Hi,
I'm in the process of buying a house and inspector pointed to the evidence of amateur plumbing. No active water leaks were observed at the time. Should this area be repaired as soon as possible?
Thank you

 

What exactly did the inspector say was out of compliance?

 

You can't have a condensate drain discharging directly into the sewer without a trap. Never mind the half arsed saddle connection they used. You've gotta love the use of wire ties in plumbing.

 

never mind________________________________

 

Inspector told that corrosion was evident on supply lines and also that duct tape is not accepted practice for plumbing. Any advice for course of action?

 

Corrosion on supply lines is fairly common. If there's a major crystal growth at the joint then they will need to be repaired. Duct tape on the sewer line is definitely an issue. You'll need to remove all the tape to see what the PVC is connecting to.

It looks like a PVC fitting taped into a cast iron pipe based on the bell end.

 

The question is what were they trying to fix with the tape. There could have been a leak were the pipe sections meet or it could be leaking where the pipe passes through the wall. Neither is particularly difficult or expensive to fix.

I am curious about that odd loop of pipe on the water line. It appears the water enters the building in that corner and has a pressure reducing valve. Then why did they loop the line over to serve that unused ball valve? It's not wrong, it's just a very unusual way to plumb it.

 

Getting a solid water-tight seal between horizontal PVC and cast iron can be tough, as evidenced by your duct-taped joint. The fix that will probably work is to open it up and see what's there, then find a Fernco flexible rubber coupling that will fit both sides of the joint. You will likely need to clean up and smooth the outside of the cast iron quite a bit to get the rubber coupling to fully seal. Wire brush it, maybe file down high spots or casting nibs, but do not use any kind of impact tool, hammer or chisel. If you fracture the cast iron you've got an excavation project in your future. This kind of thing isn't that hard to fix, but you'll need some elbow grease.

The condensate drain should be moved to somewhere you can install a wye fitting in the main line to a trap with a vertical standpipe and an air gap between the condensate line and the sewer.

 

None of it's great, but I don't think any of it is super urgent to repair.

* The drain hose is probably the most potentially unsafe portion. If your main backs up at all, you could have sewage back-flowing into your water softener (or whatever it connects to).

* If the duct-taped connection isn't leaking, it probably isn't a huge problem. It may start leaking again at some point, at which point the whole thing will need to be opened up and connected properly. But it likely won't be a significant leak at any time, it'll start as just a drip-drip kind of leak.

* The copper water piping is odd, but isn't horrible. No need to change it as long as it's not leaking.

 

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate your help.

 

Sanitary tees cannot be used laying down like that, the correct fitting would be a Wye. Yes, the inspector was right, it looks very amateurish.