Water & its waywardness

[ERD50]

If I have a choice for pipe inside a wall (new construction or an addition), it would be PEX. But, my house is all copper and the pipe is in good shape so I generally fix what I've got using copper.

I would do that also. When I redid our kids shower/bath, I had to jog each of the supply lines a bit to get them to line up with the new valve which was wider than the old (probably because of the pressure balancing anti-scald feature, which BTW is worth it's weight in gold!).

So that involves a couple 45 degree fitting on each side, plus everything else to get everything together. I had over 20 joints to sweat in that wall. I was able to do most of them as an "assembly" outside the wall, and then just sweat a few in the wall, that helped. But it still made me nervous. I had one very slow leak, amazingly on a lower pressure side (the pipe going to the shower head). Fixed that, kept the wall open for two weeks, just to make sure nothing developed from a few pressure cycles (well, that was my excuse anyway....)


PEX would have made that much easier.

-ERD50

 

[REWahoo]

A money discussion on This Old House?!? That'd be unprecedented.

They might be forced to change the title of the program to "This Old Moneypit".

Our neighborhood went through a spate of foundation plumbing leaks. The [-]fingerpointing[/-] cause is thought to be thin-walled copper piping and acidic concrete corrosion. So at a minimum you'd want to shell out extra for thick copper piping, and it's possible that there's a flex-piping solution that could survive a foundation tweak.

To reduce (hopefully eliminate) corrosion of copper pipes in our foundation the plumbing contractor inserted the pipes in a plastic sleeve so that the concrete does not directly contact the copper. It has worked fine for 10 years but who knows what the long-term success rate will be. PEX was just being introduced when we built and I had no desire to experiment with something new and unproven for fear I'd be featured on an episode of "This Not So Old Moneypit"

 

[Khan]

The plumber has left the building, with a large check.

When did 'teflon' become a verb?

 

[W2R]

The plumber has left the building, with a large check.

When did 'teflon' become a verb?

Glad you got it fixed!! And with plumbers, a large check is always required.

 

[Khan]

Glad you got it fixed!! And with plumbers, a large check is always required.

Gave me a 'Friends & Families discount' of $50. I've been using them for 30 years.

 

[W2R]

Gave me a 'Friends & Families discount' of $50. I've been using them for 30 years.

That was really nice!

Right after buying my present house I had to call a plumber to fix a leaky faucet. Didn't know anything about him except that the BBB had no complaints. He assigned an lazy assistant to do the work (took him two days), and charged me $400. I never hired him again, and steered several other people away from him.

 

[ERD50]

The plumber has left the building, with a large check.

When did 'teflon' become a verb?

Glad you got it fixed!! And with plumbers, a large check is always required.

Ooops, I skimmed, and the previous posts must have left a bad image in my mind. I though she said "The plumber has left the building, with a large crack."

-ERD50

 

[Khan]

Ooops, I skimmed, and the previous posts must have left a bad image in my mind. I though she said "The plumber has left the building, with a large crack."

-ERD50

The work is guaranteed for 30 days, except for the valve on the water meter. If that resumes leaking, he has to go through the city water department.
-------------------------
Since you're all dieing to know: he did not have 'plumber crack'.
-------------------------
Poor guy had to work on outside faucet at 15F.
-------------------------
I have the same feeling about the vet, dentist, plumbers, auto mechanics: They do good work and I gladly pay them; but I really don't want to have to see them more than once or twice a year.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Khan, I'm glad the pipes are going to be all right, even if they did require $$$. Old houses are such a joy.

 

[bssc]

Glad you got it fixed!! And with plumbers, a large check is always required.

Ours takes credit cards so we get our $$s back.

 

[Martha]

The work is guaranteed for 30 days, except for the valve on the water meter. If that resumes leaking, he has to go through the city water department.

We had a leaky valve on the water meter and the city replaced the valve and meter at no cost to us. I think it was because the valve was on the "city side" of the meter.

 

[Khan]

We had a leaky valve on the water meter and the city replaced the valve and meter at no cost to us. I think it was because the valve was on the "city side" of the meter.

The leaky valve is on my side of the meter.

 

[NW-Bound]

My home in the valley was built in 1986, the period when polybutylene pipe was used. Ten years later, one house after another in the block needed to be replumbed, mine included. I, along with several others, was able to get the job paid for from a fund set aside by a class action law suit against the pipe maker. The draw back with copper pipe is that when my daugher uses the shower upstairs, the water rushing noise is heard throughout the house.

My 2nd home in the high-country has PEX. The problem with polybutylene pipe was that it developed pinhole leaks that were blamed on the chlorine in the water. Don't know if PEX will be OK. One thing for sure is that PEX is freeze-resistant. My neighbor forgot to drain his plumbing for his absence. The pipe was frozen thoughout the house, yet the only leak that he found later was at the shower mixing valve, which was not really part of the plumbing. I found it surprising that the elbow connections did not burst. Needless to say, he won't forget again.

 

[Nords]

Don't know if PEX will be OK. One thing for sure is that PEX is freeze-resistant. My neighbor forgot to drain his plumbing for his absence. The pipe was frozen thoughout the house...

We have 20 years of good experience with PEX, although it's all been non-freezing and it's no guarantee of future performance.

It's also pretty heat-tolerant. Before we insulated our attic, on a hot day it wasn't uncommon to get a shot of 140-degree water out of the "cold" faucet.

 

[NW-Bound]

We have 20 years of good experience with PEX...

I did not know it has been around so long!

It appears that due to the freeze resistance, it is used nearly universally up in the AZ high country. Yet, down in the valley, its useage has not caught on. I think it might be due to the bad public experience with polybutylene.