So our slab leak has turned into a total repiping of the house. Every pipe, every valve, the works. The house looks like Swiss cheese with holes everywhere in the drywall and stucco. We called them out to just fix the leak under the slab but as we delved into the place we found multiple places where the copper was corroding very badly and it’s amazing we only had the one leak. After scraping off the corrosion the pits in the pipe were pretty deep. I’ve been doing houses for many years and I have never seen anything like this. Once it’s done we will hopefully be good past my life expectancy. The crew is doing a very nice job and managing to keep at least one circuit functional every day so we have a shower and toilet. 
Paul

Edited March 12, 20224 yr by Masonsailor

I feel for you.  I know there has to be trying times with all of this.  Thanks for sharing.

Danl

WOW!!!

Sorry for the dilemma Paul. Going back in with PEX should make the job go faster and a clean install.

At least the issued surfaced before your extreme heat season arrived..

Hoping better days ahead for you.

Had a plumber here to fix a leak this summer. He showed me a fitting and a piece of pipe that he replaced.  The pitting was unbelievable.  He said I should consider re-piping the home sometime in the near future. The copper would be replaced with plastic piping. Is that what you're replacing your piping with ?

Yes it is all Pex tubing. 

UGH!  Feel for you.  Any guess as to the cause?

Being a sparky, I got nothing good to say about them copper benders! The older I get the more I realize that life is just gonna keep on happening to us. Good luck, and hope you get it all done before boating season.

My best guess of the cause is sloppy use of flux. There was a flux on the market of a name I can’t remember that was pulled off the market back in the late 80’s due to it being caustic. But even regular flux if used too liberally and not wiped off can cause this. This is one of those surprises I hate to find but at this point all we can do is fix it and move on. 
Paul

Will they be able to take the PEX all the way to the (PVC?) feed line?

Our late 80's home had copper lines also.  While I was remodeling I replumbed the whole house - except for a short piece that comes through the foundation.  Why they didn't run the PVC through I don't know.  I talked with a plumber about changing that and he pretty much said that was a huge (and expensive) can of worms that ought not be opened unless I absolutely had to...

 

While it was a huge job for me, it was a bit easier as I have a crawl space and I only replaced as I went along.

 That's quite the task you have going on Paul, I hope it's short lived. When your plumbing project is completed Paul if I could suggest that you check the grounds in your receptacles, you can use a simple plug-in tester. If there was a previous electrical issue that an electrician solved by picking up a ground from the copper pipe that problem may reappear. Phone companies were notorious for this practice.

I considered the grounding as an issue but the corrosion was specifically at every soldered joint and running down the the pipe a few inches. As far as any problem down the line there won’t be any issues as the entire system is now plastic. They found the feed from the well and brought it up into the house so the whole house is all new. It’s going pretty well at this point. They put in a temporary service to the upstairs master bathroom and one bathroom downstairs so we have a bathroom on each floor while all this is going on. 
Paul

11 hours ago, Artie said:

Being a sparky, I got nothing good to say about them copper benders!

 I could say a few things about that, but what I see is someone used an acid-based flux when they did the job. 

 

Have also seen this type of corrosion caused by using one of those water softeners that use salt with well water that has nitrite contamination from farm fertilizer runoff. The combinations of salts/minerals can become quite caustic to pipes.

The "Battle of The Boiler" was caused by that very reason. We ended up replacing all of the traps (Both Float & Thermostatic and Steam Trap Valves along with close to 100' of piping) due to that. It's actually caustic enough to eat away the Stainless-Steel discs in the thermostatic valves and traps.

Now I'm off to install an electrical Sub-Panel, "Sparky's" wanted too much$$$ 

Iff’n Bristol was within a days ride of Pepperell MA, I’d make you an offer you couldn’t refuse. You feed me, and I work.

3 minutes ago, Artie said:

Iff’n Bristol was within a days ride of Pepperell MA, I’d make you an offer you couldn’t refuse. You feed me, and I work.

East coast's about a half days ride, but at $4.00+/Gallon wouldn't be a cheap ride. 

Only a Square D QO Sub-Panel to supply 220 Volts to 4 5 Ton A/C Package Units. 

The hard part will be going through the same walls as the boilers pipes with conduit from one side of the building to the other and then through one more 18" thick brick wall to the outside. No big hurry it's a whole 19° here now. 

5 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

East coast's about a half days ride, but at $4.00+/Gallon wouldn't be a cheap ride. 

Only a Square D QO Sub-Panel to supply 220 Volts to 4 5 Ton A/C Package Units. 

The hard part will be going through the same walls as the boilers pipes with conduit from one side of the building to the other and then through one more 18" thick brick wall to the outside. No big hurry it's a whole 19° here now. 

What’s your idea of a half-a-days ride? Takes me close to 6 hours to make Buffalo, and that’s with the pedal to the metal. 

@Larry Buskirk  My last trip to the Lansing Michigan area to about 12 hrs from  eastern MA. As @Artie said, that was with the pedal to the metal.

According to the map ap on the ipad the fastest route from my place to Bristol Wisconsin is 15 hours and 28 minutes. I don’t think that includes food/gas/rest stops. Now iff’n Al and me teamed up, brought food and drinks with us, we could probably get there in one (very long) days drive. I’m also pretty sure Al would be wishing that the vehicle had the old Maxwell Smart Cone of Silence option!   

20 hours ago, Masonsailor said:

As far as any problem down the line there won’t be any issues as the entire system is now plastic.

 

Paul, if I read Bob's post correctly the caution was not that a ground had caused the corrosion, but that if there was a poor ground that had been fixed by the copper pipe that poor ground would be back and causing gremlins...

11 hours ago, Artie said:

What’s your idea of a half-a-days ride? Takes me close to 6 hours to make Buffalo, and that’s with the pedal to the metal. 

 

9 hours ago, Al B said:

@Larry Buskirk  My last trip to the Lansing Michigan area to about 12 hrs from  eastern MA. As @Artie said, that was with the pedal to the metal.

 

 

A few years ago drove to Atlanta area round trip took 23 1/2 hrs.

I've got a cut out that lets the pedal go past the metal.