Combination galvanized and PEX okay?

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Rockindiver

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Hi,
I'm looking to sell my home and want to invest as little as possible to do so. It currently has galvanized steel from the meter to the house and in the crawl space as well. Water pressure is low and I get rust colored water when I first turn on the water. Not good selling points obviously. I was looking to replace just what was under the house and leave the galvanized from the meter to the house in order to save money.
What are the odds that this will make a perceptible change in flow/color? Also, one of the plumbers who gave me a quote said that keeping the galvanized from the meter to the house would damage the PEX under the house over time due to metal deposits eating through the PEX. Any veracity to this claim?
 

Reach4

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I presume you are on city/water company water.

No problem adding PEX after galvanized. You might consider a whole house cartridge filter after the galvanized to catch rust flakes. No truth in the claim, but I can't assess veracity; it could be ignorance.

Note that PEX inside diameter is smaller than steel for a given nominal size, so if in doubt, you can bump up the size of lines that carry water to more than one fixture.

Consider flushing your water heater, since that may have collected sediment.
 

hj

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Your pipe from the meter to house is more than likely the source of the rusty water, and since it is the same age as the rest of the piping it is probably not in any better shape.
 

Craigpump

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When galvanized corrodes, it corrodes on the inside also. It's very possible that the ID of that pipe is now so small you can't shove a pencil through it.

Besides, the water line is all new, what a great selling point! And no excuses for lousy water pressure........
 
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