Greetings,

I recently purchased a house which has had some of its galvanized water
pipe replaced with black pipe. I know that the work is new because
there are bar codes all over the pipe. I know that this is "not
good" but I would like to have some notion of how bad it is before I
decide whether or not to replace the pipe with galvanized.

a) Is this a code violation (if yes, why?)
b) What is the life expectancy of black pipe?
c) What is the life expectancy of galvanized pipe?
d) Are there any other factors?

Thank you for your time and energy,
William