Low water pressure in house!

[Vincent Q.]

Hi,

I had my offer accepted on a foreclosure.

My agent advised that a previous deal fell through for low water pressure in house.

Paperwork stated " water pressure fail"

Should i be concerned? Is this a dealbreaker?

What could the problem be and the cost?

Please help!

[Ben Sears]

@Vincent Q. just for the sake of discussion (for posterity on BP!), we can point out a few obvious causes for your low water pressure:

- Low water pressure on just one or a few appliances could be from restricted screens or valves on those appliances. Pull the screen out of a random faucet and check for obstruction. Obviously this would not cause generally low water pressure throughout the house. This would be more common on well water, but I guess it depends on how long the house has been unoccupied. 

- On city water I would suspect some type of obstruction in the supply line from calcification, water leak, damaged pipe, etc.

- On well water I would suspect, in this order, a bad pressure tank, bad pressure switch, bad well pump. All are easily remedied, but the first two are much cheaper and more "DIY". The fact that you're getting some water would suggest that the well itself probably hasn't failed (or failed completely yet).

- Try running the hot and cold water independently. Low pressure on the hot water side only would indicate an obstruction somewhere in the water heater. I would count on the cost to replace the water heater anyways as it's better advertisement for resale or rental.