Totally agree, the scale getting to your faucets and shower heads will diminish greatly as well. I recently replaced all the water supply (hot and cold) lines in my 1929 house with PEX by myself. It isn't that hard to do, easily a DIY for most people. Less scale, better water pressure, longer life from fixtures and water heater, totally a worth while upgrade.
Cheers to Poland, I am in Eastern Europe right now studying building techniques here. Love the people and then weather, especially the unfiltered beer. Cheers!
Back in the UK we transitioned from lead plumbing to copper over the last half of the century, in house-building. I worked on the refurbishment/ renovation of a large, Georgian crescent for several years in the early 1970s as a bricklayer. (Picking up and laying a 150 year-old, cleaned-up brick - with the moulder's thumb and finger-marks baked into it - is a most eerie feeling. ) We must have pulled a few tons of lead out of the walls on that job. Every dwelling was converted to copper by the finish. The only steel pipes carried gas or was electric conduit. It all came out, even the bell cabling from the family rooms down to the servants' area. Excuse my ramblings ...
T.V. shows spend more time on the design elements and finishes, simply because that is where the money is. Understanding the building process has never been a part of their agenda. At best they try to scare people into thinking they need to hire someone. Good business for the sponsors since they have installation services.
Home RenoVision DIY Diyers think doing their own plumbing is a good idea till they create a backflow situation, don’t vent properly and wonder why their drains drain so slow, have no clean outs or back flood prevention and their basement floods and are surprised when their house turns into a crater where it once stood because installing a water heater seemed easy. Solder? Hrrrm this 50/50 seems good and I know I’ll plug that pesky tmp valve... Fixture units what are those ? Water will flow down this small pipe I’m sure of it, after all it was cheaper.
Dealing with this exact issue right now, so thank you so much for this video. Luckily my house has relatively short runs from the pressure tank to the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. Thanks again for the great guidance!
Thank you for all the great advise. I just completed removing the old galvanized pipes and replacing them with PEX. I lot of techniques I used came from many of your videos. Thank you again, and keep the great videos coming.
Very timely! We just bought a new house built in 1940. There are several steel pipes I can see in the basement. It appears the runs up from the basement through the rest of the house have switched to copper. After watching this I am going to replace any steel pipe I see in the basement. Pex to rescue :)
Jeff, I like the way you talk about problems. When I'm working on a project, the one thing I dread the most is a contractor coming back to me with, "Got bad news for you." But if I HAVE to hear about a dreaded problem, I'd rather hear it from someone with your tone of voice. =)
Our house, built in the late 60s (Slab) has different types of retrofitted plumbing. The second floor uses pex which connect to the galvanize piping of the downstairs. When the 2nd F galvanized was removed in 2015, the inside was so corroded only a skewer size hole was passable by the water.
My house was built in 1956 and I bought it in 1991. After moving in, I Immediately noticed poor drainage and low water pressure. Being very handy, I pulled out all that crap galvanized pipe and replaced the supply with copper, type L and all of the waste with Schedule 40, PVC. However, my toilets were still draining slow so I started digging outside and was shocked to learn that my house had "Orangeburg Pipe" installed when it was built. So, I pulled out all of that too and replaced it with 4" and 6" SDR 26 green pipe. I now have the best house on the block from a plumbing perspective. ;-)
My house was built in 1940 and had all galvanized steel, including the supply pipes. Still has some, hence my visit to this video.... It takes about 45 minutes to fill my bathtub..... All the drains are now PVC/ABS.
pex must be easy to work with. My 800 square foot house was repiped from the meter for $2300. for that price I wasn't even going to bother attempting it myself.
I gutted out all the galvanized supply pipe in my house and replaced PEX over a 3-day weekend. We have a basement and a wet-wall where almost all the lines are run (2000 sf cape cod) - so it was an easy set-up. Anywhere I could, I ran the lines through the floor up the back of the cabinets to minimize any demo. I worked in the trades (mason), but plumbing is DIY for me. PEX is a great product.
Jeff, I didn't actually watch this video yet. Not sure if you see all of these but I just wanted to leave a message to thank you for the outstanding and that is OUTSTANDING workmanship. Since this is for homeowners, they don't know the difference but I do. They just see a way to do it. I don't know if they realize they are modeling best in class workmanship. I am down in Florida where all the rejects from the other states come down to work. I laugh when I say that but it isn't funny for their clients. Thank you. Both for the awesome job and being willing to share your work methods. Any contractor or sub would learn a lot on the right way to do things from your channel. And they do it every day. I will probably eventually get through every video you have done. I am kind of curious if your dad was a great contractor and taught you how to do things or if you just had a great mentor or mentors you worked for along the way. Great work is no accident. Now with youtube, it is easier to self learn great work due to people like you on youtube.
I changed my entire house to PEX and PVC (drain) last year and I was shocked at the sight inside those pipes! PEX and PVC are cheap and was an easy DIY project for me and my wife.
