Low Water Pressure in Florence AL

What it usually is

01Clogged aerator on the fixture — the little screen crusts over with sediment after enough years.
02A shutoff valve that's partway closed or has a slipped stem — under the sink, at the heater, or at the meter.
03A failing pressure regulator, in homes that have one — it usually sits where the line enters the house.
04Galvanized steel pipe closing up with scale inside — flow drops year over year in older homes.
05A hidden leak bleeding pressure off somewhere you can't see.

Safe checks you can do now

Unscrew the aerator on the slow faucet, rinse the screen clean, and run the water bare — if the flow jumps, you found it.
Open and close the shutoff under the sink a few times; a valve that stops partway is stuck, not set.
Check the main shutoff at the meter and at the house — both should be fully open, with the handle in line with the pipe.
Compare hot and cold at the same faucet — hot-only weakness points at the water heater or the shutoff feeding it.
Test an outdoor hose bib — strong flow outside with weak flow inside narrows the trouble to the house piping, not the street.

Where this stops being DIY

Whole-house pressure that showed up suddenly gets looked at promptly — that's the pattern a hidden supply leak makes. A gradual fade over years in an older home usually means the pipes themselves, and that's a repipe conversation rather than a repair.

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House-age angle: Pre-1960 homes around Florence were commonly plumbed in galvanized steel, and that pipe rusts from the inside out — it flowed full the day it went in and has been narrowing since. If your pressure has faded slowly over years while the neighbors' is fine, the era of your pipe is the first suspect. Builds from the 1990s forward on CPVC or PEX rarely have this problem.

Why is only the hot water pressure low?

Usually the water heater or its shutoff — a partly closed valve on the cold inlet, or scale reducing flow through the tank and its fittings. If just one fixture runs hot-weak, it's normally the fixture itself.

Does low pressure mean I have a leak?

Not usually — most of the time it's an aerator or a valve. A sudden whole-house drop is the exception worth checking promptly, since that pattern fits a leak in a supply line.