Question about pex plumbing

13 years ago

Does anyone know enough about pex plumbing to answer a few questions? I bought a foreclosure old home and had "professional" plumbers come out to get the water working as I knew from neighbors the home had leaks. They did a poor job, mismatched new pex with old and flooded the living room - then said it was Friday happy hour of all things.

A handyman guy happened to be there while this happened and so I asked him to look over plumbing. Turns out we worked and found the the plumbing had more serious issues, of course the leaks that flooded the livingroom from the upstairs bath was indicating this.

Anyways we worked and worked and in the end he changed out most of the plumbing with pex pipes. I didn't know about permits and such really, I was just happy to get the work done. I told the handyman though at some point I was worried about resale and said it had to pass inspection either now or when I sold the house he said it would and assured me.

So a friend of mine who's in construction drove from another town to look over the house and he said that the pex pipes were all clear- that there should have been two colors, one for cold, and one for hot. He said I'd have wanted the house to look like it was professionally done and this didn't because they were all clear. The handyman responded to my questions saying that he was going to insulate the hot pipes to show they were hot lines when he was done putting the water heater in.

I didn't check the local codes on this and no permit was pulled so I don't know. I emailed a home inspector - not city - but a guy who helped me inspect a few homes prior to buying them. He said the pipes would likely cause a buyer to scrutinize the home more but it shouldn't hinder the sale should I choose to sell the house in the future. But he said he wasn't sure about FHA buyers, most of who can get homes these days, he said that he himself flipped a house and didn't pull a permit for an addition and the house wouldn't pass FHA regulations.

A lot of work goes on without permits especially on rentals. My intention was to fix this house and have the work done right. The irony is the pro plumbing company made a mess, at least this guy cleaned up after them. The pro plumbing company should have pulled a permit because they changed out so many pipes to begin with. I'm just frustrated. I still need to get in a heater and a roof and inspectors will be coming to the house on both of these items in a month or two.

Again, does anyone know why they make the clear pex, and why he would have used it throughout plumbing in the house rather then colors as pro plumbers would have used (cheaper right) and if they think it'll make a difference on the sale of the house so I know. Some walls floors are still open and if it came to it I could still hire a pro to maybe change out at least say the hot to a different color. Should I? We'll be closing ceilings and walls with drywall in the next few weeks.

Would it be obvious this clear plumbing?

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Comments (2)

weedmeister
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The rules for requiring permits are different from place to place. Where do you live? Around here, replacing a leaking pipe/fixture/waterHeater does not require a permit. Adding new pipes to new fixtures would require a permit.
lazypup
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Although there are exceptions that prove the rule, in general all "PLUMBING" requires a permit but "Maintenance Plumbing" does not.

The question then becomes, what constitutes "Plumbing" versus "Maintenance"?

Maintenance is defined as maintaining an existing system in its original design and configuration therefore if you are replacing the original piping with the same size of lines and maintaining the same physical layout of the piping system you generally would not be required to pull a permit, however we must use a bit of caution here. In some jurisdictions if we are replacing pipe, valves or fixtures with exact like kind replacements it is defined as maintenance and no permit is required, but if we are switching to a different type of pipe, valves or fixtures such as replacing copper pipe with PEX they may require a permit.

If we are adding additional fixtures or altering the physical location of the fixtures which would require altering the original layout of the supply and DWV lines that would technically be defined as Plumbing and generally would require both a permit and inspection.

In general PEX is much easier to handle than copper but PEX requires a much greater attention to detail than copper or CPVC. By example, copper or CPVC requires a hanger within one foot of any major change in direction and one hanger for each 48" of linear run, but PEX requires a hanger for every 38" of linear run. (some jurisdictions require hangers every 36"). When installing hangers for PEX the hangers must allow fo ra greater physical movement of the pipe and the codes define a specified percentage of slack to compensate for thermal expansion and contraction,

PEX must be afforded protection from both direct and indirect exposure to UV light. In some jurisdictions they require that when PEX is run through a stud bay, the underside of the stud bay must be covered with black plastic sheeting or other suitable means to prevent indirect UV light exposure.

Color coding the hot and cold water lines is often done as a matter of convenience but i am not familiar with any specific code requirement to do so.

Having said all of that, we must go back to what was mentioned in the previous reply. All jurisdictions have differing rules on permits. By example, in our municipal jurisdiction we are required to pull a permit for all water heater installations whether it is new or a replacement. On the other hand, in the county outside of our municipal district you can build an entire house from the foundation to finish and the only permits required are to drill a well, install a septic tank or attach the driveway to the public roadway.
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Question about pex plumbing

Comments (2)

weedmeister

lazypup

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