I want to change my water lines to copper, I am an experienced DIY’R, I would like to start with the main from the meter into the house. My only hesitation is that I don’t know whether I need a permit from the city to do this, also I don’t know how big the lines need to be. Any suggetions? I live in Edmonds WA.
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Contact your City to see if you can even do the work yourself. Some communities require thsi work to be completed by a licensed plumber. If you can do the work there are formulas to calculate your water demand, allowable pressure drop that determine your minimum diameter. The bigger the water service, the higher the flowrate with the smaller pressure drop. In my community the minimum diameter is 1-1/4 inch. Many of our older homes have 3/4 inch or 1 inch services that are too small to provide the flow required for increased demands placed by home additions with additional bathrooms. A good place to start is buying a pressure gage that you can connect to your hose bib. Run your laundry tub into a 5 gallon bucket and measure the pressure drop, measure the time to fill the bucket and correlate a flowrate to pressure drop. you can compare this to tables for new pipe to see if you would get a noticable increase in flow or pressure with a new water service.
Welcome to BT.
Yeah up there in north seattle you can do all of your own construction.
Changing a water service does reqiure a permit----- fixing one does not.
Size depends on # of fixtures & length of run.
Meter size can come into play, but that would be rare if the meter couldn't handle the demand.
I'm an old school plumber & think copper is the best water distribution system out there, but I even have a poly water service. So I'm curious on why the change ---- what is your house plumbed in right now?
Do you look to the government for an entitlement, or to GOD for empowerment. BDW
Right now I believe I have galvanized, I get alot of rust out of the faucets if they have not been used for a while. So I want change over to copper, I have thought about PEX but dont know much about it, so i'll stick with copper.
I understand getting rid of the iron pipe in your system, I would run a poly main & then switch to copper going into the house.
If you want to use pex it must be sleeved when passing through or under the footing.
Uponor¯ pex is very reliable for domestic water piping & heating.
I'm just finishing up Lincoln Square in Bellevue floors 1 to 19 is the Westin Hotel, floors 20 through 42 are condos $585,000 for a 1100 sqaue foot 1bed 1 bath, $6,500,000 for a 6500 sqaure foot 2 story penthouse.
We put in 65,000' of 1/2" uponor¯ pex with copper mains.
As far as size of your main tell me what plbg fixtures you have, I'll give ya 3 ranges for pressure & footage to be able to size it.Do you look to the government for an entitlement, or to GOD for empowerment. BDW
When installing the main line make it one size larger than the one entering the house. Install a "T" and ball valve on the main line for sprinklers. Install a ball valve right after the union at the water meter so you don't have to use a wrench to shut off the water main.
Install a "T" and ball valve on the main line for sprinklers.
Talk to the water utility first. Down here, we use sepoarate meters for the lawn sprinklers. Since they figure your sanitary sewer and garbage collection fees based on water useage, seperating out the sprinkler water results ina lower bill.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Copper is really not that great for underground use.
Consider polyethylene.
A majority of homes use the copper water service for the electrical meter panel grounding. Replacing metalic with plastic requires an alternate grounding method.
Home that lost their gorunding were the one who lost electrical appliance to 220 volts.
"A majority of homes use the copper water service for the electrical meter panel grounding."
Not around here. I've never seen it done, except in a house I was in down in St. Louis a few years back.
The two hardest things in life to handle are success and failure.
"A majority of homes use the copper water service for the electrical meter panel grounding. Replacing metalic with plastic requires an alternate grounding method."
Water pipe grounding is not allowed around here anymore.-The poster formerly known as csnow
Losing the "grounding" (ground electrode system) would not affect the operation of 240 volt equipment. Nor would losing the neutral (technically the "grounded conductor) affect the operation of 240 volt equipment. However, it would affect the operation fo 120volt equipment including those that operate on 120/240 such as dryers.Current NEC requires that if a metalic underground water pipe, at least 10 ft long them it MUST be used as a ground electrode.However, probably caused by the posibility of it being replaced in the future with plastic, it is not allowed to be the ONLY ground electrode. Typically a ground rod is used as the 2nd ground electrode. If the ground rod is the only ground electrode then two are required or it's resistance needs to be tested.For new contruction a UFER ground (uses rebar in the footins) is often used instead of a ground rod.HOWEVER, even if the water pipe does not qaulify as a ground electrode and metalic water pipe is used inside then the water pipe still needs to be BONDED to the ground electrode system. Not as a ground but to make sure that the water piping does not become accidently electried.
I have to agree with plumbill on the polyethylene hose/pipe. It is very flexible and EASY to cut, install, and clamp. Repairs easily if it is ever broken or cut later on down the road.
Most Ace Hardware stores sell it by the foot(cut to lenght) along with fittings if you can't find it at Home deopt or Lowes.