They use aluminum pipe for guardrails on bridges. We scored some leftover from the Beltway and used it for a TV mast. It was around 3.5" used on the bottom and 4" used on the top which nested together fairly well and got us about 50' in the air. It was enough to get the Redskins from Richmond when they were blacked out in DC.
Here in the rust belt, most highway guard rails are steel K-rail style. Coated steel, heavily galvanized. They last okay. A formerly common name for the was Armco rails, related, I presume, to the company that came up with a coating method that works. Yeah, I do remember rusty rails from the old days, but anything put up in last 20-30 years seems to be fine.
aem sends...
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Either you built that place earlier than you remember, or your supply house gave you some real old stock. I was a gofer in my old man's construction company in that era, and the romex we used was all plastic skin by 1966 when my father built his dream house. My grandmother's 1961 house had the multi-layer cloth stuff, as does the original part of the expanded 1960 cookie cutter I am sitting in now.
But to the question at hand- nothing but copper for household wiring and potable water supply side. PVC is okay for drains. Haven't ever used PEX- I understand it is popular in Europe- but it has a bad rep in this country from the cheap crap they put in trailers, er, 'manufactured housing', for several years.
aem sends...
I believe you may have polybutylene and pex confused. Pex seems totally different than PB. I believe pex has around 30 years service in Europe. Many contractors going with pex now as the "copper recyclers" will break out the drywall to get the copper plumbing and wiring.
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I do believe you are right- I drive a desk these days, and those old acronyms run together in the mists of memory. I'm old fashioned- I like copper.
aem sends...
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