Home Improvement Question

http://www.ehow.com/info_12084244_cant-flush-toilet-takin...

I am wondering how you know the water pressure doesn't change at your friends house? I have never seen a house that doesn't do that because there is X amount of pressure going into a house. Turn on a faucet and now P = X - F. Flush the toilet you have P = X - (F+T) What I am saying is demand does not cause supply to go up, it just doesn't so at your friends houses they have the same issue.

There are special devices and water heaters that will compensate for the change is cold water flow that causes the flush effect but it is just easier not to flush when someone is showering. Otherwise you are paying big bucks for a feature you almost never use.

Oh there is a knob on the flow regulator coming into the house that can increase your water pressure overall. The problem with doing that is it decreases the life of your water heater and your fixtures. They are just not made to take water pressure beyond a specific PSI.

How old is your water heater? Might help

Sounds like when I was growing up - drove me nuts!! Apparently my Daddy didn't know it could be adjusted!! With the house I'm in now, even tho we have well water with a pump, the water pressure is great! That's because my husband installed some type of thingamajig and it can be adjusted. Still, to this day, I have no idea what it is and quite frankly, it's not something I want to learn!!

I would either go to Home Depot or Lowe's and talk to them; or just call a plumber. Who knows, you may already have the thingamajig on your pipes and it just needs a simple adjustment!!

Good luck!!

Do you have city water or a well? If you're on a well, the pressure in your pressure tank may be low.

I'm a commercial general contractor with a good amount of experience in plumbing, and my guess is that you have hard water, that has likely clogged your water lines (and possibly your water heater as well - good suggestions below on that).

If you have very hard water in your area (which is easy to tell - do you get calcium/lime deposits all over your plumbing fixtures, shower doors, etc?), the minerals will build up in your incoming water line over time. The fastest way to deal with it is to have a well-qualified plumber backflush the water lines from the plumbing main (out at the street) all the way into your house (there are other ways to clear the lines, as well, involving abrasion, which works fine, too). As a word of caution, however, mineral buildup can also eat away at copper pipes over time, so this backflushing may cause pinhole leaks. My suggestion is to hire a Trenchless-type plumbing company to do this, because they actually have technology where they can backflush your water lines to clear them, and then epoxy-coat the lines to reinforce them (this is safe to do for drinking water lines, by the way). Chances are that you won't need to epoxy-coat your lines, just clear them, but I'm a fan of having the right contractor on the job from start to finish, who can handle any problems that come up right away.

Obviously you live half a country away from me, but to give you an idea of the sort of plumber to look for, here's a company we've used on many big commercial projects. Look for someone with this sort of technology: http://www.dontdig.com/plumbing/pipe-repair-and-restoration

Hot water heater could be the problem.