Dealing with copper plumbing is a job I love to hate. Not because I donโt understand it. Not because I canโt accomplish the plumbing tasks that I set out to achieve in various projects. No, the reason why I hate copper piping is that itโs unashamedly unpredictable. Hereโs what I mean by that. I interviewed three different professional plumbers, each of whom had over 20 years of experience, and each of whom swore they would only work with copper piping. This article is aboutย copper piping vsย PEX, so expect some arguments as to why you may want to reconsider what you know.
We Pop the Copper Piping vs PEX Question
I asked them a simple question:
โEvery time you get done with an installation, having sweated the pipes and assembled your plumbing systemโฆ Do you really, truly know that it will work up until the moment after you turn on the water to test it under pressure?โ
All three said: โNo.โ
If you disagree, youโre probably kidding yourself, or youโre just a supremely confident person.ย Thatโs OK, keep reading.
Somehow, this is acceptable to the industry (as a general rule). Ask an electrician if he knows whether or not any electricity will โleakโ when he flips the switch. Or ask a framer if he thinks the roof will hold up after the first rain. An electrician knows his system will work. The framer knows his roof will hold up and his window wonโt leak. The plumber, on the other hand, hopes his pipes wonโt spray water all over the place.
Say a prayer, and turn on the waterโฆ Because even if youโve been doing plumbing for 30 years you really have no assurance that itโs all going to work until you actually pressure test it.
Anonymous veteran plumber
Why I Hate Copper Piping โ Solder and Pray
So when asked, what did these plumbers say they do when turning on the water? Well, aside from the normal run through of checking the connections and performing a general inspection, each more or less admitted they โsay a prayer, and turn on the waterโฆ Because even if youโve been doing plumbing for 30 years you really have no assurance that itโs all going to work until you actually pressure test it.โ
Say a prayer? Thereโs got to be a better way. After all, itโs been more than 100 years since weโve had indoor plumbing. Surely there has been some innovation.
There has. Itโs called PEX piping. The reason the average homeowner may not hear about it, however, is that it will result in a shorter installation time, meaning your average plumber will have to do more jobs to make the same amount of money. This is plain talk (and sure to garner some hate mail), but itโs largely true. Thereโs also a lot more room to mark up copperโand it has more perceived value. In the comparison ofย copper piping vsย PEX, there is no doubt that the tradesman can have a bit more wiggle room forย both material and labor with copper.
Copper Piping vsย PEX โ Time and Money
Recently, one of our staffers solicited two local plumbing contractors in his area to complete a bathroom renovation. The quote included plumbing the entire bathroom (which was open down to the sticks). The first contractor said it was going to take two to three days and cost about $3,500 to do the entire job. The second contractor said it would take no more than 6 hours and would cost $1,200.
Thatโs quite a difference. The first contractor was going to use copper, the second โ PEX tubing. Guess who got the job? And now imagine what you can save with an entire houseโฆ (by the way, we called plumber #1 back and asked him what he was smoking).
I have a separate article on this site that goes into the differences between copper, CPVC and PEX plumbing solutions, so I wonโt rehash that here. My primary point is that, especially in these economic times, plumbers had better reconsider traditional ways of doing business. Since PEX tubing allows โhome runโ installs of relatively inexpensive supply lines, and no fittings in between the source and destination, it often makes for a quicker, less expensive job. The average plumber will take some hits in terms of learning curve and some specialized tools on the front-end, but this will quickly pay off. They will likely land more jobs than their counterparts who are insisting on sticking with copper, even though it takes longer and results in a greater cost to the homeowner.
Addendum
Copper is still perceived to be the โhigh-endโ product for upper-scale homes. We donโt begrudge anyone that. After all, itโs perfectly acceptable to want to pay more for a particular product. This article more or less addresses the rank and file builders and contractors who we feel should be pushing harder to ensure that PEX (or a similar technology) makes its way into the marketplace and simplifies the plumbing industry. In this economic climate, we fear that those who insist on more expensive and time-intensive plumbing methods may find themselves out of business.
The second thing we want to point out is that we donโt endorse PEX in particular, but simply see it as one of the first real innovations in plumbing since CPVC began seeing widespread adoption in the industry. While CPVC is certainly easier to work with than copper (at least for the non-professional homeowner) it also relies on many fittings to go from point A to point B โ and as you know, every fitting is another place where the system can potentially leak.
