greendog
New Member
Hi,
I am getting ready to replace my 80-year old galvanized plumbing in my house due to very low flow, and am going to start with the buried line from the sidewalk to the house.
What is the best material for this job? I want to have the best chance of never touching this pipe again in the possibly 30+ years we'll be in this house; I figure the cost of materials is almost negligible compared to the labor and hassle.
Here's my setup: the house is about 25 feet from the sidewalk. There is a 3 foot tall rockery a couple feet back from the sidewalk. There is a 3/4" copper line from the meter (on the far side of the sidewalk) that comes up right at the base of the rockery, and a fitting that joins it to the galvanized pipe. I'd like to avoid digging through or under the rockery, so I was going to get a piece of larger diameter steel pipe and hammer it into the ground from above at a 45 degree angle, maybe flushing water through it to help, and hopefully aim that at the copper line from the city. Then I'll dig a 2 feet deep trench from there to the house, and drill a hole through the foundation where it will come into the basement (near the old pipe, but not as deep (it was 3.5 feet deep) and larger diameter).
So my question is what material pipe should I use?
I was thinking about rigid copper because it is the only pipe I have experience with (from a previous house), and copper pipe lasts a very long time. But I was chatting with a contractor at a party and he said that oftentimes copper doesn't last that well because the solder joints go bad, due to earth settling, expansion/contraction, etc. He recommended polyethylene. I thought about soft copper, but I'm not sure I could get it through the rockery without digging a much larger hole. And it is expensive and I'm afraid of kinking it and ruining it. How easily flexible is soft copper? Could I get it straight enough to push it through another pipe (of slightly larger diameter)?
The other thing I was considering is PEX. My biggest concern with PEX is that it is relatively newer than the other materials on the market, so there is less data available about its longevity. If I did PEX outside, I would continue with PEX inside. If I didn't do PEX outside, I would do copper inside.
So between hard copper, soft copper, polyethylene, and PEX, what do people recommend? Or is there something else I haven't considered that is better?
Thanks for any help or advice!
I am getting ready to replace my 80-year old galvanized plumbing in my house due to very low flow, and am going to start with the buried line from the sidewalk to the house.
What is the best material for this job? I want to have the best chance of never touching this pipe again in the possibly 30+ years we'll be in this house; I figure the cost of materials is almost negligible compared to the labor and hassle.
Here's my setup: the house is about 25 feet from the sidewalk. There is a 3 foot tall rockery a couple feet back from the sidewalk. There is a 3/4" copper line from the meter (on the far side of the sidewalk) that comes up right at the base of the rockery, and a fitting that joins it to the galvanized pipe. I'd like to avoid digging through or under the rockery, so I was going to get a piece of larger diameter steel pipe and hammer it into the ground from above at a 45 degree angle, maybe flushing water through it to help, and hopefully aim that at the copper line from the city. Then I'll dig a 2 feet deep trench from there to the house, and drill a hole through the foundation where it will come into the basement (near the old pipe, but not as deep (it was 3.5 feet deep) and larger diameter).
So my question is what material pipe should I use?
I was thinking about rigid copper because it is the only pipe I have experience with (from a previous house), and copper pipe lasts a very long time. But I was chatting with a contractor at a party and he said that oftentimes copper doesn't last that well because the solder joints go bad, due to earth settling, expansion/contraction, etc. He recommended polyethylene. I thought about soft copper, but I'm not sure I could get it through the rockery without digging a much larger hole. And it is expensive and I'm afraid of kinking it and ruining it. How easily flexible is soft copper? Could I get it straight enough to push it through another pipe (of slightly larger diameter)?
The other thing I was considering is PEX. My biggest concern with PEX is that it is relatively newer than the other materials on the market, so there is less data available about its longevity. If I did PEX outside, I would continue with PEX inside. If I didn't do PEX outside, I would do copper inside.
So between hard copper, soft copper, polyethylene, and PEX, what do people recommend? Or is there something else I haven't considered that is better?
Thanks for any help or advice!