I'm house-sitting my son's house that he just bought. It is at least middle aged and I'm concerned that it is a hidden cost. The exterior is red brick and the plumbing, as far as I can tell, is all steel pipe under the house and all behind brick walls.
I'm concerned that he has or will have a rusted through pipe under there and there is no way to get to it except removing the brick walls. Even if it isn't leaking, I'm sure the pipes are compromised and if one rusts through no one will know about it.
What should he do? Remove enough brick to get under the house and replace it all with PEX?
Best Answer
I cannot offer a definite hard and fast rule regarding your situation, but if it helps, I can give advice based on my own experience. I live in South Africa, in Cape Town, on the coast, and recently bought a house of just over 100 years of age. In south Africa, even back then, we were using copper pipes, I've been doing alot of renovating over the last few years, and this is what I've realized in terms of ageing plumbing.
If its not completely necessary to replace, then don't do so, unless you're in a position to do so, there are definitely benefits to upgrading your pipes to Pex (Cobra-pipe in South Africa).
The very 1st thing I did, when re-doing the granny flat, was to bypass and block off the old system, and put in all new pipes all the way from the water inlet, through to geyser, through to all outlets. This was mostly because it was cheaper to do this, than deal with delays in hitting old pipes and halting work while trying to fix (The old pies were all over the show, so never knew where we'd hit another. I've started doing the same in the main house, even though there we didn't actually need to upgrade. The benefits I've found in redoing all the pipes are as follows: 1) With PEX - Hot water from the geyser, was almost instantaneous, no waiting for the water to heat the pipes and eventually come out the tap at the required heat. - This translates into a saving of both water, and electricity - Imagine only running 1 or 2 liters of water through the hot water tap, instead of 10 Liters, every time you need hot hot water. 2)New pipes = no scale buildup. Often in old houses, there is quite a lot of scale build up, that can negatively affect the pressure. 3)Old houses here ran 15mm (internal diameter) copper pipes, and the system generally allowed 100 - 300Kpa of pressure (as that was what was supplied by the council back then. Nowadays, pressure valves, geysers etc, are usually 400 or 600 Kpa as standard in residential houses, with safety ratings of up to 2,000Kpa. The pipes these days are also bigger, 22mm, 28mm, and even 40mm. This allows for better pressure where you need it, showers, sprinkler systems, bathtubs etc (all these tiny differences save time) - filling a bath in 5 minutes, instead of 30 minutes etc. 4)Peace of mind - Knowing that you have put in a new system, that can last another 50 years and more, without issue makes a big difference to me. It also means I know where the pipes are, so I don't accidentally hit a pipe when drilling into a wall, or knocking through. 5)Value - Whether your son has bought the house to live in, or resell in a few years, the fact that the houses plumbing is new across the board will most certainly have a positive impact on the houses value. 6)Preventative maintenance - Just like replacing rubber pipes in your engine compartment while you have the top off (even those that don't need replacing), this is a similar situation, insofar as reactive maintenance is a lot more costly than proactive maintenance. With proactive, your in control of where you're going in, what and how you're replacing. With reactive, you're reacting to a leak / leaks so bad that they're already apparent on the insides of the walls, or floors, thus, it involves leak detecting - expensive hiring an inspection company. Having to dig / open up in possibly difficult places that will end up costing alot, fixing water damage to walls / floors / foundations - These are all costs that are out of your control. Not to say it will happen, but, if you're like me, I'd rather be in control of that 'chance'.