Polybutylene dangers

[AJay]

We are looking for a house in Central Florida... Debary/Deltona area and have discovered that many of those we are looking at were built with PB pipe. In fact we withdrew one offer on a house as it showed up in the disclosures. Of course all of these homes are built on slabs so I can imagine that replacing PB with copper is not a simple task.

Is there anyway to replace PB with copper under the slab without tearing up the floor? One seller tried to tell us that they can do that all from outside the house... LOL.

The plan is to keep this house as a vacation house and then retire there. So we would probably not be there if it bursts and floods the house.

New construction is looking better and better.

Thanks and apologies if this has been covered a lot already.

 

[speedbump]

You would probably put the new pipes in the attic. But copper wouldn't be the new pipe, PEX would probably be what the Plumber recommends.

If you have city water or county water as it is called in some areas, it will no doubt have chlorine which will eventually eat the copper.

 

[phishfood]

^What he said.

I am in the area you mention. I have to say that I have seen a few problems with polybutylene failing, but not that many. I have seen a couple of issues with CPVC failing, but it has not been in widespread use as long as the polybutylene. I have yet to see a failure with PEX, but it has not been in widespread use as long as any of the others. I have seen lots of issues with copper piping, I repipe several houses a year because of the copper failing.

 

[AJay]

Thank you both very much for the responses.

 

[AJay]

I guess we can assume any house built in FL in 2000 will NOT have polybutylene.

 

[phishfood]

No, it will not. PB went out of widespread use in the early to mid 90's.

2000 is most likely CPVC, though it could be PEX or copper.

 

[journeyman]

If copper is installed properly it will last year's. I repipe with type l copper. Not sold on ped. I have a lot of pb customers that say it does not make sense to go from plastic to plastic

 

[phishfood]

Pretty much all of the copper I fix and replace is Type L.

 

[speedbump]

If copper is installed properly it will last year's. I repipe with type l copper. Not sold on ped. I have a lot of pb customers that say it does not make sense to go from plastic to plastic

A lot probably depends on the level of chlorine that is in your water. With Well water Copper will last practically forever.