0:37, the configuration you are showing here with the copper connected to the galvanized with a sweat x male adaptor fitting is against code. galvanized pipe touching copper of brass will cause electrolysis, the corrosion of dissimilar metals caused by the difference in positivly charged ions. if you wanted to do this you would have to by code use whats called a dielectric fitting, works so that neither of the two metals come in contact by means of plastic inside the fitting. in the end if you still have galvanized water piping you should to as he recommends and replace the whole system if you can :)
That is a nice tip and I have the newest pipe in my newest house and I know the lines won't rust, and the old house had the PVC pipe in it also and it didn't have a problem either for me. Our mother's house may have old steel pipe in it though. Thanks so much for sharing this tip with everyone and I hope everyone finds if helpful.
This video has 197k views. It should have 197K likes. If you see galvanized pipe remove it and install copper or pex. The life cycle of galvanized pipe has already run it's course by the time you find it. I had a pipe burst from rot that turned into a $1800 headache.
Absolutely! We have some old lead and steel pipe work here in the U.K. That stuff will eat right through and produce some seriously nasty gasses as well.
Finally, someone said it as it is. :) Thanks for the video. I've used PE and Alu-PEX pipes, they are indeed great to work with. Only the connectors (T's, 90 deg elbows, 1/2" and 3/4" outputs) are expensive, comparing to steel pipes. Bu then again, the Alu-PEX pipe is cheaper, so... ;)
An important thing to note is that there are copper pipe press tools for U.S. copper pipe sizes.The press tools and fittings are expensive but if you know where to look you can buy press tools at a much cheaper price than what milwaukee,rigid and other companies sell their press tools for.The great advantage of copper pipe press tools and fittings is that there is no longer any need to solder copper pipes in ceilings,walls and near beams or rafters which is appealing in and of itself.I still solder copper pipe,what I do is that I will solder copper pipe unions and copper pipe valves on the ground then use copper press elbows,copper pipe press couplings and copper pipe press tees to tie the copper pipe together and done.It's the best of both worlds in my opinion.
This old house just used pex lines on TV and I have a big leak in the old pipes. Water is turned off for now. Going to replace the main shutoff first as it leaks then have the water turned back on. That way I wont have to have the city come back out. Seriously considering using the lex because it remembers the shape after installing the connectors ensuring a secure non-leaking fit. I haven't checked the price for pex yet and hope its not too expensive. Thanks for a great video.
"Remove all the steel supply lines in your house back to the source." Ok, so I need to dig up my front yard to remove the galvy that likely runs from my water meter to my house.... got a DIY video for that? lol.
No need to dig it up, just unhook it. These days they have a machine that bores a hole under ground with a big roll of tubing attached. Pretty cool actually.
Pex from the water main to the house shouldn't be an issue. Unless your local building codes don't allow it for some reason. Pex is great. Just bury it below the frost line for your area and you shouldn't have any issues with freezing.
Really like you channel, I sub'd and have watched several. Thought I would share what happened with my Galvanized pipe drains. I have 3 homes, all built between 54 and 59. Last summer I had one built in 59 start leaking in the bathroom wall, galvanized drain pipe. I had a tenant in the home, put them into a motel room and started the process or remove/replace. No more than got it done, and a week later discovered the same leak happening in the kitchen drain, and then had to do the same. I had a plumber perform the installation, but I created the access and then reinstalled the wall board, cabinets. What a rotten job to do when a tenant is living in the place. This summer my other rental property emptied out, I made the call to replace all the steel when empty. Might have been ahead of scheduled failure, but I don't want to deal with that again when under a lease. Anyway, my plumber shared that when you have one failure in a home, you can pretty much bet all the rest of the steel pipes will fail with a year to a year and a half. Better off to attack them all if you have to attack one, because the others will fail in a close time period. Now I've got complete pvc drains and copper piping in both rental properties, but still some galvanized in my home. Need to just do one more and be done with it while I'm still young... Agree with the other comment, would like to see something on pex install.
If you use steel to copper connections you get galvanic corrosion. Those pipes are filled with that reactions rust and gunk much faster. I would want those removed entirely from my home. My all copper lines are 30+ years old and looking good.
yup when I first moved in my home the the first thing I done was have all the steel pipes replaced with pex. the whole house system was clogged with rust and once I did switch over none of the faucets would shut off all the way because they were plugged with bits of rust chunks. Had to replace every one lol plus the toilet too. man that steel piping is a nightmare!!!
Do you have any recommendations about replacing cast iron drain pipes? Do those also have a expiration date? We are replacing our pluming to our upstairs bathroom. The cast iron pipe doesn't sow any signs of leaking, but I'm wondering if we should replace it while that space is still open. We plan on dry-walling over it after renovations are complete. Thanks for the videos! We definitively have all the old school piping going on. I won't want to see what the inside of our pipes look like!
FYI-PEX A using expansion fittings is far superior to using PEX B or C. Since PEX B or C can only use water restricting smaller diameter fitting, that are also more leak prone too. And PEX A will expand more without bursting too. Only real downside is that PEX A and the installing tools are more costly...
