Apartment water pressure is abysmal - options?

Post date: 2022-06-30 01:33:19

I rent the third floor of a multi-family house that was converted into a multi-unit apartment. The water pressure is absolutely terrible. What can I do about this?

(state of NY) We're talking literally zero water for periods of a time, and just now I went to wash my dishes and walked away because I couldn't due to the low flow. The occurs frequently. I just measured the flow from my sink at <1 L/min or <0.25 gpm (def not up to plumbing code). Other times it is fine, but it's entirely dependent on the water usage of the people living below me. I suspect the non-infrequent periods of literally zero water are when the pressure is low enough that the water literally can't pass up the pipes from the second floor of the house.

I rent. One of the advantages of that would be my landlord is ostensibly supposed to do something about this, however I have interacted with my landlord literally once past my initial application and that's essentially been the case for the other tenants as well as far as I know. I live in a very desirable area in the city which my rent is on the low end for the location (approx 20% cheaper than similar in the area). I'm afraid that by asking my landlord to do something about this they'll raise the rent. It's also not a spectacular time to be looking for a new rental now.

What options/protections do I have, either legally or plumbing? I could try replacing the shower head with one designed for low pressure applications, but that's not going to help at all when I turn the shower knob or go to get a glass of water from my kitchen sink and no water comes out.

This is not a sudden recent development, so it's not like there was some leak that happened overnight.

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