Plumbing Techniques

On the Build Show today, Plumbing 101, we're gonna be reviewing the three major piping systems. We're gonna be talking about Copper PEX and CPVC. 
We're gonna talk about:

• how long they've been in the market.
• how durable they are.
• how much do they cost.
• And which one might you choose for your next new build or remodel.

So let's get going.
[Music]
If you're building or remodeling one of the major decisions you're gonna have is which plumbing system to put in your house.  On today's video, I'm gonna show you the pros and the cons of all three of the major plumbing systems that you might use on an American house.
Let's start with copper though, and my hope is that on each one of these I'm gonna be objective about the pros and the cons. I've used all three of these in houses that I built or remodeled over the last 25 years, so I've got first-hand experience with these.
 

Copper
So, first let's talk copper. 

Time and market: 
When we talk about copper this is the oldest of all these piping systems. It's been around for ages! And so that's one of the reasons why plumbers love copper, in fact builders love copper, because it has that longevity of time. We know that this is not a new system that it's untested or untried; for generations this has worked well with very few failures (we'll get into that in a minute).

Cost:
Next let's talk cost. Now copper is the most expensive, remember copper is a commodity. And so, if you feel that little, short section of pipe there [holds up approximately a foot of copper pipe] that's heavy, there's a lot of copper in that pipe. So, the prices on the materials are gonna fluctuate, but also it's probably the most expensive in terms of install because it's the most labor-intensive. 
When for instance, if you're bidding a new construction house - you often are bidding that early in the design phase or probably before you even get a permit. But you're not gonna have the plumber on site for many months to do the top out ploy (meaning the plumbing pipes inside the house), so six months down the line the price of copper may have fluctuated greatly. 
You're either gonna get a plumber who's gonna put a big padding in his bid to make sure that he's accounted for that fluctuation in price or you might get a change order at that stage saying: “hey we had to buy our copper pipe and it was much more expensive today than it was six months ago when I bid that”, so be cautious about copper for using them. 

Types of Copper:
Another thing you want to know is they're two different types of copper there's Type L and there's Type M.

• Type L: Type L is thicker, that's what this one is [gestures to pipe] it's a little thicker wall. So, if you've got places where you're gonna be using pipes, let's say underground or in a basement, where you're worried about other things happening (i.e. in the mechanical room) where there could be abrasion, corrosive or things around you want to use the thicker Type L.
• Type M: Now Type M works just as well, and in fact you could use this throughout your house, but I wouldn't bury this in the ground and be a little more cautious on the slightly thinner wall. But either grade will work just fine in terms of piping for your house. 

Lifespan: 
Okay, next lifespan: how long is that copper going to last? 
It's hard to say for sure, but you're gonna get at least seventy-five maybe a hundred years from copper.  The reasons why you see some failures in copper are typically related to some pinhole leaks that can develop over time. 
Now I've never actually experienced that, but I watched a great episode of this old house on YouTube (and I link to that below) yesterday. They were talking about some pinhole leaks that a client was having in their basement; specifically, on their hot water lines. Well, it turned out what was happening was the anode rod on the water heater it was gone, basically was eaten away, and so the water heater was rusting. This was, you know, a 10 to 15 year-old water heater. And as a result, the rust flakes were coming into the copper piping. 
When someone turned on their water: rust would come into the pipe; they would turn off their plumbing and the rust would fall down; it would lay in the horizontal pipes, which would corrode the inside of the pipe, and in time it actually made pinhole leaks on any horizontal surface on their copper system because of that. So, this is not a usual failure, but it can happen. There are some things that will degrade copper over time. 
 

Water hammer:
Water hammer: that's one issue that copper houses its Achilles heel. Because it's so rigid, you know this is gonna come in 20 or 10 foot lengths, you got to put fittings everywhere you're not gonna bend this. When someone shuts off a fixture suddenly or the washing machine stops filling all the sudden there's gonna be some movement, potentially in the pipes, and this can hammer against the studs or the straps in your system. So you have to be really cautious about water hammer and a copper system.

Fittings:
And last let's talk about fittings. You know copper is probably the most involved when it comes to fittings. 
[Begins to demonstrate how to cut copper pipe using tubing cutter, clean it using a reamer and sandpaper, and finally connect using flux, lead free sauder and welding together with welding torch].
We need a fair amount of tools and we're doing a copper job: 

1. First of all, you're gonna need a tubing cutter - and then that little points on there that's your reamer. After you cut it, you need to make sure you ream it and get the barbs off.  It needs to be nice and smooth on the inside. 
2. Then your plumber is going to use some sandpaper to sand the outside.
3. Then you're gonna have to apply some flux on there, that's this paste right here [holds up flux paste]. 
4. Then you're gonna use some lead-free solder when you actually put that connection together.
5. Lastly, you're gonna have to put some heat on it, so you're gonna have to use one of these [welding torch]. You have to be really cautious when using heat inside a house to make sure we don't catch our wood framing on fire.

So there's a fair amount of labor that goes into the fittings on a copper system.

