Expert: speedball1 - 11/2/2005

Question
I live in a mobile home and this last weekend we were doing some remodeling in the bathroom.  We pulled the tub out to replace the flooring under it.  We turned off the water from the main water shut off under the house.  Everything was done so we turned it back on...well...ugh...very low water pressure in the bathroom,to everything, the sink, tub and toilet,but it is wonderful out in the kitchen.  I run the kitchen sink now though and I have huge black particals in my water...can you help me?

Answer
Hi Cathy,

What's happened here is that you have disturbed some mineral that has built up on the pipe walls and now it's clogging up your faucets.  What you'll have to do is open up each valve affected and clean out the innards and then flush out the supply lines to each faucet.  First remove the aerators and try cleaning the screens, (don't forget the washer hoses).  If that don't help then you'll have to flush the system out. This should be done on each branch and faucet that's affected.  Turn off the water and get started.  There is no easy fix for this, the bright spot, (if there is one) is that you live in a mobile home where the the piping doesn't have as much  volume to clog up as a house.  good luck and thank you for rating my reply.  Tom