That was the issue, not that homeowners are doing it without following code. I was questioning what the debate was about and cited what I think in the code says you have to bond it, so I was curious what interpretation some inspectors have that allow it. I can see if you run PEX from the basement to a bathroom, it's only convenient to get to within a few feet of the shower with PEX, so they let you leave that small remaining portion of the old meatl pipe unbonded. In that case, there is only a few feet of it, it obviously goes to the shower and it's unlikely anything else is relying on the ground. I also saw from googling somewhere that an inspector would allow 18" of metal piping to remain unbonded. Again, I get that, because at 18" it should be obvious where it goes, that nothing else is connected to it, that it's extremely unlikely to wind up energized, etc.
But as I said, I don't see why an inspector would allow you to take out a 10ft section of metal pipe in an old house where it's often not clear where all the piping goes to, you can't visibly inspect it, you don't know what might have been wired to it in the past, etc. So, I think we're in agreement, it's just that if I understand it correctly, gfre is saying some inspectors are OK with not bonding across the 10 ft plastic section and I'm curious what their basis is.
That's pretty funny or pretty bad, depending on how you look at it.
Was it supposed to have a permit and be inspected? That would catch it, presumably, at least here in NJ.