Whole house re-plumb

I have a customer who has a ~1990 era house that was plumbed with Polybutylene with plastic fittings. The first fitting just failed and it fortunately was in the basement bath so damages weren't as bad as they could have been. It's a finished basement though and it's still a lot of damages and has given the owner an idea of what it would be like to have this happen in an upper floor bath. It's a 5 bdrm, 4.5 ba house and they're talking to me about replumbing the whole house. (I hold a residential builders license but not a plumbing license).

As a good contractor I'm trying to research the best way to go about this. First plumber I talked to mentioned he uses Dura-pex. Looking up pex here and online in general, I see lots of nightmare stories including lots with Dura-pex. I've learned that there are different grades of pex (a,b,c) but don't know if that's the best gauge to decide which if any pex to use. Copper in a job like this would drive the cost up considerably, I think.

So, is ANY pex safe or is the jury out on that?

Also, I'm figuring the sheetrock/wall surfacing repairs are likely to cost more than the actual plumbing work what with the owners propensity for Ralph Lauren paints, wallpaper, etc. Any tips on how to minimize those damages? I'm wondering if I got a decent inspection camera would it help minimize the necessary holes? No offense to the plumbers here but usually I see plumbers make much more of a mess than necessary when creating access behind sheetrock. I'm thinking that if I can pre-map out the system, I might be able to make the wall cuts ahead and make a neater, easier to repair job of it.

Finally, I'm unclear from research as to whether the pb is a problem or is it just the plastic fittings? I'd always heard that the pipe was fine as long as brass fittings were used but online research results are unclear on that score. I'm wondering if it would be possible to just replace the fittings. I'm assuming not, or I'd have come across this idea but just checking...

Thanks!

PB PIPE is the problem, not just the Acetyl fittings. Unfortunately you are 6 years too late with the repiping. I used to tell my customers to have the house repiped AS SOON as they discovered they had PB piping, or at least before July 31, 1995.

I've got PB in my house, built '87 or so. I've had two failures. In both cases it was the pipe which spilt lengthwise, although I do have a mix of copper & acetyl fittings. Luckily someone was home both times & damage was minimal. I know it's just a matter of time before it fails again. Unfortunately, in order to have it re-piped under the class action lawsuit ruling, the failures had to happen prior to a certain date & mine did not. I've had estimates for a re-pipe & I'm looking at 8K or so incluing wall repairs & paint. Ugh!

hj said:

PB PIPE is the problem, not just the Acetyl fittings. Unfortunately you are 6 years too late with the repiping. I used to tell my customers to have the house repiped AS SOON as they discovered they had PB piping, or at least before July 31, 1995.

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Kinda figured that. :-(

DaveHo said:

I've got PB in my house, built '87 or so. I've had two failures. In both cases it was the pipe which spilt lengthwise, although I do have a mix of copper & acetyl fittings. Luckily someone was home both times & damage was minimal. I know it's just a matter of time before it fails again. Unfortunately, in order to have it re-piped under the class action lawsuit ruling, the failures had to happen prior to a certain date & mine did not. I've had estimates for a re-pipe & I'm looking at 8K or so incluing wall repairs & paint. Ugh!

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I was just now forwarded the above-mentioned plumber's quote...$8,800 NOT including wall repairs and paint.

Pex would likely create the fewest wall repairs since it is flexible and can be fished to a degree. You can damage it pulling through holes if you aren't careful - it's not a great idea to end up with a big long score mark on it. Uphonor (Wirsbo) is one of the oldest manufacturers and suppliers of pex. They source and manufacture their products, so they have ultimate quality control. There's both an art and (alot) of science to manufacturing the stuff.