Plumbing with flexible tubing - how good?

[Martino]

The new house will need fire sprinkling system and when researching the products I ran into AQUASAFE and AQUAPEX from WIRSBO

know mostly for its radiant heating tubing. AQUASAFE is a fire sprinkling system which uses a flexible tubing attached to the cold water plumbing system. Interestingly, WIRSBO promotes also usage of its AQUAPEX flex tubing for the standard plumbing. This seems like a great idea (fast installation throughout complex framing, etc.) but how good is it (durability, ...)? P.S. I worked in Italy (temporarily) as a plumber and we used over there more rigid plastic tubing for cold and hot water (gas as well). This tubing was covered by the concrete floors so there was no room for human imposed damage. I wonder how easily can one hurt the flex in-wall tubing with usual home decoration and retro tasks? Thanks for any info.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Is the tubing fire resistant? All new house plumbing is done with Pemex here but sprinkler pipes are iron. Sprinkler is mandatory only on multi-housing complex. Single resisdence is voluntary option. Tony

[Martino]

Tony, the web site says that AQUASAFE "meets National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and UL requirements for residential fire sprinkler systems" but I have no idea if it's fire resistant.

I think we have similar codes in Seattle but my new house will need a min of

20' wide driveway + a fire truck hummer-style turn or a fire sprinkler system (the driveway is 180' long!!!) - I am going for a fire sprinkler (they say it should be about $1.50/living sq. ft.)

Mart>> The new house will need fire sprinkling system and when researching the

[Edwin Pawlowski]

To my knowledge, all plastics in construction must be fire resistant. Worst case scenario is that the tubing would burn, leak water and put the fire out.

[HeatMan]

You're not far from the truth. Former neighbor had his lawn mower catch fire one evening and the fire melted the solder that was connecting the water lines in the basement. The ensuing flood put the fire out.