Barry Jolly is an entrepreneur in Northern Kentucky, and the owner of Jolly Plumbing in Wilder, KY. In this article, the Kentucky Small Business Man of the Year award-winner tells us the pros and cons of a few of the most well-known types of plumbing pipes currently on the market.
Plumbing pipes are made out of all types of materials, but they certainly aren’t necessarily created equal. Different types of pipes work better for different types of jobs, and some materials that pipes are made out of are so outdated that we recommend people replace them entirely.
Here are a few of the most common materials that pipes are made from.
PVC: PVC piping is more and more popular these days, especially since the price of copper has increased so drastically and gone up so high. Nowadays we are seeing PVC pipes being used more and more in both water and drainage piping, and that’s a good thing because PVC really is such a good technology for plumbing. The reason for this is because the PVC pipes don’t clog nearly as much as some of the older types of pipes that some people still use.
Copper: Copper is another material that people still use in piping, although their cost has gone way up recently, which is a problem for a lot of people. Still, when plumbers use copper piping it is usually for a water line job, since copper is best when used for water line jobs.
Cast Iron: Cast iron is a material that has been used in piping for a long time. Most commonly, cast iron pipes were used for draining piping systems, and some people still have these installed in or around their house.
Lead: Lead pipes were common in water lines installed in older homes. Believe it or not, some of these products haven’t been replaced, along with galvanized piping, because these pipes were just left in older homes that people haven’t bothered to remodel.
Clay Tiles: In a lot of the older homes, clay tile pipes make up the sewer lines. Because a lot of what we do here at Jolly Plumbing is replace sewer lines, we see these quite often. Clay tile piping is really the old style, so it people who discover that they still have clay tile pipes get them replaced as soon as they can.
Steel: Gas piping has typically always been made out of steel pipe, although that is beginning to fade now that they are making a product(s) for gas line piping that is made out of a more flexible material.
WARDFLEX: WARDFLEX is the flexible material that more people are using for gas pipe lines today. The benefit of using something like WARDFLEX is that it makes the gas line installation process easier.
Not all of these products are created equal. Many times I encourage clients with pipes made from a certain material to upgrade their systems and replace their older pipes with pipes made out of a different, newer material.
If you have galvanized water lines or lead water lines, for example, then those are definitely pipes that should be replaced for a couple of reasons. Safety should always be a homeowner’s biggest concern, and the lead content in these older pipes has become a big problem. In addition to that, both the lead and the galvanized piping systems tend tog get clogged inside and cluttered over time, and that can cut down on the water pressure inside your home.
If you have lead or galvanized piping, there is also a good chance that it will begin leaking if it hasn’t already. That’s why I always recommend that homeowners who have lead or galvanized piping systems seriously think about getting their systems replaced as soon as they can.
From the perspective of the sewer lines, some people still have the clay tile pipes — although fewer of these are left each year — which are susceptible to clogging and to tree root damage. So I would recommend replacing those, if at all possible, as well.
