Sun City: original 1960s plumbing, sixty years on

Most often internally corroded galvanized supply pipe. Over sixty years the bore narrows with corrosion product until flow is restricted throughout the house, and no fixture, cartridge or aerator work improves it because the restriction is in the pipe. Measuring static pressure at a hose bib rules out a regulator problem first. Where the pipe is the cause, repiping is the only real fix.

If it has leaked more than once in a couple of years, price the repipe alongside the repair before deciding. Repeat failures in an original system indicate where it is in its life, and the next leak is already scheduled. The good news is that single-story construction with attic access usually allows pipe to be run overhead rather than chased through concrete, which is far less disruptive.

Testing that the main shutoff actually seals rather than just locating it, in a sixty-year-old house a valve that has not moved in years may not close fully. Then the specific failures that flood empty houses: washing machine hoses, the water heater, toilet fill valves, ice-maker lines and old angle stops. Bypass the softener and put mineral oil in seldom-used traps.

Yes, and it is routine here. Comfort-height toilets, fixtures that work alongside grab bars, lever handles in place of knobs that have become difficult, and hand showers on properly specified valves. Worth combining with any other bathroom work in one visit rather than paying separately for the same access, and if a shower valve is being replaced anyway, specify an anti-scald type.

Quite possibly. Cast iron drainage of this age corrodes and scales from the inside, roughening and narrowing the bore until blockages become routine. A camera inspection distinguishes scaling from structural failure, which is the difference between jetting the line and replacing a section, and it locates the problem so any repair is targeted rather than exploratory.

The signs worth acting on are a meter that moves with everything off, a warm patch on the floor, the sound of running water in a silent house, damp appearing at the base of a wall or the edge of carpet, and a water heater cycling more than it used to. Any one of those justifies a proper detection visit. No concrete should be opened until the line has been located.

Because clearing a line and repairing a line are different things. If a drain blocks repeatedly, something about the pipe is collecting what passes it, scale, a bellied section holding water, an open joint admitting roots. A camera inspection tells you which, and where. Until that happens, each clearing is buying a few months at full price.

Have it shut down properly rather than just turning the water off: supply isolated, system drained so nothing sits in exposed pipe, the water heater dealt with, and traps protected. It takes about an hour and removes most of the risk. Add a couple of leak sensors and someone who checks the house on a schedule, and mention the arrangements to whoever holds the key. See vacant home preparation.

Pricing is set by the independent contractor who takes the job, not by us, and it varies with what the work turns out to be, when you need it and how hard the access is. What is consistent is the sequence: someone looks, you get a price, and you agree it before any work starts. If a diagnostic fee applies it is quoted up front, and it is normally credited against the repair if you go ahead.

It depends on the time of day and what the job is. Routine work is usually scheduled within a day or two; an active leak with water running is triaged immediately and dispatch goes to whoever is closest and equipped for it. When you call, say whether water is running now and whether your main shutoff works, those two answers change the urgency more than anything else you can tell us.