I live in Ft Worth, TX and my house is about 20 years old.
It has a blue, 3/4", plastic line from the house to the water meter (about 50') and it has just cracked again. The first time it cracked was about 4 years ago and I'm wondering if there is a better quality plastic pipe available now, or do I need to replace it with a copper pipe?
Your advise will be appreciated.
Lewis.
*****
The current PEX products have good reviews in water service, but perhaps your pipe, if PEX, was exposed to UV light which is said to be damaging. Depending on the pipe composition, you may have some warranty rights. Polybutylene installations come to mind.
Joe
Check with plumbers near you. What comes to mind to me, is that the ultra violet light in sunlight is destructive to most plastics. Maybe you can shade the pipe, or wrap it some how. Keep the sunlight off.
It's probably the new Pex stuff.
The service line from the meter to the house is above ground in the sunlight?????????????????????
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A former neighbor had a plastic pipe line from the street to home break underground. His problem was tree roots. It was replaced with PEX.
PEX is now used in the desert in landscaping, covered with rock there is no UV damage I know of - so far.
ThermoPex is insulated for underground use
All plastic pipe needs to be protected from UV - and all pipe SHOULD be buried. If yours IS buried, and therefor protected crom UV, I'd be going copper.
Schedule 80 (the gray stuff) would be an upgrade, should last as long as you do. If you change it yourself, check out the Sharkbite fittings, easy to use and good cross material compatibility, bury-able.
run water line inside of a schedule 40, 4 inch PVC sewer pipe.
since you must dig, dig one last time:)
After that any line failure? just snake new line thru sewer pipe.
protects PEX from tree roots and mechanical damage of any type. plus its realtively cheap, and makes future line replacement easy
I seen 70 year old homes with galvanized pipe and the plumbing is still working good. Galvanized is the best in my opinion!
I think the op remembered and mentioned the color from the last time it was dug up and that made people think it was above ground. I'll be surprised if it's actually above ground.
I have an 79 year old house (OC SoCal) and I can tell you that as good as galvanized may have been (lasted 50 years & then some but with greatly reduced flow) it is NOT the best choice based on the local water chemistry. Copper has lasted 50+ years in this area with no significant loss of flow. I re-piped w/ PEX due to ease of installation compared to copper.
I wouldnt bet on currently available galv plus considering the effort involved....... The suggestion of a galv re-pipe would be DOA.
OP- Determine what kind of plastic was used & way it failed before you commit to a copper or PEX fix. Was your failed water line solvent glued? or crimped?
cheers Bob
You never know. Might have cracked where it was above ground, going from the ground to the side of the house.
?????? In that case it wouldn't have been the UV it would have been freezing in all likelihood.
I've never seen a water service line exit the ground and enter a residence above ground outside (even in E TN/KY)...
Don't suppose you can get the meter put closer to the house, can you? I assume at anything upstream of the meter is the water company's responsibility, so then they might use something better and also fix it if it breaks again...
OTOH I've seen plenty of buried (assuming yours *isn't* above-ground) plastic water pipes and they last without breaking, so I think there must be something unusual about your setup (excessive strain on the pipe, vibration damage, not deep enough and someone driving something heavy over the top of it etc.)
cheers
Jules
That is a great link, Eric, thanks.
I fixed the leak in the pipe by cutting the pipe off, where it was leaking and then using a couple of 'sleeve' fittings.
When I turned the water back on at the meter, there was still a leak but it was from the connection to the meter.
My girlfriend explained to me that it needed some type of washer ( DUH !!) Why didn't I think of that? :-)
Anyway, I walked up to the Water Authority, where they were very nice to me and gave me 3 washers, of different thicknesses and told me that the blue plastic pipe that I have is not used any more. The Gentleman did suggest that I could use schedule 40, white plastic pipe.
I know that the gray, Schedule 80 that you suggested would be stronger but would the ID then be smaller and flow less water?
Kind regards.
Lewis.
*****
bury-able.http://www.cashacme.com/prod_sharkbite.php>> A tad expensive at around $5 each, but compared to plumber time @
Nobody else said it, so I will- in previous threads on here, people have mentioned that parts of TX have a unique clay soil that can move around with seasonal humidity changes. Perhaps OP needs something other than the native soil as backfill around the pipe, or some sort of flexible connection that won't strain the pipe when the earth moves?
Hey, I'm a northern boy- we put water pipes 3-4 feet down up here, and sometimes they still break due to frost.
-- aem sends...
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