Today, the re pipe has begun
 

They turned the water off, by 3 this afternoon they say everything will be working again, about 300 feet of new pipe the guy said. Two more days to patch drywall and paint. damn this is fun. Pictures may follow if it looks interesting.

Do the workers have on funny shirts that say something like "I really know how to lay pipe"?

Are they going with copper or PEX?

If copper, L or M pipe?

this is it

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Looks like PEX (Cross-linked polyethylene)

the water is on, lots of holes, they will be back tomorrow to patch,

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and most of the pipe the took out, they didn't take much, I guess just the easy to get at stuff.

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thats about a $400-$500 pile of copper are you keeping it?

That scrap copper should bring a nice return at the local recycling center.....cash it in to help pay for improvements.

I was happy with my house being all copper till I saw your pictures. Good luck...........

Dean, my last 2 places here, both built circa 1989, had to be re-piped. Both had slab leaks. That what's going on at your place?

No slabs with pipe in them here, just the typ pinhole leaks in the walls, the pipes were bad all through the compound, the HOA funded the deal and our rates went up $11 a month.
This place is split level, three full bathrooms, 2000 sq ft, these guys worked pretty well, like I said, new hook ups under the sinks, the toilets, the outside hose bibs, water running again by 3 this afternoon.

As for the scrap, the workers took it. There is still a lot in the walls, under the house, I can walk around under part of the place, and atic if I wanted to crawl around and cut it out. They only cut out the easy to get stuff where they were re connecting.
No inspection today, holiday for city workers, but tomorrow they will be back to patch.

Blame min. building requirement for that. L pipes are rarely use during those years for production homes. 20 years later, they will leak or develop pin holes due to the pipe wall thickness. We never use M pipes on any projects. Not worth the 4-500 bucks in savings. I am hoping the same thing will not happen to PAX. Only time will tell. Easier and faster does not always mean better I found.

It is a fact that the water district here adds something to the water and that it is corrosive to the copper, the condo project is not the only place in town where this happened. Motion only lived a couple miles from me and the same water district, the house I saw was a pretty nice place, not cheaply built. It's the water.

Chemistry and velocity are the two most common cause for pin holes.

I heard it was due to hot water & proximity to rebar? Some type of electrolysis.

Electrolysis can be one of them. Most plumber or inspector I talk to thinks its the wall thickness. L pipe is the way to go.

didn't seem to matter, cold water pipes had the pinholes too and they were in the walls, no rebar in sight.

A few years ago I try to find out what really cause the issues. It seems that no one really knows. some copper pipes last 50 years. Look at those home that were built in the 50s. I cut them open and the copper pipers are thick, unlike the POS we see today known as M pipe.

This is what happened to me last year. I had an electrical cable for a canned cieling light that ran within a 1/4" of the main line running to the third story. Created a pinhole that turned into a larger pinhole and took the ceiling down. Stupid builder.

Dean, are you staying in the house while they are doing this?

sure, was here all day, water was off from about 8 till almost 3. everything is back on, they took the plastic down, the paper off the floors, the holes will be patched tomorrow, painted the next day. Then put everything back.

There are no wires next to the places where we had pinholes. I am telling you, here it is what the district puts in the water, this has been happening for a few years, companies are doing well because of it. Projects like the one where we live have tried to sue the water district but no chance. It's in the water here. This HOA checked with other projects around here, talked with different companies that do this, finally borrowed money from themselves to finance the project and had at it. Ours was just a few weeks too late, we had another major leak three weekends ago.