Hi all,
Hoping you can give me some advice on how to pursue this problem. Our house is only 3 years old and has a local city water supply. Over the past few months, the flow in our upstairs master shower has been going down.
Steps I've taken so far:
- Cleaned the showerhead thoroughly. It had lots of limescale build-up, but after cleaning the flow actually got worse once more of the openings on the head were flowing.
- Called plumber, they replaced the valve cartridge (Delta) and noted that they removed a lot of calcium build-up from there and in the shower arm. They said that the pressure to the valve was good, but even after cleaning and reconnecting, the flow through the showerhead wasn't any better.
- Their next suggestion was to replace the valve body itself, but that would involve tearing out drywall behind the shower in our bedroom and another $700...oh, and it still might not fix the problem.
So here are my questions:
1) Is limescale buildup to that degree normal for only 3 years?
2) Is there an alternative to replacing the valve, like a way to clean it
3) Is there any way to know if calcium build up in the valve body is the real issue? I really don't want to spend over $1000 and still have low flow.
Really appreciate any insight!!
Hoping you can give me some advice on how to pursue this problem. Our house is only 3 years old and has a local city water supply. Over the past few months, the flow in our upstairs master shower has been going down.
Steps I've taken so far:
- Cleaned the showerhead thoroughly. It had lots of limescale build-up, but after cleaning the flow actually got worse once more of the openings on the head were flowing.
- Called plumber, they replaced the valve cartridge (Delta) and noted that they removed a lot of calcium build-up from there and in the shower arm. They said that the pressure to the valve was good, but even after cleaning and reconnecting, the flow through the showerhead wasn't any better.
- Their next suggestion was to replace the valve body itself, but that would involve tearing out drywall behind the shower in our bedroom and another $700...oh, and it still might not fix the problem.
So here are my questions:
1) Is limescale buildup to that degree normal for only 3 years?
2) Is there an alternative to replacing the valve, like a way to clean it
3) Is there any way to know if calcium build up in the valve body is the real issue? I really don't want to spend over $1000 and still have low flow.
Really appreciate any insight!!