CPVC:
Okay, so next up CPVC. You know I've actually used see CPVC on a remodel on my own house about 15 years ago where I got to be the plumbers assistant on a CPVC re-pipe job. This is actually the most common re-pipe material on American homes, this is about 50% of the re-pipe market. And after doing that job myself, and with the plumber I should say, I can tell you it was very easy. You know we really only needed one tool to work with it: that's this a tube cutter right here [holds up tube cutter].
Super easy to cut and it's pretty malleable. We can cut right through there, that's a three-quarter tube I cut.
Then there's really only one way to do fittings and that's this [holds up Oatey hand pack purple primer and medium orange CPVC cement]. This is gonna be a solvent, which you're gonna use a primer and then a solvent on there and you're gonna: wipe that primer on, you're gonna put the solvent on, and then you're gonna cold weld that joint together. Now this is an excellent joint you know it's never going to come apart; however, I'm not a huge fan of that purple primer or the solvent for that matter because if you've got any kind of finished floor below you need to be really cautious. In fact when I was making a video on this a couple months ago I spilled some of this primer onto my desktop here and I still have the purple stain - it is not going away anytime soon. So whenever you're using this then you need to be really cautious; if you're talking about a remodel situation be sure there's paper down on the floor and you're not getting any of this on because they didn't ain't coming off later.

Time and market: 
Okay so time and market. CPVC has actually been around a long time. This started I believe in the early 1960s and I don't think there's more than one manufacturer at this point. I think only FlowGuard Gold is the manufacturer. And this is different than PVC, so the white pipes you see that are your drain pipes, this is not the same thing this is different chemistry. It's actually chlorinated polyvinyl chloride piping, so it's got a little bit of flexibility. It's also very resistant to chemistry in the water, so if you've got some issues with well water or other things like that, that might be eating pipes, this is a great choice very resistant.

Cost:
When we're talking cost of pipe this is actually probably the least cost pipe in our inventory here. So you're gonna get a pretty cost-effective system by using CPVC. You do have a little bit more labor maybe on this then PEX, but probably less labor than installing copper because it's pretty easy to make those cuts and make those solvent fittings. So overall cost wise this is certainly gonna be less than copper, maybe slightly more expensive than a PEX install.

Lifespan:
I think that your lifespan on an install like this is probably between 50 and 75 years. Now this is a guess - this is just based on what I've read and what I've seen. I've seen some reports of this degrading over time, I've not seen that myself, but again I've only been in the business twenty five years so it's hard to know for sure. But I would say that this is just a hair less than copper in terms of longevity.

UV and durability: 
Now you can't leave this exposed to UV rays, so you can't run this let's say for an outdoor hose bibb, but when it comes to durability this is a pretty tough pipe. It has a little bit of flexibility in a longer run, you can see you can get a little bend out of it compared to copper let's say, but I found it to be a pretty durable pipe. It's a its abrasion resistant and because it's got that thick wall - I'm not exactly sure how the chemistry works, but I've heard that it actually has a little bit of an insulated value compared to a copper pipe. 

Water hammer:
And lastly water hammer. In fact ,this is probably gonna be the best pipe in the bunch when it comes to water hammer because of that malleability, flexibility. This pipe is gonna be able to take that water hammer shock better than copper and not move nearly as much inside your wall, so this should be a very quiet pipe system in your house.

PEX
Okay and rounding out the bunch is PEX. Now I've actually used PEX probably the most in my houses over the last 15 years. There's three different varieties of PEX: PEX-A, PEX-B and PEX-C. That's not a grade that's just a manufacturing process.  But the two most common that I see in the marketplace is: 

1. PEX-A and in fact I’m doing a job right now with this one, this is Uponor, there are a couple of other brand names for PEX-A.
2. And then there's PEX-B. PEX-B has several brands, but this happens to be Veiga PEX which I've used a lot over the years. 

And two of the differences between PEX-A and PEX-B. 
PEX-A is a little more flexible you're going to be able to move it around and the wall system a little
Easier. PEX-B is a little stiffer, although this is still a flexible pipe. So you're gonna go much, much, longer before you're gonna need a fitting with PEX compared to either copper or CPVC.

Time and market:
Now pecs is the newest of this bunch. 1972 is when pecs was invented, the year of my birth, so it's been around for 45 years. It was used in Europe for a solid 20 years before it started getting adopted in America and I would say it was really the 90s in the early 2000s that PEX has taken off. And in my marketplace, where I am in Austin Texas, for new construction PEX is the dominant player - almost never see either of the other two piping systems in Austin. 

Cost:
PEX is by far the biggest system out there and one big reason is cost.   You know the tubing itself is on par with FlowGuard Gold or with the CPVC, but it's really installing the labor that ends up being a time saver. Because you can go really long distances you can buy it in big coils like this. You can go a long ways without a fitting and the fitting systems are pretty quick as well.  
You've got two different types of fittings. On PEX-A you can do an expansion fitting, that's where you're gonna put a barbed expansion in here and it's gonna expand this and then contractor on your fitting. Or you can do a crimped fitting like this PEX-B has where you're gonna put a fitting in there and crimp around it. 

