Any builders or remodelers here?

[davew]

I am curious what it would cost to put new water lines inside an old house or apartment building that has lead water pipes. I realize some places have lead pipe leads from the main to the house, but there are also some old houses that have lead pipe inside as well. What would you use - copper?

Does it ever become a point where the house is 'totaled', like a crashed car where it costs more to fix than it is worth?


I ask becomes part of the administrations 'infrastructure' plan is to spend quite a few billion replacing lead water pipes.

[boxcar]

Originally Posted by davew

I am curious what it would cost to put new water lines inside an old house or apartment building that has lead water pipes. I realize some places have lead pipe leads from the main to the house, but there are also some old houses that have lead pipe inside as well. What would you use - copper?

Does it ever become a point where the house is 'totaled', like a crashed car where it costs more to fix than it is worth?


I ask becomes part of the administrations 'infrastructure' plan is to spend quite a few billion replacing lead water pipes.

I'm an expert in architecture or construction, so I can't answer your question. But he Biden admin. could less what it spends or how it's spent, as long as the unions get the lion's share.

[davew]

so you suspect union plumbers will be required to do the work to get the government money?

[TJDave]

I can’t imagine that there are still homes with lead piping. I thought this would have been corrected years ago. Where is this property...Kazakhstan?

[baconswitchfarm]

There is no such thing as totaled now. There is also no way to give a price without seeing it. On a job like that the destruction needed to do the plumbing could be as much as the actual plumbing.

[porchy44]

You want to use "Pex" tubing which is a flexible plastic. Its not expensive and easy to do. All new house builds use it these days.

[davew]

Originally Posted by TJDave

I can’t imagine that there are still homes with lead piping. I thought this would have been corrected years ago. Where is this property...Kazakhstan?

They were saying that happened in Flint, MI. There have to be places in the 13 original colonies that have 200 year old homes being lived in.

[MargieRose]

Originally Posted by davew

I am curious what it would cost to put new water lines inside an old house or apartment building that has lead water pipes. I realize some places have lead pipe leads from the main to the house, but there are also some old houses that have lead pipe inside as well. What would you use - copper?

Does it ever become a point where the house is 'totaled', like a crashed car where it costs more to fix than it is worth?

I ask becomes part of the administrations 'infrastructure' plan is to spend quite a few billion replacing lead water pipes.

Contact a lead abatement specialist in your local area.

[MargieRose]

Originally Posted by davew

They were saying that happened in Flint, MI. There have to be places in the 13 original colonies that have 200 year old homes being lived in.

How to Know If You’re Dealing with Lead Pipes—and What to Do About Them

In some cities across America, children and adults are exposed to a dangerous contaminant with every glass of water they drink: lead. Nearly all homes built before the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act have either lead pipes or lead solder in the plumbing systems, and up to 10 million homes still have lead service lines that connect the main municipal water pipes from the street into the home. Many major U.S. cities and towns even have lead pipes as part of the main water delivery system.

Who May Still Be Affected by Lead PipesThe 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act mandated that new plumbing materials be lead-free, including plumbing used for public water supplies. However, there are still many ways that lead enters drinking water. You may be exposed to small traces of lead if:

• Your home was built before 1986 with lead pipes that haven’t been replaced,
• pipe fittings and fixtures with lead components,
• lead solder used to connect plumbing pipes,
• or lead service pipes bringing water into the home.

The EPA expanded its commitment to reduce lead in drinking water with the passage of the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991, which requires regular water sampling and testing and recommends the replacement of lead service lines. Total replacement, however, is a pricey proposition: The EPA estimated in 2016 that the cost to replace all lead service lines in America—an estimated 6.5 million to 10 million lines—would run from $16 billion to $80 billion. To assist in this effort, the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a dedicated page on epa.gov in October 2019 to collect information on the various federal programs that are available to help finance lead service line replacement. (The website also features case studies demonstrating how cities and states have successfully leveraged federal resources to support these replacement projects.)

These Are the Places with the Worst Tap Water in America

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by TJDave

I can’t imagine that there are still homes with lead piping. I thought this would have been corrected years ago. Where is this property...Kazakhstan?

Congress banned the use of lead pipes in 1986 but allowed those already in the ground to remain. Three decades later, an estimated 15 to 22 million Americans still cook with and drink tap water entering their homes through lead pipes, known as "service lines."

https://www.apmreports.org/story/202...ce%20lines.%22

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by porchy44

You want to use "Pex" tubing which is a flexible plastic. Its not expensive and easy to do. All new house builds use it these days.

Down here in Texas where millions of pipes froze, everything being repaired is using pex. It’s code in most places now from what read

[davew]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

Down here in Texas where millions of pipes froze, everything being repaired is using pex. It’s code in most places now from what read

is pex more resistant to freezing and breaking?

[baconswitchfarm]

Originally Posted by davew

is pex more resistant to freezing and breaking?

Yes. It will swell at extreme temps and can freeze but will not bust like a metal or pvc pipe . It is super easy to work with. A monkey can learn to install it in a day.

[kingfin66]

Originally Posted by porchy44

You want to use "Pex" tubing which is a flexible plastic. Its not expensive and easy to do. All new house builds use it these days.

Pex for sure! It also much less susceptible to freezing. Also, bonus points to you for being able to answer a basic question about plumbing without making it political .

[Nitro]

From what I’ve been told there are more than adequate sophisticated main-line water filtration systems available that seem to work extremely well for high level removal of all types of chemical contaminants.

Of course, there’s long term maintenance involved, but their initial and maintenance cost is far less expensive than replacing an entire plumbing system.