Brownie’s is growing!
We’re excited to announce we’ve joined the Wind River Environmental family of plumbing and septic services. Our local team of plumbers and septic technicians will now have even greater support so we can better service you 24/7/365. With any growth comes some changes and we wanted to communicate to you, our valued customers, that these changes are being made to provide better service around the clock. When you call us you now, following our Brownie’s greeting, you will now have the option to direct calls for businesses and home services. In addition to our local team, your calls will be answered by a Wind River Representative 24/7/365, day AND night.

4 Pipes Used in Residential Plumbing

Brownie's Septic & Plumbing

Your plumbing system has different types of pipes for various uses including waste drainage, fresh water supply, gas pipes for appliances, irrigation, and more. While you’ve probably never paid much attention to it, it makes sense that you wouldn’t use the same pipe for water supply and waste drainage. That would break probably 100 different health codes.

The type of pipe to be used in a particular application will depend mostly on the function it is to perform and the age of your home and the piping within it.

If you want to learn more about the pipes within your home, what works best and what their functions are, then keep reading this blog post, all about the pipes used within residential plumbing systems.

  1. Rigid Copper Pipe

Rigid copper pipes are often used primarily for water supply piping. These are ideal for water supply because they don’t come with any health risks. Additionally, even though they are called “rigid,” they can be bent slightly. These are complicated pipes to work with for do-it-yourselfers because they require soldering by a professional to connect pipes.

  1. Flexible Copper Pipe

Flexible copper pipes are often used for water heaters, refrigerators, and sinks. The flexible copper pipes are most commonly used in small and unusually shaped areas because it can be bent to fit around tight corners.

Although flexible copper pipes are more expensive than rigid copper pipes, they are flexible enough to get routed easily without much use of fittings. In fact, the hard copper pipes might end up being more expensive in the long run if you factor in the cost of the fittings you will need.

  1. PEX pipe

Also known as cross-linked polyethylene, PEX pipes are new and are used exclusively to supply water. While it is flexible enough to be easily routed throughout basements, ceilings, walls, and crawlspaces, PEX is rigid enough to withstand the high pressures of water supply. Both professional plumbers and do-it-yourselfers use PEX in residential plumbing. Apart from being inexpensive, they can be cut easily to join with copper pipe or attach with push-fit plumbing fittings. It is color-coded to tell the route for cold and hot water. One of its major cons is that it cannot be recycled and it may leak through the push-fit plumbing fittings.

  1. Galvanized Steel Pipe

Galvanized steel is commonly found in older homes and is infrequently installed now especially by do-it-yourselfers. For decades, these types of pipes were used for water supply, drainage, gas supply as well as other purposes. Nowadays, they are most often used for gas supply. On the bright side, galvanized steel pipes are incredibly strong, but one of their negative qualities is that they are easily corroded which can lead to blocked water flow.

Do You Need New Pipes?

If you think the time has run out on the pipes currently within your home, then don’t hesitate to give the piping experts at Brownie’s Septic & Plumbing a call. We are staffed with licensed, highly-skilled plumbers to offer fast services and high-quality workmanship at affordable prices. Call us now or visit our website so you won’t have to worry about your plumbing in the future.

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