Why you Should Remove Your Steel Plumbing ASAP!

so in this video I'm going to explain the benefits of removing the steel plumbing water supply lines from your home and switching over to copper or if you're not as handy with the plumbing try the packs I know a lot of people you might not think so but your plumbing has an expiration date if you have a home that was built at the turn of the century up to the early 30s you're gonna have steel plumbing in your house and we're going to show you a little demonstration during part of the demolition of this bathroom in this video that would show you exactly what you couldn't see in that line and it's gonna shock you so you might want to consider switching over to copper my suggestion is don't do something like this where you're converting the copper into the existing steel try to find it right back to the very source and remove it entirely if you want to go to copper that's fine but understand that copper has two benefits and it has two downfalls one it is incredibly strong when you've got a good joint you can count on it and go to the bank once you've got a good copper joint it's never gonna cause you a problem the downside is it also has an expiration date coppers a soft metal it is subject to corrosion and the same thing that happened to the steel pipe that we're gonna show you later will happen to your copper eventually so what I think my suggestion is to go to the new PEX lines especially for the DIY or is the homeowners this is great product because it is color coded it tells you which is your hot in your cold lines you'll never get confused ever ever ever again and it's very easy to use now we have some videos that show you how to assemble products you can check that out in the description below but basically you just cut this with a pair of snips and you crimp on your connections and it's plumbing DIY friendly so you can get the most modern technology and a DIY package and the best thing is if you live in the northern cities this stuff if you get frozen will expand with the ice and it will not burst and then when the spring comes it'll fall out and it'll work again so all those hose bib flooding accidents that happen to people's homes are a thing of the past if you update to the pecks now on this particular project we're on here we're raising the ceiling and we're making modifications to the locations of other plumbing so we've opened it right up so that we can rip all of the old plumbing out and put in new stuff and so we're not gonna take too much time we're gonna go to the footage that we shot of us cutting these pipes in half and you can decide for yourself if you're comfortable staying with the water lines that you have in your home just a quick note when you're working in this kind of environment we're going to be cutting something that's got a lot of weight attached to it so in order to keep the blade from binding you just want to cut in a little angle away from yourself so that all the way to that pipe is connected to the last point of contact and just when you're about ready to cut through you may be able to grab that pipe and just twist it off I'll show you what I mean otherwise if it'll binds on the blade I can throw you that's not a pleasant experience not quite enough room in here to maneuver this button here we go okay dad that's called working smart control the environment and something like that's not going to land on your head one day let's get rid of this one too as low as we can it'll make it easier to pull it out from downstairs now this is interesting because this is how you can confirm whether or not it was wet or dry you know that's only air look how clean that pipe is are you ready for this now check out the drain it's almost plugged completely solid there's just a little bit of a hole left for the water to go down this is why you want to rip this stuff out when it starts to corrode inside the pipe it grabs all the debris and hair that goes down the drain and before you know it this just plugs solid this is why you need to replace the steel pipes in your house ok so during our exploration here we've come across some steel plumbing that's still being used in this home both in the drain the vent and in the water supply system so what we're gonna do now is we're just gonna cut the water supply line open real quick have it take a look at the integrity of this because there are a couple locations in the ceiling and one in the wall here that I might want to take a look at replacing out now traditionally water supply lines they last a really really long time but if you're going to do a bathroom renovation and you expect to last for 40 years and you tack that on to the age of the existing plumbing you'd hate to run into a problem with the plumbing before the bathroom runs it's life cycle because you may not be able to fix that without destroying your new work so let's have a quick look here together and we'll see what the steel piping looks like now inside the line [Applause] now right away this hasn't been in use for a while so let's use a grain of salt when we digest this but you can see all that crap you have a really small it looks like a fridge supply line at this point now if you have that sort of supply line in your shower and you're wondering why you have no water pressure that would be why okay so there you go folks lesson to be learned the old steel lines they have a life expectancy they will not last forever so if you're renovating and you run into them I would suggest do everything you can to update those lines all right what a mess so after all this adventure people are gonna be at home going how do I know if I have steel lines in my house and you may not know but if you can see your line going into your wall and you see this kind of a joint you see copper to copper there's there's hardly any transition there it's very thin is very clean it's a solder joint where a steel pipe is much bigger pipe and you'll see this nut kind of piece of copper that's soldered to the pipe and then it's threaded in so that is a very distinctive look and if you have this coming out of your wall then you have a steel supply line inside your line and the inside of your line looks like this mmm can't wait for my next glass of fresh clean water remember whether its water supply or drain lines you might be surprised what's going on with your pipes that's the vent line it looks nice and clean and you cut something like that you think my Plumbing's in great shape and then you cut the drain side and you go oh my god it's not just the drain folks this is a conversion look at what's going on here with the corrosion on the tip of that this is a time bomb if you have a sink connected to this old plumbing it is currently rotting out inside and it's hidden this can give out at any time and destroy your vanity in your bathroom by the time you figure out that you have this problem so I'm gonna suggest when you're renovating open your walls find out what you have it doesn't cost much to close up a wall a sheet of drywall is eight bucks all right take a look and if you have this old junk please get rid of it besides your house will love you it weighs a lot I can't get that off the old floor joists well that's about all we need to say about this quality of pipe listen for the time and day that this was installed that was doing a great job we've come a long way since then we've changed all of our cars and the way we drive way we eat we sure need to start thinking about the way we drink this kind of water supply line will kill you alright get it out of your house update as soon as you can and get some good night's sleep now if you like this information ha and you haven't subscribe to our channel then subscribe we've got a bunch of renovation tips and DIY stuff in here for you like the video with the big thumbs up button down there but ask me your questions if you're not sure then ask me your questions we can help the troubleshoot your situation love to answer those questions and comments from you talk to you again soon stay safe [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Home RenoVision DIY

Views: 276,918

Rating: 4.895927 out of 5

Keywords: home renovision, renovation, bathroom renovation, reality renovision, jeff thorman, construction, diy renovations, renovations, do it yourself, diy, instructional, hrv, steel pipes, replace steel pipes, century home, why you should replace steel pipes, plumbing

Id: V1UHPtT6HFU

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018