Piping and Repiping
Repiping can be necessary for a couple of reasons.
One is if you have very old water lines and you are constantly getting drips and leaks and pinholes. It could be that an old cast iron line or if a PVC line wasn’t installed correctly. If that’s the case, we can get in there and diagnose the problem. The most repiping we’re doing is on newer homes between the ages of 7 to 15 years that had PEX piping paired with recirculating pumps.
What happens is that these pumps run all the time and it degrade the PEX pipe on the hotlines. Eventually, it will just split and burst. Constantly being hot eats away the pipe and it will randomly blow up and flood your house. When we go out and fix it, we show you the situation and present you with an option to replace your pipes.
Modern Piping Materials
We always offer a copper pipe solution. We also offer PEX because that’s the other alternative. We do not believe in CPBC. We see way too many problems out of it long term. But if we go with PEX, we always recommend that you don’t do a recirculating pump or you limit the recirculating pump to only run a few hours a day. In these cases, we’re seeing a lot better success out of PEX piping.
We prefer copper over PEX. It’s antibacterial. It’s a proven pipe. We know there’s going to be a 50+ year service life out of it and it is the best, wisest investment you can put in your home. If we’re tearing it apart, you’re going to get the best quality of water out of it. You’re not going to run into any issues of it being inferior. It has been used for decades and decades. So a lot of times we don’t even start seeing problems out of copper until it’s at the 45 or 50 year mark.
How Repiping Improves Water Quality and Pressure
Rust builds up on the inside of galvanized pipes and it restricts water flow. If you have PEX pipes and we come in and we put copper pipes in, you’ll notice that the water will taste different. If you drink out of the faucet, it won’t have the certain taste of whatever chemicals that PEX is releasing.
Even though they’re in such trace amounts, you’re still going to taste those chemicals. Additionally, you’re going to get a brand new pressure reducing valve with every repipe and that’s going to ensure that you’re getting the maximum volume of water into your system as well as customizable pressure.