gjohnson027
New Member
Hello.
I have a house that is about 30 years old and has an issue with the water mainline from the meter to my house.
My house is downhill from the meter and about 350 feet away. The mainline runs right under the long driveway. Also water pressure at the meter is about 100psi, I do have a regulator at the house, but the pipe will be under heavy pressure.
For whatever reason, when the house was built, they used schedule 40 PVC for this mainline. So there are about 15-20 joints along the path. Well, after 30 years of cars and sometimes large trucks coming down the driveway, they are breaking at the joints. 5 times in the last 3 years I have had to shut off the mainline, dig into my driveway and have those joints patched. I am now just waiting for the other 10-15 joints to eventually break.
So anyway, I am going to redo the whole thing, because I want to redo the driveway and I don't want to have to dig into a new driveway.
Each plumber I have had come out has a different opinion how to go. First off, I will NOT have the new line go under the middle of the driveway, but will offset it along the edge as much as possible (the driveway is my only property until it gets closer to my home, this is a flag lot so I cannot do it in the ground next to the driveway without causing neighbor issues.
The only thing they can agree on is schedule 40 PVC is the worst option.
Plumber #1, go with copper, its proven, but not cheap
Plumber #2, go with PEX, its new and best thing since sliced bread
Plumber #3, go with schedule 80 PVC, its stronger, and still a bit cheap
Plumber #4, go with CPVC, it has chlorine, so it's better??
Plumber #5, go with PE pipe. flexible like PEX, but longer track history
I cannot believe there is so much ambiguity about the options. I have tried to call the city, but it looks like just to get a straight answer on what they recommend I would have to actually take time off work to go there.
From my little knowledge and internet searches, it seems to me PEX is the answer except that we don't know much about longevity for underground, does it have BPA, etc?
The next best option to me seems to be PE pipe. I don't want a lot of joints, and it comes in long rolls. PVC just sounds too brittle, even tough I am not in the middle of the driveway, I cannot promise cars will not run over the pipe many times. I don't want the cost to get out of control, but I want quality over all else if I can help it.
What is everyone's opinion on this site? Also, the pipe is 2", but what if I dropped down to 1 1/2"?
Thanks.
I have a house that is about 30 years old and has an issue with the water mainline from the meter to my house.
My house is downhill from the meter and about 350 feet away. The mainline runs right under the long driveway. Also water pressure at the meter is about 100psi, I do have a regulator at the house, but the pipe will be under heavy pressure.
For whatever reason, when the house was built, they used schedule 40 PVC for this mainline. So there are about 15-20 joints along the path. Well, after 30 years of cars and sometimes large trucks coming down the driveway, they are breaking at the joints. 5 times in the last 3 years I have had to shut off the mainline, dig into my driveway and have those joints patched. I am now just waiting for the other 10-15 joints to eventually break.
So anyway, I am going to redo the whole thing, because I want to redo the driveway and I don't want to have to dig into a new driveway.
Each plumber I have had come out has a different opinion how to go. First off, I will NOT have the new line go under the middle of the driveway, but will offset it along the edge as much as possible (the driveway is my only property until it gets closer to my home, this is a flag lot so I cannot do it in the ground next to the driveway without causing neighbor issues.
The only thing they can agree on is schedule 40 PVC is the worst option.
Plumber #1, go with copper, its proven, but not cheap
Plumber #2, go with PEX, its new and best thing since sliced bread
Plumber #3, go with schedule 80 PVC, its stronger, and still a bit cheap
Plumber #4, go with CPVC, it has chlorine, so it's better??
Plumber #5, go with PE pipe. flexible like PEX, but longer track history
I cannot believe there is so much ambiguity about the options. I have tried to call the city, but it looks like just to get a straight answer on what they recommend I would have to actually take time off work to go there.
From my little knowledge and internet searches, it seems to me PEX is the answer except that we don't know much about longevity for underground, does it have BPA, etc?
The next best option to me seems to be PE pipe. I don't want a lot of joints, and it comes in long rolls. PVC just sounds too brittle, even tough I am not in the middle of the driveway, I cannot promise cars will not run over the pipe many times. I don't want the cost to get out of control, but I want quality over all else if I can help it.
What is everyone's opinion on this site? Also, the pipe is 2", but what if I dropped down to 1 1/2"?
Thanks.
