Polybutylene Pipes - anyone have experience with them?

[EmilyBronte]

I was wondering if anyone has any personal experience with polybutylene plumbing. I know what it is and what the problems with them are.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever had problems with them or if anyone has been through repiping. What does it cost to replace polybutylene?

Thanks in advance!

[Alicia]

a few years back i bought a house that had pb pipes leading into our basement from the yard (basically the yard service line) we were alerted by the home inspector that *eventually* it would break, although he had yet to see any problems in that particular neighborhood. we closed on the house and three days later i was meeting the electrician at the house so he could read the inside meter- as soon as i walked into the basement room (which was unfinished) i noticed a puddle! since there was nothing in the house yet (thank g-d), and i noticed it right away, nothing was damaged - it cost us $1,800 to have that pipe replaced with copper. (we were lucky that the rest of the pipes in the house were copper). there's a class action lawsuit, but the house was either built outside the years stated in the lawsuit or was older than a certain amount (i forget which) so we weren't covered by that - and since the pipe led from OUTSIDE the house in, neither the home insurance or the home warranty would cover it. it took about a half day for the work to be completed.

hope that helps. good luck!

[wine_o_girlie]

My experience with this type of pipe is almost exactly the same as Alicia's. Our townhouse had the PB pipe only on the outside of the house too. We were told about it at our initial inspection but decided to purchase the house anyway. Our house was built in 1989-1990 (we purchased in 2000) and we were unable to sign up for the lawsuit because we were on the cusp of this practice being outlawed. According to every plumber/home inspector I have talked to, the issue is WHEN the pipe will break not IF it will break. Ours started leaking in 2004 and thankfully the leak was in the yard far enough away from the house so there was no leak in the basement. If the pipe starts leaking close to the house you could easily end up with a flooded basement. We had plumbers out who had to dig up part of the yard and re-plumb the line. Our repair was $1500-1600 and was done all in one day.

It was a big enough headache just having this type of plumbing on the outside of the house that I don't know if I would purchase a house that had PB pipes on the inside. These type of pipes *are* going to leak at some point and have to be replaced.

[zoe]

We were considering a house with PB pipes, but decided against it. Then I found out from our insurance company that they wouldn't have given us homeowner's insurance if we'd bought it!! That was a surprise!