While one of the biggest concerns for new home buyers is the overall cosmetic look of a potential home, many other factors play a role in the decision to buy or not. One of these factors is the type of plumbing a household has. If you plan on selling your home in the future, it’s important to understand how your plumbing could affect the resale value of your home.
What Makes Up Your Household Plumbing?
When we talk about your household plumbing, we’re referring to several different components. A plumbing system comprises water supply lines, water heaters, drain lines, sewer lines, toilets, sinks, hose bibbs, and other plumbing fixtures. Pretty much every part of your home that comes into contact with water is part of your plumbing system.
1. Faulty Plumbing Materials Over the Years
Since plumbing became standard in households throughout the country in the 1930s, many changes have occurred over the decades. While some of these changes have helped to make our plumbing fixtures more effective and convenient, others were based on necessity due to problems.
Issues like lead poisoning and pipe corrosion are just some of the many issues that older homes face with outdated plumbing. If your home has any of the issues that we’re going to go over below, then the resale value of your home is going to decrease. This is because the new homeowner will take on the financial burden of fixing the issue, which can be quite costly. In fact, when your home has any of these issues, a plumber will need to run new water lines to the various fixtures throughout your home.
Lead Pipes
Homes that received indoor plumbing in the early 20th century are likely to have lead pipes. Lead has been shown over the years to have a detrimental effect on the body. Those who consume high levels of this metal can suffer from abdominal pain, neurological changes, and developmental delays. Unfortunately, if your home has lead water supply pipes, lead can seep into your drinking water and eventually into the body. Lead pipes will be one of the biggest value deducters for your home.
Copper Pipes With Lead Solder
While copper has been and remains one of the most commonly used plumbing materials, the solder that has been used for its joints has changed over time. Before the knowledge of lead poisoning was known, plumbers commonly used lead solder to connect copper plumbing joints. Just like lead piping can increase the value of your home, so can copper piping that has lead solder because it still allows lead to seep into your water supply.
Galvanized Steel Piping
After lead was determined to be a problem, galvanized steel piping became the norm for household plumbing. This type of piping was given a protective layer of zinc to help prevent corrosion. However, it’s still shown to be highly susceptible to corrosion over time. These galvanized steel pipes will start to rust from the inside and can emit rust flakes into your water supply. Plus, they’re more susceptible to cracking and developing holes due to that internal rust.
Polybutylene Pipes
After galvanized steel piping came polybutylene piping in the 1980s to 1990s. As polybutylene pipes came into contact with various chemicals and oxidants used by public water treatment centers to purify the water, they started to deteriorate. Brittleness, cracking, flaking, and overall premature deterioration are very common with polybutylene pipes.
2. Outdated Plumbing Fixtures
The various plumbing fixtures throughout your home can have a big effect on the overall resale value of your home. If your plumbing fixtures are old and outdated, they can create multiple problems for home buyers. First and foremost, older plumbing fixtures tend to leak and create problems. Second, they’re not visually appealing, and many lack the convenience features that come with modern-day fixtures. Most home buyers will plan on purchasing new plumbing fixtures which will decrease their overall suggested buying price of your home.
3. Older Sewer Lines
If you have an older home that has never had an update to its sewer line, it can decrease the overall value of your home. This is because many older sewer line materials can fail, and many other problems are known to develop in an aging sewer line. We’ll go over some of the most common problems your sewer line may have that will require a new home buyer to spend a large chunk of change to remedy.
Pipe Bellies
As homes naturally shift over time, they tend to develop negative slopes in their drainage lines. These are commonly referred to as pipe bellies. Because of the negative slope, your home is more vulnerable to wastewater accumulation. This can lead to issues, such as clogs and excess sediment buildup in your sewer line. Because your sewer line runs underground, pipe bellies can be costly repairs.
Root Intrusion
If you have a lot of trees and shrubbery on your property, the roots could be damaging your sewage system. One small crack in your sewer line can allow raw sewage to seep out. Unfortunately, this raw sewage will attract the roots of your trees and shrubs. Eventually, the roots will enter the sewage pipe, and as the roots grow, they will expand the crack over time. This root intrusion can lead to raw sewage leaking into your soil and groundwater supply.
4. Plumbing in Exterior Walls
Another problem many older homes face when it comes to their plumbing that can decrease their value is having plumbing in exterior walls. This is more commonly found with DIY plumbing installation. While it might not seem like a big problem at first, having plumbing in your exterior walls can be quite challenging during the winter when the temperature drops.
Exterior piping is more susceptible to freezing temperatures. This can lead to frozen pipes, which can lead to bursting without your knowledge. The only way to remedy this issue is to have the piping rerun through an interior wall, which can be quite costly.
5. Older Water Heater
A water heater is an extremely important part of any home. If you have an outdated water heater, it will decrease the value of your home. New home buyers know they will likely have to replace the water heater shortly. Worse, when a water heater fails, it can cause catastrophic damage, flooding spaces and causing widespread water damage. Plus, older water heaters are known to be much less energy-efficient compared to newer ones.
Exceptional Plumbing Service
Huft Home Services offers exceptional plumbing services in Sacramento, CA and the surrounding regions. We can also help with all your heating, cooling, indoor air quality, insulation, home electrification, home performance inspection, and electrical needs. Call us today to schedule an appointment with one of our highly experienced plumbers. We offer numerous plumbing services including drain cleaning, leak detection, water filtration, and more!
