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We're building a house and I have a question on Pex vs PVC plumbing. The Pex stuff is pretty new around here so I figure some of you guys will know how it compares to PVC in regards to longevity and cost of materials. Our house is going to be around 1900 sq feet.


Thanks

I can't help with the cost but my home here in north Idaho and my home I owned in Calgary is/was PEX with zero issues. Just yesterday I did a bit of plumbing with PEX and it was a piece of cake. The stuff in to be very good in cold weather. It is all most use these days.

Nothing beats copper. first house I had I replaced the PVC with copper.

My house is all pex, pretty much all you can get installed around here anymore. No issues in a decade, other than the expensive crimper I had to buy to install my softener.

Replaced my heating system w/ hot water base board and they used PEX for the lines. No problems except for one fitting they forgot to crimp! They made good on the repairs..

When you are talking PVC it would be the main supply lines correct?

There is absolutely nothing better then Pex . Just get a competent plumber to install it . The problem with copper is municipal water systems are highly chlorinated which doesn't bother PEX but builds a residue inside copper.

Our home was built with pex. Not sure if it's standard but our builder put in a distribution system so that every line can be independently isolated. Also the big plus for pex is if it freezes, it will swell instead of bursting. Super easy to work on.

I've used PEX and it is great and I've found it very inexpensive compared to other options. I try and use it only where the PEX is accessible but that's not always possible. It does pass code in most places to bury it and make connections in walls.

Chlorination isn't the biggest killer of copper. Acidic ph levels hammer copper but most municipal suppliers manage ph. Well water can be very hard on copper.

Except Pex.

Copper sucks if you have hard water - VERY common to have pinhole leaks here in Cali - both in wall and in slab.

Pex is SO easy to work with.

plus no one steals pex out of walls

On price, the last roll of 3/4 pex I bought was 300 ft for $35. That was a close out and normal price is more like $125 for 300 ft. I bought a 300 ft roll of 1 1/2 in for about $350. It normally runs around $1.50 per foot around here.

I've redone a bathroom and some hotwater supply plumbing on a rental house we have with PEX. So easy to work with.

My only regret was I bought the cinch clamp setup, wish I would have sprung for the expansion setup. With the cinch or crimp setup, a 1/2" fitting doesn't actually measure 1/2", it is less than that. For most things its not an issue, but it does act as a flow restrictor for items such as a bathtub faucet. The expandable type setup, a 1/2" fitting is a true 1/2".

A lot of municipalities inject anti scaling agents in their systems. They are hard on copper lines. Pex is the way to go.
GreggH

Pex is great. Just be sure what type of pex is used if you plan on doing any plumbing yourself after construction. Wirsbo requires extremely expensive expanders to make the stretch connections, other pex requires a crimper and crimps that cost less than $100.

A good plumber he hired for sure.

Only place I would use copper would be the shower head assembly. The supply lines would be red and blue pex.

Lead is dead...copper is in its death throws....Uponor pex and fittings period.

Buy the m12 tool ….use it then sell it off .

+1 on that. Mine is set up similar to a breaker panel. Very slick.

This.

Copper was required in commercial here in town. It was also a guarantee of repairs from our city water damage in about 10 years or less.

I refuse to enforce the stupidity of copper. If the water is right though, copper is great.

I'd do pex with a manifold way before I'd do CPVC(PVC is not allowed inside houses anymore by code) We have an attic full of CPVC, its getting old and brittle. I wished I"d have spent the money to re run it all in pex before we put another R30 of batts down on top of the CPVC...