Hello everyone.

I am looking at purchasing a property that had water damage and I suspect these pipes could have something to do with it.
Are these the dreaded Polybutylene pipes or something similar? It seem it was a repipe at one point, so maybe the copper pipes are still "good"?

 

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That looks like PEX.

Why was the house re-piped ?
Did the house freeze and pipes burst ?
If someone took the time to replace the copper piping with PEX..... there must be some type of problem with the copper.

We can't tell from just that picture if the plumbing caused the water damage.

 

I don't think PB pipe was color coded. AFAIK it was all grey. And IIRC it wasn't the pipe itself that was the big problem it was more with the fittings and installation methods.

If you are just looking, you should be able to get the whole story if the prior owners are still alive...disclosure laws and all.

 

Thank you for your quick replies!

I don't know much about the property or the owner, just in the first stage of looking at it, I will be hiring property inspectors for sure before moving forward with this but don't want to waste time on it if the plumbing is a "red flag".
Do you happen to know how long the PEX connectors and pipes are generally expected to last? I realize it's very dependent on surrounding environment but if I know you can expect 50 years in general and the house is "corrosive", I'd expect no more than half.

Thanks again.

 

That looks like the letter “X” on those rings in the picture. It seems like those rings could be these and thus it is in fact PEX:

https://www.contractoraccess.com/product/65152/


(just saw Newbies last post)

no expert but I think PEX has warranties up to 25yrs - but I think some mfgrs. have dropped it to 10. but I don't know how many have actually dropped it to 10yrs.

and ... hard to understand but some people say the warranty period tells you nothing about quality. hard for me to understand that, e.g. copper has warranties up to 50yrs and more. seems like that would be significant - to me anyway

 

"no expert but I think PEX has warranties up to 25yrs - but I think some mfgrs. have dropped it to 10. but I don't know how many have actually dropped it to 10yrs."
That's why I still prefer copper regardless of it's cost, but oh well it is what it is.

 

Looks like they managed to combine just about every pipe option possible. I see some copper left, PEX and the PVC.

 

PVC for the vents and drains is a plus. That will outlast copper in that application.

It looks like most of the wet walls are open.
Maybe you should just consider replacing the plumbing completely.

 

Thank you PJmax,

I was afraid someone would suggest that, but really it maybe the only reasonable although costly option.

 

From what you've shown, there really are no red-flags. Granted, we've only seen a little glimpse into the whole plumbing system, so really can't say for sure.

As others have said, there were probably some issues with the copper (maybe freezing pipes), and was replaced by PEX.

While there are sometimes some disagreements here between PEX or Copper being better - they are both code compliant and will work for a long time. As long as there aren't any installation or other issues, the plumbing system may be in good condition.

 

Thank you Zorfdt.

I am of course still in the very first stage looking at this also remotely, so even more difficult to make decision.
I am also a little risk averse, so having something like this that possible can blow up and cause major damage, does not give me warm and fuzzy at all.
Building apparently was condemned at one point so even more work if considering getting it straight with the city...
Possibly no worth my time, but still a possibility.

 

I can relate to that statement from multiple personal experiences.

From back in the 90s when Hyundai was a piece of "non performing metal machinery" it carried the same 100k warranty as it does now, but the quality was ions below of the current vehicles.
I still have a "Lifetime" warranty on my windows that were installed in 2004 and failed miserably, when the company went out of business in three years, I have no recourse.

 

(I guess collecting on warranties is a different story. But what I was thinking is that an industry or company is setting itself up for a public relations nightmare if it boasts about how long its product can last, but statistically it is shown later that the claim was totally false. Could be wrong.)

But I have a question. Is that a tub-shower valve in post #1? If so I think sometimes when you replace those they have to be cut out of the piping. I think the one I replaced many years ago (dim memory) had to be cut out (i.e., no unions there, etc.) the copper is just all soldered together.

If that’s the case then maybe that pipe was just replaced to install a new valve and there was nothing wrong with the pipes. However …maybe it’s not a valve at all. Maybe the other guys would know.