Our house was built in 1995. Back then, they were using a type of plumbing known as Poly B. It was grey coloured and it didn't bend very well. Little did the folks who installed it know, it would eventually be discontinued because it had some flaws. Pex came next and would replace it in new homes.
When a plumber told me about the Poly B story, he said that at some point I would probably have to replace all the Poly B in my house with newer plumbing. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. He said that if we didn't mess with it much, we might be lucky.
Well, we were pretty lucky I guess, because we got 24 years out of the Poly B before we sprung our first leak. One small section of pipe just sprung a tiny pinhole leak. All I can say is that it was a good thing we were home and I heard it. That same plumber friend came and replaced the burst section and I decided then and there that we may as well consider replacing everything.
We were lucky to get 24 years out of the stuff, as I have read not to expect more than 15 years before trouble. We have a lot of chlorine in our water, so that didn't help either.
Now we have all new PEX. It helped that our house is one story with a basement and at least half of the area with plumbing has open ceiling. I decided to get the plumbing redone the way I've seen in the newest homes. We got a pair of manifolds and all the hot and cold runs come from the manifolds, each run with its own shutoff valve.
Too bad we can't get our own plumbing replaced like that............
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