Plumbing issues

Killdee

Senior Member
Our house was built in the 80s with all copper water lines and we had a leak develop in an interior wall a couple years ago. It flooded two rooms before we got the water supply turned off, required alot of work, mold remediation, etc. An inspection revealed little green spots of corrosion or electrolysis on most of the copper water lines throughout the house. It was just a matter of time before more leaks occurred, so we had the home re-piped with pex. We have no crawl space under the floor so the new pex pipe feeder and branch lines had to go up and into the roof/attic space, branch off down thru each interior wall connecting to each sink, toilet, water fixtures, etc all thru the house. Access holes were cut in the drywall in every wall to facilitate the fixture connections.

The pex pipe is supposed to be good BUT being in the attic, the plastic pex pipe and water gets scalding hot in the summer and freezing cold during the winter. A real PITA to say the least, very wasteful as we tend to run the water out until normal temp is felt, and it doesn't seem healthy for your drinking water to sit and/or flow thru scalding hot water pipes in the attic. We may not have to, but we now buy bottled water to drink and cook with. Your situation may be different if you have easy access but a licensed plumber would probably be the best option.

Yes, we had a customer re pipe their whole house and they ran some of the pex in the attic. In extremely cold weather the master vanity plumbing would freeze. We framed up around those pipes and insulated it to the extreme and stopped that issue. I never heard them complain about it over heating but that makes sense it could be a problem. I’m about to research re plumbing for a couple of customers so this is good information.
Thanks
 

Mkisiel

New Member
Does anyone have advice or info for how I can get help paying for my Cobb house to be repiped? Is there any recourse to water authority? Homeowner insurance only seems to cover emergency flooding, but this seems like systemic problem for Cobb county homes. In 1 week, we've patched 2 pin hole leaks in our cold water copper pipes in our Acworth home built in 1988.
 

Killdee

Senior Member
Does anyone have advice or info for how I can get help paying for my Cobb house to be repiped? Is there any recourse to water authority? Homeowner insurance only seems to cover emergency flooding, but this seems like systemic problem for Cobb county homes. In 1 week, we've patched 2 pin hole leaks in our cold water copper pipes in our Acworth home built in 1988.

I don’t think you have any recourse for this issue, it’s not just Cobb it’s nationwide. I have recommended a company called Greenlee plumbing to several of my customers who have all been well pleased with their experience. You can call them and give them a count of all your plumbing items, toilets, sinks outside bibs etc and they can give you an estimate over the phone. Typically they can replumb a 2 story house in 1 day and patch and paint on day 2 and done. I’m continuing to repair 1-6 pinhole leaks a month sometimes more mostly in 1 neighborhood.
 

Mkisiel

New Member
Thank you for the info! We have a quote from Greenlee, but we are getting mixed reviews about PEX vs CPVC. It seems like everything has one issue or another. Do you have an opinion on PEX?
 

Scott Rogers

Senior Member
Your not going to go wrong with either PEX or Cpvc, both will give you a good service life. I just did my new old house with PEX, I will continue to use it in the future. before this I did my rentals and old personal house with CPVC.

Pex goes in faster since you can do long jointless runs. but fittings are more expensive then cpvc
 

Adamjen15

Member
Thank you for the info! We have a quote from Greenlee, but we are getting mixed reviews about PEX vs CPVC. It seems like everything has one issue or another. Do you have an opinion on PEX?
I would go with pex over cpvc everyday of the week, over time cpvc gets brittle.
 

Jimmypop

Senior Member
If anything electrical is grounded to your pipes, put a dielectric coupling on the feed at the water heater. Lowes or Ace can help you. No charge.
 

Ray357

AWOL
I am going about a year of moving into a house that was built in 1983 I think. The house has its share of age related issues, but is overall in ok shape. Recently, I had a pipe develop a pin hole leak which I was able to contain and have repaired. A section of pipe was cut out to be replaced due to a couple of pin hole leaks in it. We also surveyed the rest of the visible pipes for indications of potential leaks. Plumbing is all copper.

End result 3 pin hole leaks repaired and 3 more identified as potential future leaks. Inspecting the inside of the pipe that was cut out, it looks ok except for dots of corrosion every so often, all on the bottom of the pipe, all isolated to a point (not big splotches or concentrated dots). This is both hot and cold water lines.

Questions.

1) Chances this is an isolated incident and once I deal with these 6 items, I'll be done? Is this an indication that I'm going to have to repipe the whole house?

2) Any theories on what causes this type of failure?

3) Chances insurance covers pipe replacement as a potential whole house issue due to corrosion?

4) What do people think of PEX piping? How hard is it to DIY?
Replumb the house. You are at the life of copper in years. Once it starts leaking, it keeps getting new leaks.
 

Ray357

AWOL
If anything electrical is grounded to your pipes, put a dielectric coupling on the feed at the water heater. Lowes or Ace can help you. No charge.
I would say if anything electrical is grounded to your pipes, take it off the pipes and ground it the proper way.
 

Ray357

AWOL
Your not going to go wrong with either PEX or Cpvc, both will give you a good service life. I just did my new old house with PEX, I will continue to use it in the future. before this I did my rentals and old personal house with CPVC.

Pex goes in faster since you can do long jointless runs. but fittings are more expensive then cpvc
I don't trust pex fittings. I have seen several fail in a house that is 7 years old. P.H. is slightly acidic, but nothing crazy.
 
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