The initial material cost differences between copper and plastics are significant. A article comparing costs for different plumbing pipes can be found here: http//:www.southce.org/ajwhelton. A US government funded study to investigate what chemicals leach out of American plastic plumbing pipe is also underway. Go to that same web page and type in 'plastic pipe'. There has been quite a bit of work done in Europe but American materials have not been equally publicly scrutinized. Some of the study data has already been released and testing included actual buildings and testing of new pipes purchased at local building supply stores. Here is a link that might be useful: Informational research website

Did I say anything about a meter pit? Meter pits are used in areas where the climate is not subject to deep frost, however in colder climates the meters are always installed inside the structure to protect them from freezing. When a municipal water supplier establishes a new service the place a saddle tap on the water main, then run a short line to a "Curb Stop Valve" which is installed on the line well below the frost line. A pipe sleeve is then placed over the curb stop valve and extended up to finished grade, where a lackable cap is put on the top of the sleeve. To access the curb stop valve you must first have a special 5 sided socket that will remove the curb stop box cover, then you insert a curb stop wrench down the sleeve uptil it contacts the curb stop valve. The curb stop valve rotates and it has a flat bar instead of a common valve handle. The curb stop wrench is a 3/8" steel shaft with a horseshoe shaped piece of flat steel on the bottom end that will straddle the bar on the curb stop valve to turn the valve. Generally the municipal water main is in an easement on the side of the street and the curb stop valve is typically place in the easement or sometimes it may be in the sidewalk, but in all instances it will be between the street and the house side of the sidewalk. Generally you will see a similar cap that is marked "Gas". Contrary to popular opinion it is the curb stop and not the meter that defines the official point of demarcation between the municipal supplied line & the customer supplied line. In the warmer regions were they can use meter vaults the curb stop valve may be placed in the meter vault. In colder climates where the meter is placed in the house the customer is responsible for all pipe from the curb stop, and the water supplier will instruct the plumber where to locate the meter bracket in the house or they may just tell the plumber what the meter allowance is, and the plumber will leave an open gap in the line, where the water supplier will later install the meter after the plumbing has been inspected.

There is no problem assuming they or the tub is not subjected to abuse. Just make sure you use the nylon ferrules with the tube and compression nut. Using a brass one designed for hard supplies will cock in hole and leak or without paying attention will cut tube due to overtightening. In addition it is advisable to use the brass supply tube insert in combination with the nylon ferrule, to assure alignment and proper compression. Just a note, ever since the braided SS supply lines were introduced, I have always spent the extra cash and thus had zero problems.

I have a unit in a high rise condominium which has banned the use of plastic tubing to a compression fitting from a fixture to the fixture stop value. I imagine it is because of incidents like I have experienced with a 3 story house (described below). Particularly insidious is the tendency to develop a very small leak which isn't detected in the room where the fixture is located because it is too small and leaks into the wall cavity causing damages far removed from the source of the leak which make it hard to locate the source. I am in the processing of cleaning up the mess from a long continuing and until recently not discovered leak from one of these connections from a sink fixture (hot water side) on the 3rd floor of a 3 story house with basement. Apparently for years, there was a slow drop, too slow and limited to be noticed as the water just seeped into the wall behind the fixture. On the first floor there was a bulge in the wall (interior) below the indoor unit of a mini-split system install near the ceiling, so some evidence of water where it shouldn't be, but, I suspect the lines from the mini-system and it didn't seem worth tearing open the wall to investigate. Over time (years) the leak seems to have increased and I found water accumulated in the basement floor (concrete) near where the boilers, hot water heater and water softener were located. I suspected first the hot water heater (so shut if off at the water inlet), then the water softener discharge as the floor drain had blocked. The water heater was turned back on. Possibly the surge of water in the lines (as often happens when water has been off for a long time) may have cause a water hammer effect which increased the leakage. In the end, I with a second floor ceiling collapsed exposing the underside of the third floor, I could see that it was a plumbing leak. It still took some time to find the bathroom (there were two above the ceiling with the problem because there was never a trace of water on the bathroom floor. All the water had leaked into the back of the cabinet at the seam between the cabinet bottom shelf and the cabinet back wall and from there into the wall. That was the most troublesome thing about the leak. It just wasn't noticeable until the ceiling collapsed. The most obvious suspect, the mini-split system located just above where the damage was initially evident had nothing at all to do with the leak.