DWV Material

Ron The Plumber

Poll on what material you use on the job DWV and Water Distro.

Grumpyplumber

Personally I'd rather use ABS over PVC for residential, but suppliers here either don't carry it, or have limited fittings.
The West coast uses nothing but.
If i really had my choice, CI/copper for DWV, copper for supply.
Bid those materials against other contractors and you'll stay home alot.

mickeyco

Where's the cast iron option? I still see it being used.

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Grumpyplumber

On commercial, high end residential or where code forces it to be used.
Usually residential GC's go for lower prices, sad but true.
Now new residential plumbers are being slowly pushed into running garden hose (PEX) on many houses.

Vabuilder

I came up using PVC for DWV and copper for water Dist., and will never use the "spaghetti pipe" or AKA "pex". we use cast iron for the vertical drops in two stories to keep the sound down.

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pyroracing85

If you guys were building a house with no cost restraints would you use cast iron piping?

Ron The Plumber

Ok who is using cpvc and why?

Grumpyplumber

"Father, forgive me for I have sinned."
I have Ron, when the water has been bad enough to know copper wouldn't last long.
I worked for a shop the regularly used PEX, but I hated the stuff, the only alternative that has a relatively proven track record is CPVC.
With PEX you have two main alternatives, I know I'm not educating anyone here, but there's the expansion type that is stretched then fitted over the fitting which has a reduced id.
Then there's the crimps and I ain't goin' there!
Both require a tool thats both expensive and cumbersome to use.
I have seen recent buzz of potential lawsuits on the crimps with PEX.
As far as I'm concerned, I'd just as soon avoid anything that relies on a mechanical connection to make a seal on high pressure water like Sharkbite, Crimps, Expansion, Propress...etc.
If I can't bid on copper and be competitive, I bid CPVC or no bid.
Solvent weld just gives me a warmer, fuzzier feeling.
I'd be freaking delighted if the plumbing powers that be made both illegal, but unfortunately you have to be able to bid competitively, and copper is too much.

Grumpyplumber

Where the heck is Killer in all this?...his thoughts on this specific topic would be very interesting.

KillerToiletSpider

Most of our jobs are in high rises, all copper waste, vent, and water.

I have done some single family homes with NHCI waste, and pvc vents, they were water piped in copper.

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A flush is better than a full house.

Grumpyplumber

Killer, we know that.
I was personally hoping to hear your thoughts on what I'd posted regarding pricing/competition vs quality.

KillerToiletSpider

I don't bid work on price really, and I choose material based on installation cost and end user quality over price. On single family homes where we can use PVC, but we don't because it's loud, and when the end user is living there, they hear it every time water is used. For water pipe, we could use CPVC, but in order to deliver a quality and to code job, it has to be continuously supported, with a hanger every foot, but I can hang copper with a hanger every 8 feet, that makes copper a faster job to install. PEX isn't approved here yet, but even when it is we won't use it, we might consider it when it has been around for 30 years and proven it is a viable maintenance free system, to me it looks like crap and a leak waiting to happen. The expansion/contraction rate of plastic combined with a mechanical joining process strikes me as a dumb idea, especially after the polybutylene fiasco from about 15 years ago.

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A flush is better than a full house.

KillerToiletSpider

I don't do jobs with cost restraints, and I plumbed my house with cast iron waste and pvc vents.

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A flush is better than a full house.