PEX Plumbing

[Stoneface]

There's a small house my landowner's brother owns that is right next to the land I lease. The house is far from anything special but it's strong and the guy that lived there last had a drug problem and took all the copper plumbing with him when he left. I'm thinking about talking to the guy about selling it to me because it's just setting and he's not doing anything with it besides paying taxes. I'd want to get someone to look it over first, but I don't mind that it needs a lot of work, I'm kind of a handy-man type.

Anyhow, I've been researching what it would take to replace the stolen copper piping and I ran across PEX plumbing. It's WAY cheaper and from the videos I've seen, it's a cynch to install. Does anyone have an opinion or any experience with it?

[twofeathers]

I would check with a plumber to make sure of the codes in your area. I'm not 100% positive but I thought at least where I live you could use it but joints and unions could not be enclosed in or behind drywall. It's been a couple of years but helped a buddy install this in his remodel project. His plumber buddy mentioned something along those lines. I can't recall him having any issues with it yet.

Much cheaper and way easier to install.

On a side note I live in the country and every year before it gets cold the mice try to find a way inside may be a downfall over copper.

[ibbowhunting]

ive install miles of pex plumbing and heating and never seen a mouse chew on it, used it for a lot of seasonal cabins. if you use pex make sure you use poly fitting or copper not the brass type, brass type fitting seems better but depending on your water in your area it will eat the brass type fittings and weakin them, find a pex A tubing it a little nicer to work with, its not UV rated so it can't be install in direct sunlight. check you local plumb code about using/install it in your area. we use it almost every day, great product when install right

[Stoneface]

Great. Thanks, guys! I was thinking it was too good to be true... guess not.

[Garrison]

Rats will chew through it, I have told many a disappointed homeowner with a flooded house that damage related to animals is not included in their warranty, almost an entire tract, we changed layout to exclude attics and crawl spaces and it helped. Some jurisdictions do not allow it and some require no connections in walls. Great product in all other regards especially if you use a manifold system and use all home runs.

[Kmack]

Manifold system with individual valves for each line is the way to go as far as I'm concerned.
I have had a PEX sytem in the last three houses I have had built and have never had an issue related to the pipe.
I did freeze an external spigot once (left a hose attached) and having a seperate shut-off valve for that line allowed me to live a normal life until I could get the spigot replaced.

It would be my preference regardless of the cost.

[wems2371]

I don't have anything useful to add about PEX in houses. When we built our house in 04-05, we used copper, but that's not to say we won't use PEX if we build again. We do have an old camper though, 1965 to be exact, that had a copper size that even the plumbing stores didn't have. The lines had numerous leaks and the previous owner had just patched it here and there with odd pieces of tubing and hose clamps. Not a big camper at something like 22', but it does have toilet, shower, 2 sinks, and a waterheater of course. My husband had it replumbed with PEX in just a couple hours last weekend. When we turned the water on, he had a couple drips, only because there were a few places where it was very hard to get a good grip on the ring pliers. He went back and gave the few drippy ones a good squeeze and we were golden. It was slicker than snot as they say.

[AzDoggin]

Here in AZ, they build houses with copper pipes in the slab. When the copper starts to leak, they just plumb around that stretch of pipe with PEX (going through the attic). Agree with WEMs - slicker than snot. Definitely beat the jack-hammer approach.

[Stoneface]

The house across the street had a fire a few months ago and it just ruined the entire interior of the house. The people had just bought it about a month before (survivors of the twister in Joplin from last year) and decided they just wanted to unload it so they priced it at $5,000 to the first comer. I jumped on in at soon as I could, but an investor who flips fire-damaged properties beat me to it.

He was over the other day checking it out and taking photos so I went over and talked to him, asked him about PEX. He said when he buys a house, the first thing he does is gut it because it's almost impossible to get rid of that burn smell. Then he powerwashes the entire interior with some sort of solution to get as much of the soot off the suface, then he cuts out as much copper pipe as is feasible, blocks the openings and coats the entire interior with white. White everything. This covers the remainder of the soot that isn't coming off. He takes all the cut-out copper pipe and sells it to the recycler in Joplin then installs PEX, replaces electrical, hangs and textures drywall, paints, puts in new flooring, windows and doors then all the kitchen/bathroom stuff like cabinets, toilets and sinks and, finally, sells it or rents it out.

He said once you rehab enough houses in the same area for awhile you learn where to find deals and swing deals and such to really cut your prices WAY down. He laughed and said when you see the folks on the flipping shows on TV buy everything retail you're being had. But, he said, replacing the plumbing with PEX really puts some change in your pocket that you can put back into the house. He said he'd been doing this for over thirty years and since PEX has come out he's actually had two houses that he pulled so much copper from that he paid for the entire rehab. I don't see how that's possible, but the guy does most of the work himself (with his wife) so I guess he knows what he's talking about. He says a lot of poeple try to go in and replace all the copper with PEX, which is bad, because there are some places that NEED to be copper. Something to do with water pressure or something.

Just thought it was interesting. I'm going to see if he needs help rehabing the house. I've got the other one right by the training grounds I want to rehab and this would be good, practical experience for that.