Polybutylene plumbing

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-Pjackso

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I thought pex was great have some in my house, but then someone on this website mentioned having a lot of problems with pex, started searching youtube and found pex is not that great,

Can you explain further? I think Pex is great, and I'm not aware of the down-sides.

The only down-side I know: I've heard from plumbers, that you can't leave Pex in the sunlight for very long (i.e. 2 days max). The sun UV ages the Pex a bit and it'll get brittle after 5-10 years. (read: get brittle, then crack and leak) That's the only down-side I know of, and it's easy to avoid - providing you take precautions during construction/rework.
I've never researched it, so maybe the plumber was feeding me a story.


For the under-slab poly/pex installs - I don't understand why more plumbers don't sleeve the pipe runs.
If needed, snake in a replacement pipe.
 

Droff

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The $1300-$1500 fix is sleeving the 1/2" line with 3/8". Might decrease volume but shouldn't decrease pressure. I haven't got a price for tearing up the slab. Calling Repipe Specialists is on my list and from the look of it, they would run lines through the attic. I'd go with Pex for the cost savings over copper. The current line that is leaking is the kitchen sink, it's kind of on an island and there isn't a wall I can drop a new water line through to get to it, not sure how they would run it if repiping.
I looked into the class action suit, way too late for that. The number in my head for repiping is in the $8K-$10K range but I'm going to get an estimate.
 

MacFromOK

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Fixed four different pipe bursts in four different houses. All were copper lines.
Pex will supposedly expand 4x before bursting.
Yeah... with copper, freeze prevention is pretty much required. Not usually an issue if occupied by the owner (hopefully not anyway), but renters can be a totally different situation. :D
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MacFromOK

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The current line that is leaking is the kitchen sink, it's kind of on an island and there isn't a wall I can drop a new water line through to get to it, not sure how they would run it if repiping.
Hmmm... other than cutting a trench in the slab, I don't know either. And for one isolated spot, I'd probably consider any/all options before cutting up the floor. Then I'd probably cut it anyway for peace of mind... :D

Again, good luck.
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El Pablo

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Had a hot water and cold water break at my house under the slab. Had pex run through the attic to fix the hotwater. Jack hammered the slab for the cold water. Would have had to tear up too many walls just to get to toilets and outside faucets for cold water. FYI, we have much better hot water pressure now than cold water. Been 10 years and no issues with the pex.
 

Oklahomabassin

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The current line that is leaking is the kitchen sink, it's kind of on an island and there isn't a wall I can drop a new water line through to get to it, not sure how they would run it if repiping.
It could be possible with a decorative pole from island to the ceiling. The water line would be inside the pole.
 

Gunbuffer

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I would imagine that’s what a plumber would suggest. Jack hammering up the floor would cost more I would think.
My plumber found a leak in the main Pex line leading to my plumbing. Broke slab and they were within 6” of it once they broke concrete. They used a listening device. Impressed the crap out of me.
 

GeneW

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I've had 2 slab leaks. The first one was about 6 years ago. They brought in a guy with a electronic gizmo listening device. That cost $285.00 for that.

Plumber started jack hammering up the floor, didn't find the leak. Kept jackhammering and finally found it 6 feet from where the guy said it was. WRONG! The guy said it was in my 1/2 bath, so that got all tore up. It wasn't. Plumber kept jack hammering and finally found it in the adjoining room about 6 feet away. What a cluster **** mess. They cut out the bad section of copper line and fixed the job. It was a mucking fess.

The other was about 4 months ago. I had a different plumber come in, he ended up saying it'd be best to run a special pex from the water heater to some manifold thing across the house through the attic. I was very concerned about the PEX leaking in the attic and making a totally bad situation.

Apparently some PEX is crap and some is really good, according to the plumber, the good stuff is much longer lasting and it will swell up when frozen but will not burst.

IF you need a plumber in OKC, let me know and I will refer you.
 
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