These vids are a little fruity but as a tradesman myself he never pushes any bs like other channels on here and has a high level of legitimate knowledge. When you go to learn something the best person to go to is someone who still works every day with a fresh mind to take from, that's the same for any trade
About 15 years ago renovated my kitchen and I took out the steel pipe that was in there, and this was a house built in the late 50s, and yup you could not see daylight through the pipe it was so clogged, made me sick to my stomach to think that I was drinking water that ran over that crap all the time... Now unfortunately the drain pipes are a bit more difficult to deal with because they go under a concrete pad in the garage and replacing them with ABS is a whole different ball game of expensive (and work)
Actually you should never use copper or brass that is not coated even with this dielectric junk in the same system with galvanized if you plan to keep it for some years because the do not need to touch the exchange ions through the water
If you have steel line going out of the house, it could be going to your well or the municipal water system, replace the steel line. If you have lead pipe going out of your house to the municipal water system, replace the lead line to your property line (shut off), the city will then pay to have it replaced to the water main.
It seems all the plumbing options have pros and cons. PEX companies are involved in class-action lawsuits due to pin-hole leaks that seem to be caused by hot water (poorly manufactured PEX product). NIBCO, I believe, happens to be one of those companies. You can look it up online.
We have cooper and pex in our house. They both seem to do the job, but you can hear the Pex move and expand a bit when hot water is running through the re-circulation system. It makes a soft tick, tick, tick sounds in an other wise silent bedroom at 6 AM.
Yep. It makes that soft ticking every morning at 6 when the house is dead silent. The pipes are in the wall inches from my head. it is worse in winter, don't notice it in summer.
Thanks for the informative video. Problem is I live in Cook County Illinois. And this county and towns have some odd regulations. For example, must run steel conduit in the walls of houses for electric. In terms of plumbing, I'm trying to find out if PEX is even allowed, there are conflicting regulations with amendments. PEX sounds good - if allowed by the building code for my house.
Is steel the same as galvanized pipe? Galvanized was used in home water systems in Idaho into the 80's. I believe galvanized has about a 40 year life expectancy. I'm replacing galvanized piping in my 1975 house as part of my bathroom renovation that I'm doing for the same reasons you mentioned. Did I mention I hate crawl spaces in homes.
A home does not need to be that old either. I own a double wide built in 1980. It had the galvanized steel pipes for fresh water and black pipe for gas installed. Even though they are heavier than copper they would not have the risk of a leak during transport. Today I think they mostly use CPVC for fresh water. Perhaps even PEX, though I have not seen it. I converted to all electric over ten years ago and replaced the fresh water system with PEX a couple of years ago. I did not want the risk of a leak with the gas. I started having problems just as you demonstrated with no water getting through the system.
thanks Im building a workshop 50 ft from my house and it will have a sink and toilet i plan on using pex. plus im expanding my house too and using this pipe. my existing pipe is Copper and im sure itls ok to tie pex into copper.
I love PEX, the only problem PEX is that you could pierce it if your doing demolition and cause a mess, besides that really versatile. The only problem with copper is that it bursts when it's really cold.
I am confident that whatever you do to damage pex during demo would damage the copper as well. That is why we always turn off the water when doing demo. Cheers!
Thanks, have you seen our shed series? we have the last video on the shed tonight. Final reveal and story about all the problems we faced getting this done.
Thing is, iron won't kill you or make you stupid, lead will. And although solder used to joint copper pipe is suppose to be lead free, but people mess up from time to time.
Hi Home RenoVision, will you look into leaching phthalates, estrogenics and BPA concerns? Than the conclusion my be, don't use PEX, or (C)PVC. Best to use Copper even if it is more difficult to install. Add least it is more healthy than the modern used plastic alternatives. Love to read your response.
do you have a tree in the front yard? If so you may need to use a high Pressure hose to clear out the roots. either way time to call a plumber. Cheers!
Yea someone from my wife's job said because the tree is on the sidewalk the city might be obligated to pay for the damages not sure but going to rent a main sewer drain snake with the things that look like an ants mouth lol
We recently replaced ours with red & blue pex. Pex is so easy to work with especially if you're using sharkbites. We used sharkbites and pex fittings with the pex clamps. The old pipes were so gross with so much calcium built up and old settled rusty water and built up rust.
I just passed on a new reno flip done by someone else. I went under the bathroom sinks and noticed pex, then copper and at the washer....steel pipe! All freshly renovated finished and nicely covered up for me not to see. I got out of there sorry for the person who eventually will buy the place... Today it went pending... Hopes and prayers for the fool.
great video ! You just talked me out of keeping my shower lines ! I'm switching to pex ( after the great winter storm in Texas Feb. 2021) but I can't seem to wrap me head around the shower lines and was going to keep the galvanized piipe and transition into pex until I saw this video ! My question is does the new faucet set come with the 4-way mechanism behind the wall for the hot,cold, shower head , tub ? My 1953 plumbing looks simple so that's why I was going to keep that part !
