kitchen faucet low on water pressure after changing pipe

[Lance]

Hi, my wife and I have an old home from the 30s and have galvanized pipe right now, several spots started to leak over the past year so my dad came over this last weekend and we started changing the pipe out to PVC since it's within code in our area. Last night I changed another section out to pvc and this piece actually went upstairs to my kitchen sink, after I finished that section and turned the water back on we lost a lot of water pressure in the sink, just 6 feet over in the bathroom the faucet works fine, but for some reason on the kitchen faucet it's really low on pressure? I'm not sure what to do. Thanks!

[mrcaptainbob]

Have you cleaned the screen? Reworking the pipes may have diskodged some junk and it's now filtered by that screen.

[LazyPup]

I can't imagine any code that still permits PVC for distribution lines within the structure considering that both the International Residential Code and the Uniform Plumbing Code prohibited PVC nearly 30 years ago. Knowing the problems associated with PVC in this application if one desires to use plastic pipe CPVC would be a much better choice.

Having said that, I would have to agree with MrCaptainBob. Any time we disturb old galvanized pipes it is almost certain that we will dislodge some of the old mineral scale that is present in the galvanized pipe. In most cases that mineral scale will flake off in tiny fragments that appear like a translucent yellowish brown or a white sand and ultimately gets caught in the aereator screens of a kitchen or lavatory faucett. Generally the solution is to remove and rinse off the screens but in a worst case scenario you may have faucetts or shower mixers that have the cartridge type valves and the debris may be fouling the ports in the valve cartridges as well. In this case the faucett assembly would need to be dissassembled and cleaned as well.