Leak In Pex

go do it

we built our house 2.5 years ago and over the weekend i figuered out that we had a leak under the slab!!

luckly that it was the hot water so that i could locate the leak from the warm floor. i kind of noticed the floor being warm last week but didn't pay to much attention.

i beleive that the leak has been there for about a month or so because the wife said that our water bill was charged a fine for us using more than the average for our neighborhood.

armed with that information and the warm floor the light bulb FINALLY came on. went and cheaked the meter and of course it was spinning, leak confermed.

dug up the floor found the leak. it is in the hot water run to the master bath. my plummer is coming out tomorrow for the repair. i did a temp that is working for a couple of days.

anyway has this happened to anyone? we will get the pex out tomorrow but there was no grade stakes around or any debris. also it runs right next to the drain line so me thinks the plummer ran all the lines and filled the trenches. so nobody except the plummers would have been there. all the lines are below grade 24". i looks like a small pin sized hole but could be a leinel split it is hard to tell.

i am not trying to blame my plummer he is pretty good) but they were the only ones and last ones near the area.

any thoughts?

JamesNLA

I have never seen pex leak like that, nor have I ever seen it split or anything. My guess is during backfill there was a little sharpie that tumbled in there and the pressure over time caused it to peirce all the way....but that is a bit far fetched...pex is very hard to screw up. Please post some pics of what the affected area looks like. Pex....just like PE pipe should be encased in sand before the backfill.

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go do it

i got the leak fixed today

there seems to be a small split of about 1/4" that caused the leak

very weird

thom

My homes are all two story. I insist the plumber run the water in the mid-floor. It's a whole lot cheaper to find and repair a leak in the ceiling than under a slab. You dodged a bullet on this one. Oftentimes the under-slab leaks are tough to find.

Ron The Plumber

Post a picture of it.

go do it

i would post a picture but you really can't see anything

the split runs parrallel to the pex and it looks just like a scratch

i think the plummer nicked it with something or a sharp rock scared it

it don't know

hey thom i thought you retired

Hersheyplumbing

I have recently started using pex for services under slabs, its the wersbo type. I have to say I have pulled prodded and kinked to try and mess it up to see its limit and am happy with it. But I do know if enough things are intalled, over time they will have failures. Who knows maybe something was dropped in the mix during manufacturing. Now that its cold I want to air some up and hit it with a (looong handle)hammer to see how it act, gets pretty rigid in the cold.

ct plumber

A couple of years ago vega had some thin spots in there rolls,they gave us credit on our work and bought back a few rolls.

jayson22

I have never seen PEX itself split, but I know of situations where the waterlines were not pressurized when the slab/concrete was being poured and that lead to some problems. Also any type of Poly-piping that isn't sleeved when coming up through the concrete is looking for trouble.

The only thing i can think of in your situation is the pipe may have not been snaked in the trench when being laid, and the expansion/contraction of the pex caused the split. Although unlikely, this is the only scenario that comes to mind.

Jay

AutumnWood Inc.

I just seen a pex brass fitting leak, that was about a year old, and I have seen complete 2 unit stacked condo community that had bad brass pex fittings from Zurn... The whole complex had to be replaced everything had double 5/8s drywall in the ceilings.... Major project

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Penny Porter

was it manufactured by Nibco, Inc?

go do it

we heard back from PEX today or rather my plumber did. they said that the leak was caused by a

manufacturing problem, i will get the e-mail sent to me tomorrow to see exactly what it says.

they also said, through, my plumber that they will stand behind the product and get the problem fixed.

that was good.

so now here is my thinking. i don't trust ANY of the PEX that is in the house and i am thinking that i

want the whole system replaced. our house is a slab on grade which complicates things but we have a

pitched roof with plenty of area to work in the attic. the EASIEST fix that i can see is to run new PEX

in the attic and then spray icelene foam insulation directly to the underside of the roof deck, a typical

green building technique, the new PEX then would be in the conditioned

space therefor protected

from freezing.

any thoughts

go do it

if i remember right it was made by wersbo

AutumnWood Inc.

I am not a plumber nor do I know the code where you are... But in the attic you should not have problems with freeze ups (heat rises) unless you are close to the overhangs... one of the strong points to pex is it can swell up and not not break......the problem i have seen, is with Zurn fittings and minerals in the water effect the fittings, or they just had some problem fittings...

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thom

Running the pex in the attic will be a problem if you have plumbing on any outside walls.

You could try this, Install it in the corner between the wall and ceiling then cover with crown molding. The fixture drops would be inside the walls. Use a 3 part crown with the flats installed first, then the pex, then the crown.

Bondremodel

Was it a brass fitting or copper fittings that they had trouble with? Anybody had trouble with the copper crimp system?

MALCO.New.York

PEX...................

Need I say More>?!?!?!?!?!?!?

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protechplumbing

Definitely not. In fact, the less you say the better.

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Bondremodel

I was wanted to get some advice and/or opinions on the stainless steel crimp vs copper crimp system. I would also like to know if anyone has had any problems with the copper crimp system. Please advise.

protechplumbing

I've used the copper crimp system for 10+ years without any problems. I had a bad experience with the s.s. pinch bands from Zurn but it could have been a fluke. I've talked to other plumbers that have used the s.s. bands and they didn't have any problems. If you are going to go with s.s. then I would use the sleeves from Viega. Copper has always worked for me but if for some reason you want/need to use s.s. then go with Viega.

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