Where can you get Type L copper? I have looked at every store around here and can get short lengths of copper but it is NOT type L and have not found any connections at all. Everyone only has pex now.
"depending on water quality" ie it can leak at an time... PEX A has been used in the EU for decades successfully....Damn most trades ppl in the US are living in the stone age...
Don't be confused with brass ! Threaded joints could be brass. We replaced a short run of brass . The dam thing was just like the first day they installed it. . Buttery smooth pipes . Then again whoever made our house was rich and knew what to ask for.
I agree with the Pex upgrade, but the crimp connectors are inferior to the AquaPex expansion connection. The expansion connection takes a few practice runs, and little investment, but you will love it when you're done. #uponor #milwaukee
Our house has the Rehau everloc system with is Pex a with expansion connection. They are much better than the compression ring as you don't constrict your water flow at connection points. The Rehau system is better than the AquaPex system as you don't expand the collar. You slide it on after and you are immediately ready to pressure test and you never have to worry about extreme pressure expanding the collar enough for a leak to be caused (not that I expect AquaPex would fail in any real-world situation).
Wow U r a natural presenter And interesting to listen to Plkus u gave so much nice info.... valuable Please clarify which is better and moder n between steel and copper? Or if we use plastic pipes, aren'tthey going to melt if boiling hot water passes through them? like hot water coming through shower and tapes has to pass through pipes right? If they are made of plastic, is that any good?
I am a novice! have a 1908 house with galvinized steel & old cast iron lines. I want to upgrade to PEX. I think I got the PEX install down but what about these pipes? Do you have a video replacing/explaining? What about 1900's cast iron sewer line?
Totally agree, the scale getting to your faucets and shower heads will diminish greatly as well. I recently replaced all the water supply (hot and cold) lines in my 1929 house with PEX by myself. It isn't that hard to do, easily a DIY for most people. Less scale, better water pressure, longer life from fixtures and water heater, totally a worth while upgrade.
Totally agree, it may cause some damage to the walls in the house but it increases the value of the property as well.
1000% agree on opening up the walls while you can. Replace/ upgrade/ modify/ inspect what you can while it’s cheap and easy to do it 🙌🏼
As a former building side worker, I respect your work. You show for free a lot of advices. Greetings form Poland. :)
Cheers to Poland, I am in Eastern Europe right now studying building techniques here. Love the people and then weather, especially the unfiltered beer. Cheers!
Back in the UK we transitioned from lead plumbing to copper over the last half of the century, in house-building. I worked on the refurbishment/ renovation of a large, Georgian crescent for several years in the early 1970s as a bricklayer. (Picking up and laying a 150 year-old, cleaned-up brick - with the moulder's thumb and finger-marks baked into it - is a most eerie feeling. )
We must have pulled a few tons of lead out of the walls on that job. Every dwelling was converted to copper by the finish. The only steel pipes carried gas or was electric conduit. It all came out, even the bell cabling from the family rooms down to the servants' area.
Excuse my ramblings ...
Great job showing real plumbing old work i saw many tv show never talk about plumbing or how plumbing is done bcz plumbing is serious not a game
T.V. shows spend more time on the design elements and finishes, simply because that is where the money is. Understanding the building process has never been a part of their agenda. At best they try to scare people into thinking they need to hire someone. Good business for the sponsors since they have installation services.
Home RenoVision DIY Diyers think doing their own plumbing is a good idea till they create a backflow situation, don’t vent properly and wonder why their drains drain so slow, have no clean outs or back flood prevention and their basement floods and are surprised when their house turns into a crater where it once stood because installing a water heater seemed easy. Solder? Hrrrm this 50/50 seems good and I know I’ll plug that pesky tmp valve...
Fixture units what are those ? Water will flow down this small pipe I’m sure of it, after all it was cheaper.
Dealing with this exact issue right now, so thank you so much for this video. Luckily my house has relatively short runs from the pressure tank to the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. Thanks again for the great guidance!
Thank you for all the great advise. I just completed removing the old galvanized pipes and replacing them with PEX. I lot of techniques I used came from many of your videos. Thank you again, and keep the great videos coming.
Very timely! We just bought a new house built in 1940. There are several steel pipes I can see in the basement. It appears the runs up from the basement through the rest of the house have switched to copper. After watching this I am going to replace any steel pipe I see in the basement. Pex to rescue :)
Jeff, I like the way you talk about problems.
When I'm working on a project, the one thing I dread the most is a contractor coming back to me with, "Got bad news for you."
But if I HAVE to hear about a dreaded problem, I'd rather hear it from someone with your tone of voice. =)
Our house, built in the late 60s (Slab) has different types of retrofitted plumbing. The second floor uses pex which connect to the galvanize piping of the downstairs. When the 2nd F galvanized was removed in 2015, the inside was so corroded only a skewer size hole was passable by the water.
