Salt Lake City’s historic neighborhoods—from the tree-lined streets of Sugar House to the steep, Victorian-blocks of The Avenues offer unmatched architectural charm. Buying a century-old home in these districts means securing a piece of Utah history.
But hiding behind those beautiful original lath-and-plaster walls is often a ticking time bomb that can cause huge problems and drains wallets: galvanized steel plumbing.
If your historic home suffers from terrible water pressure, brownish tap water, or mysterious leaks, your pipes are likely the culprit. Here is what you need to know about identifying, managing, and ultimately replacing the galvanized pipes in your Salt Lake City home.
Before the 1960s, galvanized steel was the standard material used for residential water lines. To prevent the steel from rusting, manufacturers dipped the pipes in molten zinc.
At the time, they were considered top-of-the-line. The problem? Galvanized pipes were only engineered to last 40 to 50 years.
If your home was built in 1920 and hasn’t been fully repiped, those pipes are now more than a century old. Over decades of use, the protective zinc coating wears away entirely. Once the bare steel is exposed to water, it begins to rust and corrode from the inside out.
In the Salt Lake Valley, we have notoriously hard water packed with calcium and magnesium. When hard water flows through corroding galvanized steel, the minerals catch on the jagged rust flakes inside the pipe. Over time, this creates a thick, hardened plaque, much like clogged arteries, reducing a pipe that used to be an inch wide down to the diameter of a pencil.
If you aren’t sure what kind of pipes you have, head down to your basement or crawlspace and look for silver, gray, or heavily rusted threaded pipes. You can also test them with a magnet (magnets stick to galvanized steel, but not to copper or PEX).
Even without looking at the pipes, your home will usually show these symptoms:
There is no chemical drain cleaner or temporary patch that can reverse decades of internal rust. If your galvanized pipes are choking off your water pressure, the only permanent solution is a whole-home repipe.
While the word “repipe” strikes fear into the hearts of historic homeowners who want to preserve their original architecture, modern plumbing advancements have made the process much less invasive.
While copper is a fantastic, durable material, installing rigid copper pipes usually requires cutting trenches into your walls and ceilings.
For 100-year-old homes in Sugar House and The Avenues, PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) tubing is usually the superior choice.
Buying a historic home in Salt Lake City is a massive investment, and dealing with 100-year-old plumbing requires specialized care. You need a team that respects your home’s architecture and knows how to navigate the unique quirks of older construction.
At Plumbing Utah, we specialize in diagnosing and replacing failing galvanized systems in Salt Lake County’s oldest neighborhoods. If you are tired of living with a trickle of water and rusty water, give us a call. We will provide a comprehensive inspection of your current plumbing system and walk you through your options for bringing your historic home’s water pressure back to life.
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