I hear you on the mice—had a customer with a brand new basement reno, and within six months, the little critters had turned his PEX into Swiss cheese. He ended up running copper in conduit, grumbling the whole time about the bill. As for coated copper, I’ve seen it hold up better than bare, but like you said, those joints are always the weak link, especially if your water’s nasty. Honestly, sometimes I think the old stuff lasted so long because nobody expected it to. Now it feels like we’re just picking which problem we want to deal with next.
Yeah, mice are relentless—seen them chew through just about anything if they’re determined enough. PEX is great until it turns into a snack. Copper in conduit’s a pain up front, but at least you’re not patching leaks every other month. I agree, the joints are always the first to go, especially with hard water. Sometimes it feels like we’re just trading one headache for another, but at least we know what to expect now.
Sometimes it feels like we’re just trading one headache for another, but at least we know what to expect now.
Isn’t that the truth... I’m curious, though—has anyone actually had PEX last more than a decade without issues? I keep hearing about “lifetime” warranties, but in my 1920s place, everything seems to age in dog years. Does hard water speed up PEX failure too, or is that mostly a copper thing?
I hear you on the “dog years” thing—old houses just chew through materials. I’ve actually seen PEX go 12+ years with no leaks in my neighbor’s place, but fittings seem to be the weak link, not the pipe itself. Hard water’s a bigger headache for copper, but it can still gunk up PEX connections over time. It’s not bulletproof, but it’s held up better than I expected.
Interesting point about the fittings—I've seen similar issues where the pipe holds up but the connectors start to look sketchy after a decade or so. I wonder if certain brands or installation methods make a difference? In some renos, I've noticed PEX gets brittle near heat sources, too... anyone else run into that?