repipe

Repipe

Looking for a whole house repipe in Tomball and surrounding area? Tomball Plumbing are experts in repiping homes. Most homes built prior to the 1990’s have galvanized domestic water pipes. Galvanized pipe failure has become an epidemic in the Houston area, and it is very common to see a home buyer’s inspection report warning against buying a house with galvanized water piping.

In the 1990’s copper pipe had become the domestic water pipe of choice for builders. This was a positive change at first, but as time went by, pinhole leak occurrence started to become more and more frequent. Causes included builders using thin wall (Type M) copper, and bad solder joints. These pinhole leaks also resulted from municipal water suppliers using a mix of chlorine and ammonia (chloramines) as a disinfectant. Studies have shown this type of disinfectant to cause damage to the copper pipe.

Also in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, CPVC pipe had become popular with home builders. The benefits of CPVC are low installation cost and non-corrosive material. However, with CPVC you are more likely to suffer freeze damage. These pipes also become brittle with age and may have bad glue joints through poor installation practices. CPVC is used less frequently today.

By the mid-2000’s PEX had become the pipe of choice. There are several manufacturers and grades of PEX pipe. The most widely used PEX pipe today is Type A. The benefits of using PEX piping are that they have a sharp bending radius that avoids the use of extra fittings. It also uses an expansion connection to allow for a larger fitting inside diameter, which allows higher water volume. Type A PEX also has great expansion qualities during a hard freeze…it will expand up to twice the diameter before it breaks!

Tomball Plumbing offers the highest quality PEX repipe. There are several questions a homeowner needs to ask before allowing a plumbing company to repipe their house:

  1. What type of PEX will they be using? Tomball Plumbing only uses Uponor Type A PEX pipe and fittings.
  2. How will the stub outs be secured such as outside house faucets and all shut-off valves that will be exposed out of the wall? Tomball Plumbing uses a transition fitting that goes from PEX to a hard brass fitting which is anchored to solid wood in the wall. Therefore allowing any pipes coming out of the wall to be solid and secure.
  3. What are the plumbing codes for PEX installation for my area? City Plumbing inspectors will make sure all pipe is strapped every 32”, nail guards are installed when pipe has passed through a 2 X 4, pipes are insulated in all exterior walls, no water hammer, water piping is sized according to International Residential Building Code, and workmanship is performed to their standards.
  4. Is the salesman going to oversee the work and perform a quality control check after the job is complete? Tomball Plumbing State of Texas licensed technician will always be on the job and a manager will perform a quality control check after every job is completed.