OK I know polybutylene pipes are bad news and have been banned since the 1990s and the manufacturers have since gone out of business, so it is not unusual for polybutylene pipes to appear on a home insurance carrier's "high risk or prohibitive list".

Things listed are usually things, if present, can cause the carrier to refuse coverage to the homeowners, or if they do cover you, they will have the policy amended to exclude certain perils (for example, if you have polybutylene pipes they will exclude ALL WATER RELATED DAMAGES regardless of cause until all the polybutylene pipes have been replaced, or exclude any fire damages until K&T wiring have been replaced), and obviously they will also raise your premium.



What is surprising to see is "PEX plumbing installed prior to 2011". I know about many PEX related class action lawsuits, but I don't really know if this is related to failure of the actual tubing, failure of the fittings, or failure of something else such as level of chlorination in the potable water. Anyone know what happened in 2011 to make PEX installations less risky in the eyes of the insurance carriers? For this to become an item on this list there must have been a lot of claims filed...even orangeburg pipe is not on this list.

I asked the carrier's customer service and the agent, they don't know, just that someone has determined that "PEX installed prior to 2011" is deemed high risk but no specifics beyond that.



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WOW... if this is the case, there will be a lot of problems since pex became available in the US in the early to mid '90s..



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after looking into this some more it seems this has to do with all the class action lawsuits on PEX, why the "installed before 2011" is still a mystery to me.

It seems the insurance carriers decided that PEX is a high risk to insure without caring what may be the root issue. They don't care if it's PEX A or B or C or what type of fittings were used or who installed them, just PEX before 2011.

Also this is going to be difficult to determine if PEX in a particular home was installed prior to 2011? How would they know, except may be in some cases through permit records? But if there was a leak and a plumber repaired by running a 20' section of PEX who knows when, three owners later...when was this PEX installed? No one knows.

General gunshotting rather than getting specific or doing any research by insurance companies most likely is easiest for them. To me A, B or C PEX and made by which PEX manufacture plus high chlorine or exposure to UV or so many other variables makes all the difference. Same with copper piping if exposed to higher potential of freezing or low pH water and so on.
R
I too wonder why bitumized (Orangeburg being one brand) isn't listed.

also caught my eye when it listed "galvanized or polybutylene plumbing", I don't know if they meant galvanized supply lines or all galvanized including DWV. I still see quite a bit of galvanized DWV, at least based on what's poking out of the roofs of many homes, there are many older homes with CI drains but above the sanitary tee is galvanized and they are still in good shape because it's only venting and was never exposed to harsh chemicals and waste. This could be another gray area that could result in denial of coverage.

Heck I own a condo that was built in 2007 and it has exposed galvanized pipes all over the ceiling for it's fire sprinkler system.

I had forgotten why bitumized pipe isn't listed. It's outside and underground the house and therefor not generally covered with homeowners insurance.

My realtor had told me in the past that some homeowners insurance companies can do "Service line add-on" coverage which will cover the cost of replacing or repairing outside underground sewer piping. I wonder how many of those exclude Orangeburg, i.e. Bitumized piping.