# Another cpvc flood



## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Seems like I'm getting one every week now. Seeing as how Polk county is absolutely ate up with cheap cpvc piped homes, it's a great place to be a service plumber who specializes in leak location and re-piping :thumbup:

Note, the blue glue was from the HO when he changed the water heater himself. He thought the water was coming from the heater. It was a slab leak. He ended up wrecking his walls searching for the leak with his dad.

I didn't do anything there. He basically just wanted a written estimate so he could get paid from his insurance company to continue to wreck his own home. Hey, I got my call out charge, what ever dude.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

is that a 1/2 hot feeding the whole house?


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Yep. It's actually quite common here. The chief plumbing inspecter in city of lakeland (Dave B.) Approves that. 

In fact, he actually had the audacity to tell me in front of the HO that "you need to go back to plumbin school" because I ran a 1" cold trunk and a 3/4" hot trunk in a 3 bath/2 story house pex repipe.

According to him, a 3/4 cold and 1/2" hot would have been sufficient.

Dead serious.



GREENPLUM said:


> is that a 1/2 hot feeding the whole house?


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## jplumbz (Feb 3, 2011)

Protech said:


> Yep. It's actually quite common here. The chief plumbing inspecter in city of lakeland (Dave B.) Approves that.
> 
> In fact, he actually had the audacity to tell me in front of the HO that "you need to go back to plumbin school" because I ran a 1" cold trunk and a 3/4" hot trunk in a 3 bath/2 story house pex repipe.
> 
> ...


Sounds like an very intelligent plumbing inspector only if we were all blessed with talent..


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## rocksteady (Oct 8, 2008)

Aint nothin' better than gettin' paid to wreck your own house. Imagine what it'll look like after he breaks out the jackhammer.








Paul


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## greenscoutII (Aug 27, 2008)

Protech said:


> Yep. It's actually quite common here. The chief plumbing inspecter in city of lakeland (Dave B.) Approves that.
> 
> In fact, he actually had the audacity to tell me in front of the HO that "you need to go back to plumbin school" because I ran a 1" cold trunk and a 3/4" hot trunk in a 3 bath/2 story house pex repipe.
> 
> ...


Yeah..... I wonder if he's ever seen any of the pipe sizing charts in the code book. You know, the ones where a guy has to calculate fixture units, pressure, friction loss, distance, etc....

Nope.... 1/2 is good enough....

Where I'm from plumbing inspectors had to hold a master's license or at least a J-card and years of experience. Not that they were never wrong, but at least they have some professional credibility to back their authority.....


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## ckoch407 (Sep 30, 2009)

It would be funny if the insurance company did not pay for all the unecessary DIY "leak location" damage.


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## smoldrn (Oct 4, 2010)

greenscoutII said:


> Yeah..... I wonder if he's ever seen any of the pipe sizing charts in the code book. You know, the ones where a guy has to calculate fixture units, pressure, friction loss, distance, etc....
> 
> Nope.... 1/2 is good enough....
> 
> Where I'm from plumbing inspectors had to hold a master's license or at least a J-card and years of experience. Not that they were never wrong, but at least they have some professional credibility to back their authority.....


They used to be required to have a master's with at least 5yrs field experience. Now they're shake n bakes with a 2 week course under their belt. I pissed off the inspector on the first job I did here. He said he didn't have any type of license, that he was a 'code enforcement specialist'. Told him if he didn't have a master's card, then he really wasn't qualified to look at my work.


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## user2090 (Sep 26, 2009)

smoldrn said:


> They used to be required to have a master's with at least 5yrs field experience. Now they're shake n bakes with a 2 week course under their belt. I pissed off the inspector on the first job I did here. He said he didn't have any type of license, that he was a 'code enforcement specialist'. Told him if he didn't have a master's card, then he really wasn't qualified to look at my work.



Now that is how you make a friend. :laughing:


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

He was recently "retired", so it is of no concern to me anymore.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

what really blows me away though is that I was showing these pictures to a homeowner while giving him a repipe bid and he just kind of shrugged them off. 

he said he got a bid for 100 dollars less then my bid. my bid was pex pipe with brass fittings and the other guys was cpvc. homeowners just don't get it. you can show them pictures of cpvc floods all day long and it just goes in 1 ear and out the other if the other guy was a few dollars cheaper than you.


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

Protech said:


> He was recently "retired", so it is of no concern to me anymore.


 You're talking about Bayhan, right?

I didn't know he'd retired -- What a prick.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Protech said:


> Yep. It's actually quite common here. The chief plumbing inspecter in city of lakeland (Dave B.) Approves that.
> 
> In fact, he actually had the audacity to tell me in front of the HO that "you need to go back to plumbin school" because I ran a 1" cold trunk and a 3/4" hot trunk in a 3 bath/2 story house pex repipe.
> 
> ...


 



That's laughable. Some inspectors...:blink: You should have set him straight in front of homeowner. 1/2" hot for (3) baths? That is absurd.

I would have to check my code book, but off the top of my head, the last time I did a rough for a 2 1/2 bath house, the service was 1 1/4".


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

ckoch407 said:


> It would be funny if the insurance company did not pay for all the unecessary DIY "leak location" damage.


 



A good friend of mine is a mechanical contractor. He told me one time a neighbor of his decided to re-model his kitchen. During the work, someone left an angle stop open a little and over the weekend it caused water damage to the man's home. So he thought no biggie, I'll just make a claim with my home owner's insurance, (my friend didn't tell me why the man didn't go after contractor, I think the man was doing the reno himself). Any way, the man's insurance company says no way, they won't pay claim cuz homeowner doesn't have 'construction' insurance...:laughing: 

The moral of the story is when an ignorant and clueless HO think he's covered, he probably isn't...:laughing:


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

Tommy plumber said:


> That's laughable. Some inspectors...:blink: You should have set him straight in front of homeowner. 1/2" hot for (3) baths? That is absurd.
> 
> I would have to check my code book, but off the top of my head, the last time I did a rough for a 2 1/2 bath house, the service was 1 1/4".


1 1/4" is too big , 3/4 PVC would work fine


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

GREENPLUM said:


> 1 1/4" is too big , 3/4 PVC would work fine


 



Maybe so, you're probably right. If I remember correctly, the water service split when it got to the bldg. into 3/4" feeds. I'd rather over-size a waterline than undersize it. 1" would have worked, but I think 3/4" would've been undersized.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

Tommy plumber said:


> Maybe so, you're probably right. If I remember correctly, the water service split when it got to the bldg. into 3/4" feeds. I'd rather over-size a waterline than undersize it. 1" would have worked, but I think 3/4" would've been undersized.


 
most meters are 3/4", it cost much more to buy a 1" meter from the water co

Its rare to find a 1" resi water meter round here


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

GREENPLUM said:


> most meters are 3/4", it cost much more to buy a 1" meter from the water co
> 
> Its rare to find a 1" resi water meter round here


 We generally up size at the meter union with a brass reducing coupling.

And if we're using PEX for the waterline, we'll go one pipe size larger than required to make up for the reduced ID of PEX tubing and fittings.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

Widdershins said:


> We generally up size at the meter union with a brass reducing coupling.
> 
> And if we're using PEX for the waterline, we'll go one pipe size larger than required to make up for the reduced ID of PEX tubing and fittings.


 

I dont like pex for installin waterlines,

if the PRV is installed before the waterline, that would be better

i use PVC , copper, and PE


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