Main Water Line Leak - Best Recommendation for Main Line and Connection to CPVC

[Themus]

Troubles come in three: Dishwasher died, Vacuum and now my main water line.

I have a slow leak I narrowed down past the meter to the external wall of the house.

I spend today digging around the meter and around the house. No such luck it would be at those ends.

So I am going to work between the two, find the leak and replace the line.

Is PVC Schedule 40 the recommended material? That is what is there now connected to a short copper section going into the foundation wall?

If I drop the short copper section (40 years old) and go all the way with Schedule 40 PVC, what is the best way to connect it to CPVC which is under the crawlspace?

 

[Storm rider]

Make sure the section of copper isn't being used as a ground or bond for the electrical system.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Themus]

Good observation, but no it does not have any connection to my electrical system. From my digging tonight, they replaced the copper to the water meter at least 20 years ago (that is when we bought the house). The only copper is a small outside section going near the foundation and then into the crawlspace. Interestingly there is on the edge near the outside wall a 'valve' of some sort with a rectangle on the top. Didn't make any attempt to turn it.

From there it goes to the meter with PVC Schedule 40. I see the Big Box stores sell a PVC to CPVC SharkBite conversion and shutoff valve.

 

[Breplum]

Sch 40 PVC is a very poor choice for water supply. Cracks readily. We never use it, ever. Copper is the best in most cases.
PEX can be ok.

 

[John Gayewski]

If I were gonna use pvc (which I wouldn't) it would be sched 80. If you need to convert from pvc to pex they make glue on adapters. Get pex with foam insulation on it and go through the wall. They also make pex x cpvc adapters get one or more of those and start converting to pex. Eventually or now if this is a good time changing to freezer resistant pex is a good choice. It's also flexible so it's hard to break. Especially if you use the brass fittings. The plastic fittings are cheap, but they can break fairly easily.

 

[Reach4]

Polyethylene (such as SIDR or PEX) would be usually preferable. With PVC, you should pay more attention to thermal expansion and contraction considerations, but soft copper or polyethylene is better. With polyethylene, do not pull it tight in the trench; snake it some.

SIDR is bigger than PEX for a given nominal size.