Hi Tom,

my house has a leak in the hot water pipe going to the 2nd floor
bath tub. A plumber fixed the leak then the pipe started leaking in
another spot. The plumber wants to replace all the pipes in the
bathroom with C-PVC pipes. He told he's been using C-PVC for years w/o
problems. He further states copper is way too expensive these days.
Want do you think?

My in-laws had galvanized pipe in their house also. They asked me to fix a
leaky faucet one day. I thought it was a seal or something, but when I
unscrewed the valve the whole faucet housing cracked away. So, I tried
unbolting the faucet but the rusted pipe in the wall broke away instead.
That meant replacing the pipe in the wall. When I tried to unthread the
pipe in the basement, the fitting crumbled away. So, I tried to unscrew the
next segment of pipe and it literally split lengthwise down the full length
of the pipe! Even when I got back to a solid piece of pipe it had so much
corrosion inside there was only a small 1/16 inch hole in the middle. Since
half the pipe in the house had fallen apart in my hands and the other half
was clogged with corrosion, I just replumbed the entire house with CPVC.

Go with the CPVC. I've been using it for years for a variety of projects
and have never had a problem with it. I used it to plumb our entire house,
as well as replumbing my in-laws house. It won't corrode the way galvanized
does.

Copper is expensive these days, and it takes a bit of skill to sweat the
joints properly. And there's always a small risk of accidently starting a
fire with the torch. Copper can also develop pinhole leaks with acidic
water.

PEX is becoming more popular but it usually requires special tools to
install and isn't as widely available. Any mom and pop hardware store
carries CPVC which will be important the next time you need to make a
repair or addition late at night or on a weekend. Last I checked, PEX was
one of the pricier options too.


Anthony