Water lines you install a softner and same thing..you caught it all..👍👍👍👍 you sleep a lot better with all that stuff changed out
My house was built in 1956 and I bought it in 1991. After moving in, I Immediately noticed poor drainage and low water pressure. Being very handy, I pulled out all that crap galvanized pipe and replaced the supply with copper, type L and all of the waste with Schedule 40, PVC. However, my toilets were still draining slow so I started digging outside and was shocked to learn that my house had "Orangeburg Pipe" installed when it was built. So, I pulled out all of that too and replaced it with 4" and 6" SDR 26 green pipe. I now have the best house on the block from a plumbing perspective. ;-)
well done. Cheers!
My house was built in 1940 and had all galvanized steel, including the supply pipes. Still has some, hence my visit to this video.... It takes about 45 minutes to fill my bathtub..... All the drains are now PVC/ABS.
pex must be easy to work with. My 800 square foot house was repiped from the meter for $2300. for that price I wasn't even going to bother attempting it myself.
I gutted out all the galvanized supply pipe in my house and replaced PEX over a 3-day weekend. We have a basement and a wet-wall where almost all the lines are run (2000 sf cape cod) - so it was an easy set-up. Anywhere I could, I ran the lines through the floor up the back of the cabinets to minimize any demo. I worked in the trades (mason), but plumbing is DIY for me. PEX is a great product.
very cool. Cheers!
I have A early 40's House and It's good to see you are willing to work on them , In my City Contractors wont touch my house .
where is that?
Jeff, I didn't actually watch this video yet. Not sure if you see all of these but I just wanted to leave a message to thank you for the outstanding and that is OUTSTANDING workmanship. Since this is for homeowners, they don't know the difference but I do. They just see a way to do it. I don't know if they realize they are modeling best in class workmanship. I am down in Florida where all the rejects from the other states come down to work. I laugh when I say that but it isn't funny for their clients. Thank you. Both for the awesome job and being willing to share your work methods. Any contractor or sub would learn a lot on the right way to do things from your channel. And they do it every day. I will probably eventually get through every video you have done. I am kind of curious if your dad was a great contractor and taught you how to do things or if you just had a great mentor or mentors you worked for along the way. Great work is no accident. Now with youtube, it is easier to self learn great work due to people like you on youtube.
Working on replacing all my galvanized with Pex. Thanks!
I changed my entire house to PEX and PVC (drain) last year and I was shocked at the sight inside those pipes! PEX and PVC are cheap and was an easy DIY project for me and my wife.
cheers!
0:37, the configuration you are showing here with the copper connected to the galvanized with a sweat x male adaptor fitting is against code. galvanized pipe touching copper of brass will cause electrolysis, the corrosion of dissimilar metals caused by the difference in positivly charged ions. if you wanted to do this you would have to by code use whats called a dielectric fitting, works so that neither of the two metals come in contact by means of plastic inside the fitting. in the end if you still have galvanized water piping you should to as he recommends and replace the whole system if you can :)
That is a nice tip and I have the newest pipe in my newest house and I know the lines won't rust, and the old house had the PVC pipe in it also and it didn't have a problem either for me. Our mother's house may have old steel pipe in it though. Thanks so much for sharing this tip with everyone and I hope everyone finds if helpful.
The older things get the bigger the repairs get. This one at least is something most people can do on their own. Cheers!
This video has 197k views. It should have 197K likes. If you see galvanized pipe remove it and install copper or pex. The life cycle of galvanized pipe has already run it's course by the time you find it. I had a pipe burst from rot that turned into a $1800 headache.
It's worth noting that using drano in your steel drain lines helps to speed up the corrosion 10 fold lol
The plumbers have a high pressure hose that cleans really good. Worth it if you plan on keeping old drain lines.
Absolutely! We have some old lead and steel pipe work here in the U.K. That stuff will eat right through and produce some seriously nasty gasses as well.
@@DaddyBear3000 Lead! That's what I want in my drinking water!
Finally, someone said it as it is. :) Thanks for the video. I've used PE and Alu-PEX pipes, they are indeed great to work with. Only the connectors (T's, 90 deg elbows, 1/2" and 3/4" outputs) are expensive, comparing to steel pipes. Bu then again, the Alu-PEX pipe is cheaper, so... ;)
great diy product. Cheers!
An important thing to note is that there are copper pipe press tools for U.S. copper pipe sizes.The press tools and fittings are expensive but if you know where to look you can buy press tools at a much cheaper price than what milwaukee,rigid and other companies sell their press tools for.The great advantage of copper pipe press tools and fittings is that there is no longer any need to solder copper pipes in ceilings,walls and near beams or rafters which is appealing in and of itself.I still solder copper pipe,what I do is that I will solder copper pipe unions and copper pipe valves on the ground then use copper press elbows,copper pipe press couplings and copper pipe press tees to tie the copper pipe together and done.It's the best of both worlds in my opinion.
