Barring totally replumbing my house,  what is a good way to increase the overall water pressure in an older house (toilets, showers, faucets, etc.)?

Any Fireman will say "Reduce Friction Loss !!!"

Depends on what is restricting your water. First thing to find out is what the water pressure is in your neighborhood and what it is inside your house.  Hook a pressure gauge to a faucet then open another faucet all the way open in another part of the house.  Watch to see how much the pressure drops. This will give you a clue if you have a pressure or a volume problem.  Also follow your plumbing and see what material your pipes are. If you have galvinized pipe or fittings it could be an inside corrosion problem.

Well or city water?

If trying to limit pressure drops with one faucet open and another being opened you can spend a lot of money and not get anywhere.  My uncle improved his entire system, from street in, and while it helped it did not do as much as he had hoped.  And remember, the more pressure the more bad plumbing shows up.  Like those banging pipes and stuff.

City.


Too much pressure causes the "Banging"?
I thought it had something to do with air in the lines...

I guess air in the lines could do it, but pipes not secured real well can have problems when faucets are opened and closed.  I just remember a great uncle saying he would fix the problem and crank up the pressure.  After he did, you had banging in the pipes if you shut off a faucet very quickly.

I am not a plumber, I just fix whatever breaks myself.

Without using a pump, there is no way to increase the water pressure. What you can do is increase the velocity. You will still get the same amount of water comming out of the outlets, but it will be comming out faster/harder.

I got my irrigators license a few years ago to put in sprinkler systems on the side. The main way we increased velocity is to decrease pipe size. The minimum we needed to keep water flowing was 5ft/sec. We would calculate out our pressure loss through the pipe and fittings and adjust the size of our pipe accordingly.

This must be area dependant, because I have dug up hundreds of yards over a couple of summers and I have never seen a pressure regulator. What you had comming off the city main to the meter was what you got to work with. This was all done in Texas, so the way California does their water system could be totally different.


edited to say: The more pressure the better. I've worked with houses anywhere from 40psi up to 115 though the average is probably between 65-85psi or so.

I think you should contact the city waterworks and complain. As far as the banging, install a couple of waterbrakes.
[spank]

I feel your pain. I have 70 year old galvanized steel plumbing, in an area with very hard water, so things are pretty plugged up. Till I get around to replacing the plumbing some things I've done are:

Clean out or replace individual fixtures. I had a couple faucets that just had plugged up aerators and a showerhead where the little holes were blocked with mineral deposits.

Closed toilet water supply valves part way, so the toilets refill slower, but they don't drop the water pressure as much.

Reduce the water heater thermostat to a comfortable shower temperature, so you just turn on the hot water only to take a shower. If someone else flushes or turns on a faucet, the flow drops but the temperature stays the same, and you won't get scalded. Makes the water heater cheaper to run and you never need to screw around adusting the water temperature for showering/washing, either.

Are you trying to increase the pressure to cure the "banging" in the pipe?  IF so, that "banging" is called water hammer. The water hammer is caused when the water flow is suddenly stopped ie momenteum. There are columns of pipes with trapped air inside that is suppose to prevent that. When the air columns get water inside it causes water hammer.

If you want get rid of the water hammer try this:
1)close off the water at the main inlet, usually in the front of the house.
2) open a faucet inside your house
3) go to the lowest part of your house and open the spigot, like a garden hose etc. and drain the water until it stops.
4)go inside your house close off the faucet.
5) turn on the main inlet water
6) go turn on SLOWLY the water faucet inside the howse to let the air out and your're done.

Warlord:

One thing missing from your list is to remove the aerator from the faucet used in step 6.

Our house was 45 year-old galvanized pipe, and a replacement with copper is in order.  When I do any plumbing work, an amazing quantity of rust / silt / sand comes out when the pipes are refilling.

I’ve got a water pressure regulator in my basement.   It’s a small, non-descript gizmo with not much more than a plastic knob on the side.  No dials, numbers, or such.  It’s in-line with the water line right after it comes in from the sidewalk (city water).

Incidentally, mine has a rubber valve that can rupture – it did exactly that a few years ago and flooded my basement.

Water pressure regulators are an unpleasant topic for me!