Lifespan:
Stay tuned for a future video where I'm gonna really go in-depth on the different types and brands of PEX, but for today's purposes let's talk about how PEX compares to copper and CPVC. So, when it comes to the lifespan, it's a little bit more unknown how long PEX is gonna last. At a minimum 50 years, but I think it's probably on par with CPVC and maybe slightly less than copper, so I think you're easily gonna get 75 or hundred years out of a PEX install at a minimum (I'm hoping that they'll actually go longer than that). 

UV and durability:
Now UV exposure is no bueno for PEX: you do not want this expose of the sun. In fact, you need to make sure that the plumber is not storing this in their yard because if this is outdoors for longer than 30 days it's gonna start to degrade. So, all of your PEX has to be totally encapsulated - no UV light on the PEX whatsoever. It's gonna be fine in your basement, in your crawlspace, but be cautious you don't want to store your leftover PEX in the job (or other type of boneyard things out in the sun) because that will degrade and you're gonna cause a future leak.

Water hammer:
Now PEX is gonna be pretty similar to CPVC it does pretty well on water hammer, but you do need to be cautious about when you're strapping in and adding hammer arresting devices as well in your system. So it's going to be much, much, less than copper but a little bit more, let's say, than CPVC.

Fittings:
And lastly let's talk about fittings. You know I did a video not too long ago where I talked about this fitting type right here. This is a SharkBite fitting or I'd push-to-connect (PTC), there's actually several different manufacturers of these. SharkBite happens to be the Kleenex kind of brand-name. 
These are invented about 15 years ago and they've really started to come on in the market. And as we talk about PEX, I think what we're gonna start seeing is more and more, people starting to use push-to-connect or SharkBite connectors with their PEX.
You know I've used these in a lot of emergency situations [gestures to pipe cap]. A cap like this is super handy, I keep both a half-inch and a three-quarter on my truck at all times for emergency purposes, but I'm starting to see whole houses plumbed with this. 
And in fact, the SharkBite people have an EvoPEX system, that's a PEX piping that's designed for their PEX fittings, that the entire house could be pushed to fit. I think the big benefit there is certainly going to be a time saver. There also could be a big benefit in that the trades could be less experienced but still get an excellent pipe install with a push to connect type system. 
So it's yet to see how much market share that we'll get, but be aware that there is a push to connect system utilizing really any of these pipes, but primarily PEX, where the entire house would have its fittings as SharkBite.

Scenarios
 Okay guys let's wrap this video up. We talked about three different plumbing systems out there. You know it's hard to say what is the right plumbing system for your house, but let me give you a couple scenarios. 
If your re-piping an old house, let's say you live in a 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s house you’re re-piping, it's a good chance for plumbers gonna want to use CPVC. This is a good pipe system, I've actually used this to re-pipe one of my houses, I liked it a lot.
If you're building new construction and you're hoping to build a house that's gonna last for many generations copper's a great choice. You know coppers been around forever, if we have an apocalypse you're still gonna buy that 1/2 inch Type L pipe at the local mom-and-pop shop in the middle of nowhere-ville USA. So copper (I think) is still around for a long, long, time, but get ready to pay for that performance and that longevity - this is definitely the most costly piping system.
And when it comes to PEX there's a lot of different flavors, a lot of different manufacturers in the marketplace. A lot of builders like me have opted to go with PEX on new construction and in retrofit. I've had really good service with PEX. In probably  the last 15 years that I've used a couple different varieties of PEX, I can only think of two times where I've had a fitting leak and they were fairly easily recognizable and could be fixed without a whole lot of damage. So any one of these piping systems if you've got it in your house they're good choices, but they have some pros and cons. And you want to talk to your plumber, your builder, the local guys, the distributors, and find out things like:

• Is there any concern with water quality? 
• Is there corrosive water?
• Do I have well water versus city water?
• Where's the pipe going to go? Is it getting buried in the ground, in my slab on grade foundation (let's say) or is it going in a basement? 

Because you're gonna choose a slightly different pipe depending on those things and you also want to make sure that your plumber is familiar with that system. So for instance, if you got a plumber that's only using copper, you're probably not going to get them to make the switch to PEX. Similarly, if you've got a re-pipe contractor that's using CPVC on all their jobs, if you want them to bid copper they're gonna bid it really high because they're not used to it.
I hope this video is useful for you guys. Be sure to hit that subscribe button below we've got new content every Tuesday and every Friday. 

And by the way a big thanks to my friends at Products magazine, that's a magazine I get for free because I'm a builder. So, if you're a remodeler builder or architect look for the Products magazine subscription link in the description below. I get it every month and that's a lot of ways that I learn about cool and new products in our building industry. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, otherwise we'll see you next time on the build show.

Source: Risinger, M.[Matt Risinger] (2018, July 13).PEX vs COPPER vs CPVC plumbing pipes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywtnOq1ExqQ