Underground Residential Steel Pipes

[Soft Cars]

Is there still a big scare over the lead leaching into the water? It used to be some years back that the galvanized steel pipe coming out of China had lead in it; is that still a concern today? I know most people go with PVC, but I'm concerned about chemicals leaching out of that too. I grew up in a house with all steel pipes and I never once ever got any lead poisoning, but then again, the pipes are so old they were surely all made in USA.

Another thing of concern about steel pipes is supposedly, lawn fertilizers will eventually corrode the heck out of them; which I think is the problem I'm having now. But it took about 50 years to get to the point of having the pipe's wall thickness get so thin that it ruptured.

 

[atikovi]

Is there still a big scare over the lead leaching into the water? It used to be some years back that the galvanized steel pipe coming out of China had lead in it; is that still a concern today? I know most people go with PVC,

Galvanized steel and PVC pipe are used just for the drain side, not for the supply side. No chance of lead in the drinking water.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Are we talking water delivery pipes to the home from the meter?

The rural development I live in (2 acre lots, built in 2008) uses all copper. The neighbor had a rupture in his a year or two ago, he replaced it with plastic PEX from the meter. I think PEX is the de-facto standard these days.

A steel pipe having lead in it (as an alloying element which is likely a small percentage) I wouldn't expect to be particularly harmful, as opposed to the old lead lines where lead was the main constituent. Just an educated guess, however.

 

[Soft Cars]

Are we talking water delivery pipes to the home from the meter?

Yes! It starts out as 1 1/2" and then goes down to 3/4" before going into the house. The drain line or the sewage line is clay. As you can imagine, clay doesn't hold up too well with trees around, so I'll need to replace that with 4" ABS. But for the supply side, I thought it would be nice to stay with steel. I don't trust that plastic stuff. I think mainly it's the glue phase that I don't like. I'm afraid of getting dirt into the glued joint.

 

[Kruse]

Galvanized steel and PVC pipe are used just for the drain side, not for the supply side. No chance of lead in the drinking water.

There are some houses that have galvanized pipe on their supply side water. Yea, I'm obviously talking about older houses. I'm currently doing a bathroom remodel (not mine, for a friend) and the two stubs that are now sticking out of the floor (plumbers are waiting to get drywall on the walls before a new vanity gets installed) are galvanized pipe. They currently have two screw-on caps on them.
The walls getting covered are plaster and lathe and will be getting a drywall covering.

 

[Nukeman7]

Yes! It starts out as 1 1/2" and then goes down to 3/4" before going into the house. The drain line or the sewage line is clay. As you can imagine, clay doesn't hold up too well with trees around, so I'll need to replace that with 4" ABS. But for the supply side, I thought it would be nice to stay with steel. I don't trust that plastic stuff. I think mainly it's the glue phase that I don't like. I'm afraid of getting dirt into the glued joint.

Glue is only used with PVC or ABS piping on the drain lines. The overwhelming current practice for new construction and remodels in the U.S. is to use PEX (extruded polyethylene) which is assembled with high pressure crimp rings or metal clamps, not glue.

 

[atikovi]

I thought it would be nice to stay with steel.

Wouldn't it rust? At least galvanized has a protective coating.

 

[mk378]

@Nukeman7 beat me to it. PEX (also known as HDPE) pipe is now the standard for home supply lines, specifically the 200 psi IPS size. This is a very tough plastic which won't crush underground, but it can be supplied in a long continuous length rolled up for shipment and installed around curves. No known glue sticks to HDPE, so it is connected underground with large brass compression fittings. Those fittings are expensive ($30 - $50 per end, but you usually only need two since the pipe is one piece) and may contain lead if you don't buy from a reputable source.

 

[Delta]

I grew up in a house with lead soldered pipes and I turned out just fine. Oh wait, they may be onto something.

The 1" line coming from my well to inside the house is galvanized. Can only imagine how clogged up it may be by now. Really dreading on digging that up and replace with SCH40 PVC from the pitless into the basement...

