Allow me to add my expert / amateur input. You sure about that?
Just yesterday, I replaced the kitchen faucet. I’m pretty sure the original came with the house built in 1995.
We spent all day, and I am talking, ALL DAY trying to rip the old one out.
The original brass water hoses took everything in our being to get out and then the hard plastic, lock nuts that held the hoses in place would not budge. This required another run to the hardware store to get a product called “PB Blaster” to loosen the threads. While on my back, under the sink with a long-handle set of channel lock pliers, if I got a good bite, and gripped as hard as I could and put my shoulders into it, I could rotate the plastic piece a couple of millimeters. After literally hours, I got the first one out which meant I was half-way home. The second one was even more tightly embedded in and at this time, full-body fatigue was setting in. After hacking away at this piece for hours, I realized I could muscle the faucet out from the top side.
Circa 9:00 p.m., we installed the new faucet -that one went in without any problem- and we called it a day / night, whatever.
This morning, there is clean-up to do and we have to find some means of getting the residual gasoline smell out of the house this being the by-product of the PB Blaster. Also my arms, back and shoulders are sore as hell.
So, good luck and all that (seriously) and let us know how it goes.
I did this. I had a 1952 ranch house with galvanized pipe. With the help of a handyman, we replumbed the house. It cost about $10k back then, but it was so worth it.
The only caveat: Since a licensed contractor did not perform the work, my insurance company would not consider the house re-plumbed. When it sold, the legal paperwork said “original plumbing”.
Just FYI (and really, this is more for anyone else who will encounter the same problem as you’ve already replaced the faucet), next time you need to change out a faucet get yourself a cheap basin wrench:
Yes, we busted the cheapo faucet at the cottage we were renting last summer and made sure to pick up one of those to fix it. Would have been a nightmare otherwise.
I would think having the plumbing replaced would help increase the selling price. If you didn’t replace it, you would likely need to disclose the plumbing issues on the disclosure form and the buyers would be reluctant or try to get you to pay to get it replaced.
For plumbing stuff that’s behind walls where leaks are difficult to spot and hard to repair, it’s probably worth paying a professional. They are more likely to do it the correct way to code and it will be more reliable. You’ll likely need to get the work inspected. And any warranty on the parts would likely be contingent on a licensed plumber doing the work. If it was just a pipe under a sink, then it’s worth doing it on your own to save money and as a learning experience, but this kind of stuff would be best left to the pros.
Since this is the second time the pipes have sprung a leak, it seems fairly obvious (to me) that the plumbing is need of an upgrade. PEX is (relatively) cheap, safe, and has a proven track record of maintenance-free dependability. The peace of mind alone would be worth it, if I was in the OP’s shoes.
My parents dealt with the same issue with corroded and old copper pipes, and finally re-plumbed their entire house in PEX about 12 or 13 years ago. There was run of pipe that had been patched numerous times with Teflon tape, rubber gasket material, and hose clamps. That one run of pipe had something like 17 patches on it! Luckily they have a ranch house with a dirt-floor crawlspace, so the only “damage” the leaks caused was some mud under the house. Since replacing all the copper they’ve not had a single issue They did all the work themselves, and had the benefit of not having to live in the house while they were doing the work. They borrowed the crimping tool from a friend, so they just had to buy the pipe and the fittings. I haven’t a clue what it cost.
I really like the idea of a distribution manifold, although one thing I hate is having to wait for hot water in the bathroom. When I want to wash my hands I want warm water now, dammit. We also have a water-conserving washing machine, so when we wash clothes on “hot” it actually washes on “lukewarm” because by the time the hot water reaches the washer the drum is already about as full as it’s going to get.
Water damage in a house is one of my big fears. A small leak can cause catastrophic damage that’s probably only matched by fire. There was recent-ish thread here where people recounted stories of a small water leak causing more damage than the house was worth. We’re renters right now but hope to buy our first home within the next few years. Making sure the plumbing is top-notch (or redoing the whole place in PEX) will be one of my top priorities.
when you shut the water off did you open the faucet to relieve the pressure? I once spent an hour trying to change a whole house filter at a friend’s house. I brought serious tools with me. The plastic nut would not budge. Cracked open a faucet to relieve the pressure and the nut spun off by hand with no tools.
If the op has drop ceilings then I’d replace everything in Pex. The advantage of it is that you can run continuous lines all through the house so there will literally be no connections to leak en-route to the fixture.
My house was a 80 year mess of copper, PVC and galvanized pipe. I had new pex brought in from the street and converted the rest to copper but if had access to the stuff in the ceiling it would all be in Pex. Even if copper held up it’s still labor intensive and would be reflected in the bill if a plumber does it.
Plumber’s here now. He says house does need to be redone. My leak, now that all is easy to inspect, was a pinhole that was the most advanced point in a centimeter long crack. When I pushed on it with a thumbnail it became a couple millimeters wide. That would not have gone over well in an upstairs wall cavity.
I don’t think I’m going to do any plumbing on my own. Forty years ago I would have tackled that, but not today.
When my house was built in the mid 1980’s they used polybutylene pipes, which were later determined to be unstable (there was actually a class lawsuit about it, which I hadn’t known about until it was too late). I had been having problems with cracking pipes, and after several incidents my plumber told me this was probably going to keep happening and that the best solution was a full replacement. I got a few estimates, and it ended up costing me several thousand dollars. Fortunately, I have a single-story house with a walk-in crawlspace, so the only interior wall work required was by the washer and one of the bathtubs. I think the new piping is all pex. I also made sure that all the fixtures had shut-off valves installs.
No price given yet. But there is a decision to make – rip open wall cavities, or drill holes in the floor in front of the wall and have pipes exposed. I think I’m going the second route under the sinks and behind the washer. I happen to be getting a bathroom renovation done in 2 or 3 weeks, so fortunately it’s no extra trouble to do the pipes in the wall cavities there. The big negative is the other bathroom, Ms. Napier’s, which we just had renovated 18 months ago. There we’ll be tearing open a wall that still looks like new.
My sister-in-law could have written than same question years ago. No matter whatever someone tells you, plumbing is sentient. It knows when you’re going on vacation, when you have guests, when it’s a Sunday and the plumber costs more, etc.
It will just get worse. Unfortunately some water just eats copper. Fortunately PEX is available. If it wasn’t, it would just mean replacing copper tubing every so often. Which is getting more an more expensive.
Curiousity, does the scrap metal cost of the copper do much to offset the plumbing costs?
Not near as much as it used to, say even five years ago.
My scrapper friends are actually hoarding copper & aluminium in the expectation that the price of scrap will go up. They are probably correct that it will go back up, the question is how much will it go up, & how soon?
With the trade deals being made & more manufacturing coming back to The States, these scrappers think that scrap prices will go up fairly soon.
I think it would, given that PEX pipes won’t burst in a freeze.
FWIW I don’t think replumbing a house is ever cheap. IIRC we paid about $4500 to do this shortly after we moved in. It was well worth it to have the peace of mind.