This old house just used pex lines on TV and I have a big leak in the old pipes. Water is turned off for now. Going to replace the main shutoff first as it leaks then have the water turned back on. That way I wont have to have the city come back out. Seriously considering using the lex because it remembers the shape after installing the connectors ensuring a secure non-leaking fit. I haven't checked the price for pex yet and hope its not too expensive. Thanks for a great video.
"Remove all the steel supply lines in your house back to the source." Ok, so I need to dig up my front yard to remove the galvy that likely runs from my water meter to my house.... got a DIY video for that? lol.
No need to dig it up, just unhook it. These days they have a machine that bores a hole under ground with a big roll of tubing attached. Pretty cool actually.
Please make a video on re-piping your whole house with pex!
I will some day soon!
Home RenoVision DIY Can I use pex all the way to the water main from the street?
alwayzAngry
I’d also like to know this. Live in the PNW
Pex from water main, is it possible? I would also like to know.
as well as, how to keep the water lines from freezing?
Pex from the water main to the house shouldn't be an issue. Unless your local building codes don't allow it for some reason. Pex is great. Just bury it below the frost line for your area and you shouldn't have any issues with freezing.
Just about to reno my basement bathroom. Thanks for all these great videos!
Your welcome Michael, Good luck with the project. Cheers!
Hello Jeff. Thank you for all your video's. You are a true proffesional and we love to look at you. Many greetings from The Netherlands!!
Really like you channel, I sub'd and have watched several. Thought I would share what happened with my Galvanized pipe drains. I have 3 homes, all built between 54 and 59. Last summer I had one built in 59 start leaking in the bathroom wall, galvanized drain pipe. I had a tenant in the home, put them into a motel room and started the process or remove/replace. No more than got it done, and a week later discovered the same leak happening in the kitchen drain, and then had to do the same. I had a plumber perform the installation, but I created the access and then reinstalled the wall board, cabinets. What a rotten job to do when a tenant is living in the place. This summer my other rental property emptied out, I made the call to replace all the steel when empty. Might have been ahead of scheduled failure, but I don't want to deal with that again when under a lease. Anyway, my plumber shared that when you have one failure in a home, you can pretty much bet all the rest of the steel pipes will fail with a year to a year and a half. Better off to attack them all if you have to attack one, because the others will fail in a close time period. Now I've got complete pvc drains and copper piping in both rental properties, but still some galvanized in my home. Need to just do one more and be done with it while I'm still young... Agree with the other comment, would like to see something on pex install.
Your plumber was exactly correct. pipes are like arteries in the body, bandaid will not save you if they start to leak.
If you use steel to copper connections you get galvanic corrosion. Those pipes are filled with that reactions rust and gunk much faster. I would want those removed entirely from my home. My all copper lines are 30+ years old and looking good.
You're right,butt if u use a 6 inch brass nipple onto the galvi no problem.butt only use it when you're in a tight situation.
replace with copper again not pex u never know when u will in to animals
This dude knows his ISH!! Listen to him! :)
This is the video I was looking for. Thanks...
Pex is king. Friend of the family did our whole (small) home in like an hr and a half.
I'm renovating an old home now, so I'm loving all your videos. I'll be back with questions!
Copper and pex lines will also plug with heavy iron in your well water.
yup when I first moved in my home the the first thing I done was have all the steel pipes replaced with pex. the whole house system was clogged with rust and once I did switch over none of the faucets would shut off all the way because they were plugged with bits of rust chunks. Had to replace every one lol plus the toilet too. man that steel piping is a nightmare!!!
It was my supply lines that I had replaced. still have steel drains though ugh...
That is very normal! you can have them flushed if needed. Cheers!
Do you have any recommendations about replacing cast iron drain pipes? Do those also have a expiration date? We are replacing our pluming to our upstairs bathroom. The cast iron pipe doesn't sow any signs of leaking, but I'm wondering if we should replace it while that space is still open. We plan on dry-walling over it after renovations are complete. Thanks for the videos! We definitively have all the old school piping going on. I won't want to see what the inside of our pipes look like!
FYI-PEX A using expansion fittings is far superior to using PEX B or C. Since PEX B or C can only use water restricting smaller diameter fitting, that are also more leak prone too. And PEX A will expand more without bursting too. Only real downside is that PEX A and the installing tools are more costly...
Maybe also note that if someone has connected copper pipe directly to galvanized that it’s going to corrode much faster.
These vids are a little fruity but as a tradesman myself he never pushes any bs like other channels on here and has a high level of legitimate knowledge. When you go to learn something the best person to go to is someone who still works every day with a fresh mind to take from, that's the same for any trade
Thanks for the reasonable approach to life. Cheers!
About 15 years ago renovated my kitchen and I took out the steel pipe that was in there, and this was a house built in the late 50s, and yup you could not see daylight through the pipe it was so clogged, made me sick to my stomach to think that I was drinking water that ran over that crap all the time... Now unfortunately the drain pipes are a bit more difficult to deal with because they go under a concrete pad in the garage and replacing them with ABS is a whole different ball game of expensive (and work)
remember me in the video and work because l, am from plumber in iraq
Never run copper to galvanized pipe without a dielectric union separating the 2 metals.
PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS FURTHER HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE THANKS
@@flat-earther get a brass fitting so as to minimize/eliminate the reaction copper has with the steel
Actually you should never use copper or brass that is not coated even with this dielectric junk in the same system with galvanized if you plan to keep it for some years because the do not need to touch the exchange ions through the water
If you have steel line going out of the house, it could be going to your well or the municipal water system, replace the steel line. If you have lead pipe going out of your house to the municipal water system, replace the lead line to your property line (shut off), the city will then pay to have it replaced to the water main.
Nice that's why I like to distill my water
It seems all the plumbing options have pros and cons. PEX companies are involved in class-action lawsuits due to pin-hole leaks that seem to be caused by hot water (poorly manufactured PEX product). NIBCO, I believe, happens to be one of those companies. You can look it up online.
We have cooper and pex in our house. They both seem to do the job, but you can hear the Pex move and expand a bit when hot water is running through the re-circulation system. It makes a soft tick, tick, tick sounds in an other wise silent bedroom at 6 AM.
LOL, seriously you can her the sound of plastic expanding. And I thought my dog had good ears!
Yep. It makes that soft ticking every morning at 6 when the house is dead silent. The pipes are in the wall inches from my head. it is worse in winter, don't notice it in summer.
Love this channel! Thanks for helping is DIY homeowners.
Thanks Brian we love helping, and I think the future will require homeowners to get handy again.
Copper is good for kitchen water supply since the copper will be also in the water therefore you will be absorbing some copper.
this guy is the best!
This is an excellent presentation.
I really enjoy your videos and I learn alot! Thanks and it all makes good sense for us to make better choices!
I love that you placed safety glasses on, but please clean them so you don;t cut your finger off.
I'll stick to Red brass pipes, thank you very much.
I know a guy who bought a foreclosure and gutted the entire place to put pex in, said it was the best investment for when he goes to sell it.
Thanks for the informative video. Problem is I live in Cook County Illinois. And this county and towns have some odd regulations. For example, must run steel conduit in the walls of houses for electric. In terms of plumbing, I'm trying to find out if PEX is even allowed, there are conflicting regulations with amendments. PEX sounds good - if allowed by the building code for my house.
Is steel the same as galvanized pipe? Galvanized was used in home water systems in Idaho into the 80's. I believe galvanized has about a 40 year life expectancy. I'm replacing galvanized piping in my 1975 house as part of my bathroom renovation that I'm doing for the same reasons you mentioned. Did I mention I hate crawl spaces in homes.
It is the same thing. Galvanized steel
A home does not need to be that old either. I own a double wide built in 1980. It had the galvanized steel pipes for fresh water and black pipe for gas installed. Even though they are heavier than copper they would not have the risk of a leak during transport. Today I think they mostly use CPVC for fresh water. Perhaps even PEX, though I have not seen it. I converted to all electric over ten years ago and replaced the fresh water system with PEX a couple of years ago. I did not want the risk of a leak with the gas. I started having problems just as you demonstrated with no water getting through the system.
wow, hard to believe that someone used galvanized back in the 80'S. learn something new every day!
thanks Im building a workshop 50 ft from my house and it will have a sink and toilet i plan on using pex. plus im expanding my house too and using this pipe. my existing pipe is Copper and im sure itls ok to tie pex into copper.
I love PEX, the only problem PEX is that you could pierce it if your doing demolition and cause a mess, besides that really versatile. The only problem with copper is that it bursts when it's really cold.
I am confident that whatever you do to damage pex during demo would damage the copper as well. That is why we always turn off the water when doing demo. Cheers!
25-year old houses with plastic PEX here in South Florida have started having catastrophic water leaks under the foundation. Hard pass on garbage PEX.
Really good video, good presentation, explanation and information. One of the best videos I have seen. I'm subscribing
Thanks, have you seen our shed series? we have the last video on the shed tonight. Final reveal and story about all the problems we faced getting this done.
Thank you for taking the time to post these videos! Great eye-opening information that everyone should make themselves aware of!
Cheers! I couldn't agree more!
Thing is, iron won't kill you or make you stupid, lead will. And although solder used to joint copper pipe is suppose to be lead free, but people mess up from time to time.
Great tip on cutting pipe at angle, will use that in future. Just removed 1957 pipe during our renovation in phoenix...same condition!
Thanks, glad to help, Cheers to Phoenix!
Thank you for the great video! I now getting notifications of the videos! Thank you!!!
Thanks Red, yes important to push the bell icon and turn on notifications. Cheers!
My new favorite channel on UA-cam, I love this guy
Thanks Topher, cheers!
Hi Home RenoVision, will you look into leaching phthalates, estrogenics and BPA concerns? Than the conclusion my be, don't use PEX, or (C)PVC. Best to use Copper even if it is more difficult to install. Add least it is more healthy than the modern used plastic alternatives. Love to read your response.
