How Polybutylene Piping (Grey Pipes) Caused Plumbing Leaks, Mold Inside Wall
Polybutylene Piping is a plastic pipe from construction since 1995 because of plumbing leaks. Polybutylene pipes were used in thousands of homes since the 1970s before they started leaking at the connections, caused by chlorine that eats at the inside of the connections where you can't see the leak forming. When these gray polypipes leak and burst inside your walls, it can lead to worse case scenario plumbing fails causing $30,000 in flood damage. Many insurers won't cover a polypipe house, so homeowners are paying $20,000 or more to have their homes re-piped.
00:00 Introduction to plumbing fail
00:17 Active Polybutylene pipes leaking inside the wall
01:03 Close-up views of Polybutylene pipes leaking inside the wall
01:36 Wall damage, baseboard damage, mold caused by polybutylene pipes
01:59 Water damage to wood floors, mold growing
03:11 Pipe burst is spraying water out of the wall
The likely root cause of this plumbing fail is the chlorine causes the inner wall of the Polybutylene pipe to weaken and crack, then the water pressure simply shoots tiny streams of water against the inside of the drywall, and this small leak runs down to the floor. So now you have pipes leaking inside the walls, sometimes you simply have dripping pipes that take longer to show the water damage.
Say hello to my little leak in the wall
What plumbing fail this turned out to be, causing thousands of dollars damage from leaking Polybutylene Piping. We got called to a friend's condo to help root cause the source of a possible leak of the plumbing inside the walls and some mold growth in their unit.
Polybutylene pipes can be some real ominous-looking gray pipes. This video clearly shows you Polybutylene pipes leaking behind the wall.
We saw along the leaking walls in the living room and leaks all over the kitchen from the walls and how small amounts of mold were growing, but the growth had ceased because the water was cut off to the unit, thus stopping any more leaking and it all dried up.
polybutylene pipe leaking is really is the Holy Grail of plumbing fails
But there were some noticeable amounts of mold growth and mold spores inside the wall. You see, mold loves drywall, it thrives on the paper backing, it's the ideal habitat. So now you have to figure out how to grey pipe to pex, or convert Polybutylene piping to CPVC to prevent future leaks. Either way, you have to stop the pipes from leaking behind the walls.
polybutylene pipes caused plumbing leaks inside the wall
We discovered really soft wet spots on the drywall in the kitchen from a polybutylene pipe leaking inside the wall, where the main source of the pipe leak must have been. We sliced the drywall open and immediately saw the plumbing leaking right at the polybutylene pipe connection. The polybutylene pipes were spraying water all over the wall.
Polybutylene pipe leaking in wall
Polybutylene Piping in the wall had sprung a leak. This is banned construction material for residential housing, but for years up until 1995, millions of homes in the United States were built with this lame material. Who even knows how to fix a leak in the wall caused by polybutylene pipes?
It lasts maybe 15 years before it bursts, which is why you should get disclosure from a seller before you buy a house, and have a licensed inspector check for this piping because you WILL have a pipe failure. It's not if, it's when.
Don't confuse Polybutylene piping with gray PVC pipes, they are different. Gray PVC pipes don't have plumbing leaks either. Polybutylene piping is all over Tamarac, FL, and Margate, Fl too, as well as the Carolinas.
Some insurance companies will not insure a home that has that lovely Polybutylene piping which we call grey pipe. To repair these plumbing leaks, plumbers will sometimes perform poly pipe to PVC conversions, some plumbers will also do gray pipe to pex, but most strategies are just band-aids unless you can remove the entire polybutylene piping system and replace it with PVC pipes. then no more pipes leaking inside the wall.
pipes leaking behind walls are a real plumbing fail nightmare
These failed pipes will all have to be pulled out and replaced with copper or white Schedule 40 PVC, which is what we use here in Florida. Some other states use the black ABS plastic pipes for their plumbing, and both are ultra reliable, no water leaking behind the wall,.
So if you have pipes leaking behind the wall, and water leaking out from under your wall, it is a good chance it is PB, and it's a good chance you are about to spend a few thousand eradicating those aggravating gray pipes and their wall leaks with them.