Home built with Charlotte sch40 cellular core waste lines

[granite55]

Hi I have a few questions and hope to gain some insight.

I recently purchased a 1995 built home. I had no idea there was such a thing as foam core pvc. Anyhow, that is what I have in my basement and all the waste lines. I have read that this is inferior to traditional solid PVC piping and that the life span is maybe 30 years. If so my house is at that time span. Is this common practice to still use this material and if so is it reliable long term?

Because I am seeing all down the basement and down the main waste line, would this indicate that the builder used it all the way to the street? Was that a standard practice in Ohio to run this material under the foundation all the way to the main sewer line in the street? I have no way to know what is truly under there other then I can see the charlotte pipe cemented into the basement floor.

The builder also placed an upstairs bathroom waste line inside an exterior wall. It appeared to be well insulated. I found this out after I had a siding repair. How is this stuff designed to hold up in that situation being that it's gravity driven and no real pressure other then flushing water and shower water?

 

[Breplum]

Foam core can readily be expected to last far longer than 30. It is reliable, just not as reliable as solid core.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jeff H Young]

We use ABS here and its only available in foam core from What Ive seen . Ive never heard that foam core wont last. maybe its just pvc foam core that has problems?
I dont know how much issue is with a drain on outside wall of cource water pipes is a major issue Im from above freezing weather area

 

[John Gayewski]

One issue I had with foam core is with a no hub band. Over time the band crushed the pipe. The plumber that came to fix the leak tightened the no hub band and it was fine. Then a short time later it leaked again as it crushed further.

I replaced it with sched 40 and haven't been back. I placed the peice of pipe that was getting squished on a rack in our shop to show everyone that buying foam core pipe is just kind of a bad idea. It gets mixed up with regular pipe and might get used where it shouldn't.

 

[Jeff H Young]

With ABS we use sch 40 foam core, that could be a differance between abs and pvc, Ive never heard comment that foam core was better or as good as solid core in drainage applications , lighter , easier to work with and cheaper I would guess are advantages to foam core, might have a degree of safety to it as far as solid core might be more prone to shattering.
I also wonder if noise transmission is greater or less with solid core. or if there are other properties for one over the other