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxzipWa445Q[/ame]

pressure test it because those mixer taps aren't rated over 550kPa

Most likely its clogged somewhere in the lines leading over to the kitchen sink. Even if it seems unlikely then It is still a possibility. I have ran into that happening on old galvanized lines and I just found the last spot in the line that had good pressure and ran lines from there over to the fixtures that had no pressure. If you pull off the angle stops I would also look inside those pipes and make sure it isn't completely clogged right at line where the angle stop connects. There is a few companies that do a form of sandblasting to the inside of galvanized lines but that would probably be quite a bit more expensive but you could always check.