 

[DanDeLaVega]

Galvanized was used as water supply lines some time ago (depending on your location). The house I live in (built in early 1960s) had galvanized everywhere, from the water meter all the way to every fixture. Actually, the city here has some galvanized service lines they're in the process of replacing over time. They get corroded and accumulate buildup on the inside of the pipe, which reduces the flow significantly.

When I moved into this house, I replaced all the galvanized with PEX A (Uponor brand PEX A, to be specific). It's flexible, which makes it easy to work with. It's very resistant to bursting if it freezes. The flexibility and using multiport tees significantly reduced the number of joints and fittings. I could really tell a difference in water flow of pex vs the old galvanized.

I bought the Milwaukee battery powered pex expansion tool to do the installation - well worth the money. I went with PEX A, but won't repeat all the pros and cons of the different versions. Youtube has plenty of videos to explain that.

 

[Oillover]

Not sure about lead, but where I'm from it was common to use asbestos in the cement pipes.
This water was intended to be used for drinking.

 

[doitmyself]

@Nukeman7 beat me to it. PEX (also known as HDPE) pipe is now the standard for home supply lines, specifically the 200 psi IPS size.

There is a bit of confusion using the term HDPE. I have seen HDPE used generically to describe both PEX and black PE pipe. The black PE pipe has many versions and it is important to get the NSF higher pressure rated product for home service supply lines.

 

[bullwinkle]

Galvanized supply lines are HORRIBLE-they get so constricted from lime scale & rust that eventually NOTHING gets through!

 

[walterjay]

I grew up in a house with lead soldered pipes and I turned out just fine. Oh wait, they may be onto something.

The 1" line coming from my well to inside the house is galvanized. Can only imagine how clogged up it may be by now. Really dreading on digging that up and replace with SCH40 PVC from the pitless into the basement...

Do not use sch 40 plastic. Any small shifting or settling can cause it to fail. Use 200lb polyethylene.

 

[Soft Cars]

Wouldn't it rust? At least galvanized has a protective coating.

Yes I mean galvanized coated steel pipe.

 

[RhondaHonda]

My house has 1.5” copper service line and 6” PVC for the sewer. Use PEX or copper, not steel.

 

[mk378]

Copper can be short lived in acidic conditions; either the water or the ground.

 

[SHOZ]

Have black PE pipe for my well suction been there 70 years now. Lead pipes are a big problem in Chicago. They were still the code up until the 80s I think. Clay tile for a drain. It's held up pretty good but some sections were replaced due to tree roots.

Galvanized will need replaced 15 years or so.

 

[PimTac]

Not sure about lead, but where I'm from it was common to use asbestos in the cement pipes.
This water was intended to be used for drinking.

Are you talking about transite pipe? It was used for mains a long time ago. They didn’t know the effects back then.

 

[Rmay635703]

Galvanized steel and PVC pipe are used just for the drain side, not for the supply side. No chance of lead in the drinking water.

This house had galvanized pipe on the supply side, fell apart and plugged a bunch of downstream hoses, gotta wonder what decade that hillbilly bs was made illegal

Wouldn't it rust? At least galvanized has a protective coating.

Thick black Cast iron Lasts longer than galvanized because it doesn’t rust like a puff pastry and because it’s thick.

The big Sewage pipes in this house are cast iron and likely as old as the home (1860’s)

Have black PE pipe for my well suction been there 70 years now. Lead pipes are a big problem in Chicago. They were still the code up until the 80s I think. Clay tile for a drain. It's held up pretty good but some sections were replaced due to tree roots.

Galvanized will need replaced 15 years or so.

Lead pipe is an issue here as well, that’s why in yea Olde times they said to take cooking water after an appliance used a bunch of water and then run it 5 minutes through the sink.

I no longer have a filter compatible sink (gotta fix that, drink too much bottled crap )

Oddly lead dates to before chlorine and it saved lives by keeping water sterile (hence its popularity). Sadly it also makes you nuts