Polybutylene plumbing

[Droff]

Anyone on here repipe their house?

My lines are under the slab and I've got a small water leak under the kitchen floor. My house has polybutylene all throughout and this is the first indication of a leak, the house is 26 years old.

I've read everywhere that poly usually leaks within 10-15 years so I'm feeling I may be on borrowed time, but then again, don't know.
Right now, somewhere in the $1300-$1500 range to fix the line that is leaking.

 

[montesa]

Can you run a new pex line through the attic and bypass the leak?

 

[dlbleak]

Have you seen that ads for Repipe Specialist? They claim to do the job faster and about half the price of a traditional plumber. I had three different leaks at the old house. Luckily, nothing catastrophic but it was a factor for us moving.

 

[swampratt]

I usually find where the pipe is stemmed up from the slab into a wall.
Cap off the leaking line and then T off of the supply and go up the wall into the attic and down to feed the faucet that was shut off
and use PEX

 

[dlbleak]

Can you run a new pex line through the attic and bypass the leak?

I would imagine that’s what a plumber would suggest. Jack hammering up the floor would cost more I would think.

 

[kingfish]

This happened to my house in Tulsa about 15 yrs. ago so I feel your pain. Once you have one leak, more will soon follow. I had three leaks in mine. One in the front yard, one in the middle of the living room, and one under the kitchen sink. The under sink was a near disaster. It broke just above the slab. I heard a loud whooshing sound and found where it was coming from spraying out at full blast. It was about 7:30 in the evening. Had it been a couple hours later after we had gone upstairs to bed, it would have flooded the whole lower level. This next part is going to sting a little I'm afraid. Back then there was a class action lawsuit against the mfg. of that pipe. I got my whole house re-piped with copper for free. Took them about a week to do it. It would have cost me $7K back then. The chances of joining that suit after all these years is probably a pipe dream (pun intended), but you can always research it on the interwebs. Whatever you decide to do I recommend you do it quickly.

 

[CC379]

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,

 

[montesa]

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,

I haven’t had a problem with it. Everyone is going to the expansion pex now. No rings to clamp. Less leaks by design.

 

[MacFromOK]

Hope it never happens... but if I had to re-pipe our house, I'd probably run copper through the walls (currently have copper with a slab).

Luck.
___

 

[turkeyrun]

PEX is faster, easier and cheaper. Builders love it.

I have COPPER. I did run PEX to chicken coop and dog kennel, but it is buried in the yard, where it is easy to get at.