Would you use PEX for house water lines?

[bigteamug]

We may have to replace the water lines in our house. We have an old house, the plumber like PEX because he can run it without ripping the walls open, which would also make labor much cheaper for us, too. But I'm not so sure if I like it - it is plastic, after all.

I've also wondered about running the kitchen lines with copper, since they are accessible, and then doing the rest with PEX, but that does mean we would be bathing in hot water run in those lines.

I guess I'm just a bit leery. What do you all think?

[Teenytoona]

Well, I don't know the arguments against it, but when we bought the house and had to replace the severly embolized copper pipes, DH went right for PEX. He loves it, but he's a contractor. I'm not certain of the drawbacks.

[bigteamug]

It has two things against it - it degrades in sunlight, so in parts of my basement that are unfinished, we'd have to cover it.

Also, it is plastic, and running hot water thru plastic, well, I'm a bit worried about that. There are many mamas who want nothing to do with plastic toys or food containers for safety, and I worry about any health affects from the pipes - chemicals leaching into the water my family eats, drinks, bathes in, and uses to water the plants in the yard.

I know they use it in Europe, and I'd have less concern if we were using it for a heating system and it was encased in a cement floor. Just not so sure about the safety for water we use.

[bigteamug]

severly embolized copper pipes

Um, what is that?

[Teenytoona]

Originally Posted by bigteamug

Um, what is that?

Well, you know how a blood vessel bursts? Much like that, in every pipe multiple times. It was vacant across 2 years (meaning 2 winters).

[HeatherAtHome]

We used PEX. I've decided not to stress over every bit of plastic in our lives. DH did a lot of research on safety, cost, uses etc and figured it was safe. He did most of the plumbing himself and it was pretty easy to do seeing all the pipes only ran to the first floor and were exposed from the unfinished basement. As for the pipe/sunlight issue he put those tubes of piping insulation over it.

When we bought the house, it had galvanized pipes that were literally falling apart with rust. Now THAT was awful. First thing we did was plumbing.

[Jane]

It seems like a really stable plastic, even over time. I am comfortable with it. It is much better than the galvanized pipe we had. And it is easy to remodel with, and minimizes soldering - wanna read scary stuff, try what's in solder, esp. really old lead solder.

[bigteamug]

I guess I worry about something like the Polybutylene thing. I did a little more research, and I guess there was already one lawsuit over issues with some fittings failing for PEX, causing small leaks that are hard to find and bad for houses.

[greenmansions]

I would only use copper. It is not worth the risk to me when water is so important.

[SleeplessMommy]

I would use pex. i think the retrofit will be much more costly with copper ... too many holes in drywall!

[wombatclay]

We're slowly building our own home and we went with PEX. Of the various code compliant options that was the one that worked best for us. Our last house (built in 1915 and updated over the years by some seriously bizarre people) had galvanized steel, older copper (with the scary solder), and pvc. We replaced what we could with PEX.

I can say that if you're doing the plumbing yourself, PEX is a good option in terms of cost and ease of installation. If you have a pro, budget isn't an issue, and the mineral content of your water is ok (hard water can cause the copper to corrode/leach things into the water over time) then sure, go for a whole copper retro-fit. But for us PEX was the best choice and it's track record in Europe/Scandinavia was part of that decision.

[jennifercp8]

When we remodeled our 1906 home, we replaced original lead pipes with PEX and haven't been happier. No burst pipes, no soldering, no sweating, no banging. We had the walls open, so that wasn't a huge concern. But I love having direct lines run from the hot water heater directly to the faucets without 90's and having to go anyplace else. We did this mainly for our showers so we wouldn't have to stand there and wait 10 minutes for the water to heat up.

We sold that house, moved, and then bought another house that 5 burst copper pipes in it when we purchased it. We immediately replaced it with PEX. We have decided not to worry about every bit of plastic in our lives, as it gets overkill sometimes.