plastic or copper plumbing?

[Alan]

A builder I know is offering a choice of plastic or copper plumbing in new home construction. He recommends plastic as he says it is quieter. He charges the same for either one. Anything else to consider?

[I-zheet M'drurz]

It's easier for a typical homeowner to rework/repair down the road. You make your new joints with liquid adhesive, not a torch and solder.

[RB]

For drains plastic is much noisier than metal. My preferred solution is cast iron for drains and copper for potable water. For plastic I like schedule 80 PVC. Some will favor PEX.

RB

I-zheet M'drurz wrote:

[HeatMan]

The builder may also be calling PEX pipe plastic. While that doesn't require soldering, the fittings may be a little specialized.

[SQLit]

if there is no difference in price then copper, have them insulate the hot water pipes. It will save you money in the long run.

Good luck with your builder, I hope it is not KB I just told them to stuff it and bought another home.

[stuart8181]

[zxcvbob]

Copper supply lines, plastic or cast iron waste lines. (Cast iron is quieter) I would use plastic for horizontal waste lines and might use cast iron for the waste stack.

Bob

[dadiOH]

Yeah...what kind of copper? K? L? M?

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Everett M. Greene]

I've seen the plastic lines installed in new construction in our area and have wondered about the ease with which a DIYer can come along later and drive a nail through the lines. The light metal pieces put across the studs won't slow anyone down very much.

I also questioned the local building inspector's office about using the plastic lines for grounding the electrical service. They seemed to think it's OK. (There's a real ground to ground also.)

[zxcvbob: How do you post from the University of Berlin?]

[zxcvbob]

It's almost as easy to drive a nail through a copper pipe.

You ground the electrical service to the *back side of the meter*, so it should be thick-wall copper tubing or pipe. If the water entrance is plastic, you wouldn't use it as a grounding electrode. You'll have to make some other kind of grounding electrode.

Best regards, Bob

[Curtis]

Do you mean they are wet to start? Polymers fail because of stress cracking, oxidation and crosslinking or plasticizer migration. PVC and CPVC is cheap compared to copper. PEX isn't. Much depends on the quality of your water. BTW anyone can learn to properly sweat a copper connection in 15 minutes.,

[I-zheet M'drurz]

I'm glad you think so. And even if that were true, let's see them do one that's in a cramped space surrounded by flamable building materials. Give 'em an hour and have the volunteer fire company turned out, just to be ready.

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

The choice is your , but here is the way I think.

If you had a Mad Dog out in your front yard and you had to choose between two material of a stick you want to use to go out and beat the hell out of the mad dog with . Copper or Plastic ?

You can picture my choice.

TURTLE

[PJx]

I have 3/4 and 1/2 in copper running all over my attic of my 20 year old home.. About 14 years ago, it got down to sub 10 degree weather for a few days and busted about 6 different spots on that copper tubing. Maybe if the copper had been thicker, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe if it had been bust resistant plastic .....

I still don't know which I would choose.

PJ

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Frozen pipes will burst no matter the material. The force of expanding frozen water is incredible. Last winter one of our building had a bad freeze and iron pipe split, as did the copper. I don't think plastic would be any better.

I'm just not sure about the very long term results with plastics. I'm talking 30 or 50 years that copper will hold up under.

[m Ransley]

Coppres betta , easier to het turtles dog weth or the hack that gives ya shet, or the thief ya see=A0 whn ya tryin ta pee out at night, Yea OUT door peein shoulda be leegeel, like aut dour driinkin. an screwin, an cussin, in doers its too messie. in doers is fwer sleepin

[Gary Slusser]

PEX is not harmed by freezing.

Gary Quality Water Associates

Gary Slusser's Bulletin Board

[Gary Slusser]

"Alan" wrote

The choice of which material should be dictated by the quality of the water to be run through it now and anytime in the future. Plastic is not harmed by anything in water and doesn't add anything to the water run through it as copper can and does.

Copper (poisoning) is very harmful to humans. Pinhole leaks are very common in copper tubing. The water damage can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Replumbing a house is very expensive also and the usual replacement material is PEX, or other plastic. If the water is acidic, has high DO CO2 TDS content or anything that will cause erosion corrosion, or bacteria, or electrical grounds problems etc., copper is not the right choice.

Plastic should be less than copper, and PEX is the lowest priced (system) of any. The labor is very little for PEX, especially with 'homeruns' from a manifold to each fixture.

Gary Quality Water Associates

Gary Slusser's Bulletin Board

[Tom Baker]

material of a stick you want to use to go out and beat

I would have, might still agree with you. My personal experience includes a house done in 1978 in plastic with no problems. A rental unit in which the plastic elbows were replaced with copper only to have the copper spring a pinhole that brought down a ceiling. TB

[Chris Lewis]

According to TURTLE :

I could picture the ASTM standard specifying _that_ test...

Copper supply pipe makes a lousy club. One hit, and the pipe is kinked. Second hit (if you're lucky the pipe hasn't kinked at your fist), you have two shorter pieces of pipe and a pissed off dog.

PEX or PB pipe makes a better weapon. Hint: it won't break.

Iron pipe, on the other hand...

Though, if you had time to sharpen the end of the copper pipe, it might be useful...

Interesting criteria - have you plumbed your house with baseball bats?