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Save Money on Plumbing Whether or Not You Do It Yourself Print
Friday, 29th December 2006 (by J.D.)This article is about DIY, House and Home
A few weeks ago I mentioned Curbly, a new community-based DIY site. Here’s a guest-post from one of the Curbly’s featured writers, Alex Russell.
Copper’s proper. That’s the saying, anyway. But the problem now with copper for your plumbing has nothing to do with reliability. It’s cost. Over the past year, the retail price of copper tube for plumbing has almost doubled. However, there is a great money-saving alternative.
Using PEX for your new water lines can save you a lot of money. It’s a polyethylene crosslinked tube designed specifically for water. 
PEX comes either semi-flexible or rigid, and the joining technologies it uses are every bit as reliable as soldered copper joints. The Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association has some great information on PEX.
The cost savings of using PEX over copper are huge when you do the math. For example, right now ten-foot sticks of half-inch copper run about $13. You can pick up a 100-foot roll of half-inch PEX for under $60. Right away you’ll save about half the cost of materials.
The labor saved with PEX is outstanding. I’ve worked with both copper and PEX for water lines, and PEX is much easier and faster to install. Overall, the time it takes to pipe water through a house in PEX is less than half what it takes to run copper.
If you decide to go all the way with the cost savings and run the water lines yourself, it’s a lot easier than it would be with copper. There is no soldering to learn, and the very rare leaks are much easier to fix. The fitting tools for all the different PEX systems are easy to use, and some places will rent them for the day.
If you’re going to hire a plumber to install PEX water lines you can still save a lot of money, but you can’t always assume this is how it will go. The best way to get a fair deal is to ask for three separate bids from each plumber you meet with. Get a bid on the waste lines, a bid on water lines in copper, and a bid on water lines in PEX. That way, you know exactly what where your money’s going.
Don’t miss Alex’s recent post on graphic wall decals. If my wife would let me do something like this, I would!
December 29th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
I’ve done a little bit of DIY work with both Pex and copper in my house, and I really like working with the Pex better. I rented a crimper from Home Depot for $5 for a day. It was easy and I never had a problem with it leaking.
December 29th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
We had water pressure problems in our house. I fixed this by installing pex. I installed manifolds and made home runs to everything. I can now shut off each fixture individually. It’s worked well.
December 29th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Speaking of copper tubing, today on the news there was a story about copper wiring/tubing being stolen, and it was enough to fill a semi-truck!
December 29th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
PEX is great, though if you live in an area that is known to have rodent life (mice, squirrels, etc.), spend the extra cash and go with copper. I had a rental property that sustained a lot of water damage because of rodents chewing through PEX behind the drywall. I really like PEX, but I’ll never use it anywhere except as part of a hydronic floor radiant heating system.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Water is a solvent, and polyplastics dont have a good track record with it. http://www.chemaxx.com/polytube1.htm I would much rather be exposed to rust or copper, than plastic derivitive chemicals in my drinking water.
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 am
Not only is there no proof that PEX isn’t leaking chemicals into the water (Think the CPVC lawsuits in california,) But it is also a rodant attraction. I work for a plumbing company and you wouldn’t believe the number of calls we get for leaking pipes under a home or in the walls where the rodents have just had a heyday with the PEX piping.
Copper is more expensive, but it’s been used for plumbing for hundreds of years and there’s never been any evidence that it’s been leaking carcinogens into the water, and it can’t be eaten by rodents. I’d never use anything but copper, the savings in peace of mind and repair costs outweighs the savings in installation.