Hi,
We have an old house that is being renovated. 1) Do we replace all the copper bathroom plumbing with PVC? 2) Sould the new plumbing that is added be copper or PVC? Which material is better? Our floors and ceilings are demolished so access is available.
Also, 3) do we need a permit if we are moving (non-weight bearing) stairs that go to the basement?
Thanks!

i'm guessing youre talking about the waste side of the pipes. you probably have a cast-iron stack running the length of the house. copper ties in better to cast iron. a new pvc line to a cast-iron stack would require a rubber boot, which is not ideal for flow or durability. that said pvc itself is an excellent material and can outlast copper. whichever you choose, make sure you ask for a larger diameter of waste line because these houses have no supplementary DW ventilation and siphoning will occur. (evidinced by a sucking noise at the drain) i've lived in several apartments where my kitchen sink trap water would be siphoned out by an air pressure drop and i would come home to an apartment full of lovely sewer gas.

i just had to have the large main drain in the basement replaced that takes the waste out to the sewer. they used pvc for everything that was above the dirt and had to replace the remaining underground section with new cast iron plumbing. apparently they can't put pvc underground because the soil erodes the pvc. (correct me if i'm worng, that's what the plumber said.)

i used a place called precision plus plumbing, and while the work they performed was good i don't know if i would recommend them because they seem to have a lot of miscommunication within the company (that cost me a few hours of missed work without pay) and they plumber even left his very expensive saw in my basement. that's not so bad for me but who knows what else he could have forgotten to do...

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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

I believe it's because of a city ordinance likely put in place at the behest of the building trades unions. PVC pipes may have a shorter life-span than cast iron (I don't know if they do), but they aren't eroded by soil, that I'm aware of, unless maybe the weight of the soil might crack them.

Somebody who knows more feel free to chime in.

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If you use copper, make sure you lock up tight before you go home at night. Someone swiped all the copper pipes out of the basement of our house, thankfully before we bought it. It was replaced with this new flexible tubing called Pex. Apparently the unions fought hard against this stuff because it's cheap and holds up better than copper and PVC due to its flexibility. It's extremely easy to install, and if there's ever a leak you can apparently just replace a very small section of the tubing. At least that's what I've heard/read...I'm no plumber

Cast Iron going out to the street connection is only there due to the unions. Other less brittle materials could be used but the unions won't allow the code to be changed. Remember the waterless urinal debate at Comcast Bldg?

Pex is a new good option for running water lines. Is it allowed in the city?

Yeah, that's what I've heard. I had one contractor look around my house and didn't want to do any work moving around the water lines for the kitchen because a lot of it's still cast-iron and "it falls apart while you're working with it."

Only inside the house. Once you get out to the street it has to be cast-iron.

__________________
Welcome to Philadelphia. Here's how you can help us make our great city even better:

• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department

We were told that it is by an experienced plumber who inspected the plumbing work the (then) seller had done. He said all new construction is using that stuff.

Actually I think water coming into the house from the street is copper. Cast iron is only used for the waste lines.

I can't add too much to the above discussion,

however, you want to be careful about having two different kings of metal piping in the house, othewise the two different metals will rust each other out.

The cast iron in the drainline can react with any old steel fittings, copper piping, galvanized pipe...

If you have different sections of metal pipe, keep them from touching by using PVC connections in between...


Hal