Man I wish you was here right now I definitely need your help ASAP!!!!
What seems to be the problem?
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY have some clogging in my basement that backed up.I think from the main sewer drain to the street.
Plus my house was built in 1889 lol its ancient
do you have a tree in the front yard? If so you may need to use a high Pressure hose to clear out the roots. either way time to call a plumber. Cheers!
Yea someone from my wife's job said because the tree is on the sidewalk the city might be obligated to pay for the damages not sure but going to rent a main sewer drain snake with the things that look like an ants mouth lol
We recently replaced ours with red & blue pex. Pex is so easy to work with especially if you're using sharkbites. We used sharkbites and pex fittings with the pex clamps.
The old pipes were so gross with so much calcium built up and old settled rusty water and built up rust.
I just passed on a new reno flip done by someone else. I went under the bathroom sinks and noticed pex, then copper and at the washer....steel pipe! All freshly renovated finished and nicely covered up for me not to see. I got out of there sorry for the person who eventually will buy the place... Today it went pending... Hopes and prayers for the fool.
great video ! You just talked me out of keeping my shower lines ! I'm switching to pex ( after the great winter storm in Texas Feb. 2021) but I can't seem to wrap me head around the shower lines and was going to keep the galvanized piipe and transition into pex until I saw this video ! My question is does the new faucet set come with the 4-way mechanism behind the wall for the hot,cold, shower head , tub ? My 1953 plumbing looks simple so that's why I was going to keep that part !
i agree get rid of any galvanized steel...type L copper has a 50-75 year lifespan depending on water quality.
Where can you get Type L copper? I have looked at every store around here and can get short lengths of copper but it is NOT type L and have not found any connections at all. Everyone only has pex now.
"depending on water quality" ie it can leak at an time... PEX A has been used in the EU for decades successfully....Damn most trades ppl in the US are living in the stone age...
As always, Thanks! As always, excellent!
Thanks Janice, really appreciate the comment. Cheers!
Thank you Sir.
Our pleasure. Cheers!
So happy I found this channel. Thanks you rock!
Thanks form commenting Matthew, you rock too!
The best channel in youtube thank you for videos prof 👍👍👍👍🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦
Thanks, Cheers!
Nice video man! Thanks for showing!
What a great video. Very useful informations and very well explained. Thank you 👍👍👍
Don't be confused with brass ! Threaded joints could be brass. We replaced a short run of brass . The dam thing was just like the first day they installed it. . Buttery smooth pipes .
Then again whoever made our house was rich and knew what to ask for.
my water heater's bottom rusted out and i replaced it with a tankless unit and pex. it was crazy easy
Your saying to remove all metal pipes from your house to the meter but I’m sure the city still running metal pipes to your house so what’s the point?
The major difference is that any break in their line won't damage your home.
a lot of old city piping is 100% soft lead and not galvanized steel.
very helpful I enjoy every video you have.
I agree with the Pex upgrade, but the crimp connectors are inferior to the AquaPex expansion connection. The expansion connection takes a few practice runs, and little investment, but you will love it when you're done. #uponor #milwaukee
There is always something better out there. I suggest things my viewers can get at the box stores for their convenience. Cheers!
Our house has the Rehau everloc system with is Pex a with expansion connection. They are much better than the compression ring as you don't constrict your water flow at connection points. The Rehau system is better than the AquaPex system as you don't expand the collar. You slide it on after and you are immediately ready to pressure test and you never have to worry about extreme pressure expanding the collar enough for a leak to be caused (not that I expect AquaPex would fail in any real-world situation).
Maybe make a video about safety with power tools
You’re the house whisperer lol
LOL, thanks for that!
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY good videos
THANKS. nice video
Our drains are set in a concrete slab. No easy fix for that?
Thank you for your video, can part of the plumbing run out around a home? Thanks for your time.
Do you have a video on how to cap off a steel water pipe? Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great videos. I would love to have a video on replacing cast Iron sewer stacks/pipes in the house.
THat is a messy business but we will see if we get the chance. I am sure one day we will.
Awesome videos! Thank you for making them.
thank you! Helpful and terr
Wow
U r a natural presenter
And interesting to listen to
Plkus u gave so much nice info.... valuable
Please clarify which is better and moder n between steel and copper?
Or if we use plastic pipes, aren'tthey going to melt if boiling hot water passes through them? like hot water coming through shower and tapes has to pass through pipes right? If they are made of plastic, is that any good?
Good info, thanks!
Thanks for the comment Steve, cheers!
wouldnt pex and copper also eventually have the same issue of debri clog?
I am a novice! have a 1908 house with galvinized steel & old cast iron lines. I want to upgrade to PEX. I think I got the PEX install down but what about these pipes? Do you have a video replacing/explaining? What about 1900's cast iron sewer line?
How can you see thru those glasses all scratched up? haha just messing. Great video!