There are a few types of plumbing you might see in your home, or may not depending on the type of build, but if you can see the type of plumbing take a look and be careful of a few of them.
Most common in a house 5 years or older is copper. Copper piping is, yes you guessed it, copper in color and has soldered joints in most cases. This process and type of product have been a very long-lasting product and in my opinion, is one of the best options in an older home and I would feel very safe having this in my house. Leaking can happen most normally where the solder joint is. Sometimes you will notice a green color at the joint. Keep an eye on this and if needed replace and resolder the joint.
Pex is a newer product and is being used in newer houses. This product is a good option as it has better flexibilities to reduce the number of connections, which are the weakest point in plumbing, and installation is much quicker. Installation is done with crimping tools rather than solder and a torch which leaves less room for human or installation error. You may see some upgraded Pex piping merged in with your previous copper which they have made easy to do. Another great option and a good thing to see in your home. Let’s take some time and talk about poly b. Poly b is the big swear word out there right now and the insurance companies are driving this car. Poly b is normally a grey pipe and at the joints, you will see either a copper ring around each side of the joint and hopefully a coper connector or you may see a plastic connector. The plastic connections are a bad idea. If you crimped the connection too much it would surely crack. Not the best option as it could slowly leak after you cover the walls up and will keep leaking till it comes through the walls. This is sometimes called stage 1 poly b. Stage 2 poly b is the metal joints which is by far the best option in poly b. Some insurance companies are not a fan of any poly b in homes and it seems like they are getting more and more careful about this product.
If your home or a home that you are interested in has poly b, it can be replaced and a plumber can do some amazing things to fix the issue with as little damage to your walls as possible. If you have a crawlspace they will have full access to the majority of work to be done. Before you worry too much about it have a plumber in to see costs and assess it first. Everything can be taken care of and the right plumber will have you taken care of with little interruption.
You may see some black abs pipes or cast larger normally 4 inches. Cast pipes in older homes should be replaced as they, over time will build up from the inside causing restriction on flow. It is fairly easy to replace this but be careful when you take it out as it's way heavier than you think. Abs is a black plastic piping and is most used. They glue the joints and it seems to be the best product out there for this application.
A good inspector can see most issues but again can’t see inside the walls. They will be able to tell you what type of plumbing is inside the house and what issues may come up as well. It is common to have a few plumbing issues to take care of but having a plumber in they can take care of a lot of things in only a few hours.
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