Hello,

We bought a 97yo house here in Seattle. Unfortunately, we discovered in the finished basement that a prior DIY owner did a partial replacement of piping during a remodel mixing copper and galvanized pipes. Our water pressure has dropped significantly and of the exposed copper pipes they are all turning green. Mr. DIY did not use any dielectric couplings between the different pipe sections. I’ve had two plumbers out who have both said I need a complete house pipe replacement otherwise the galvanized sections will build up on the inside and close up and the copper sections will corrode through.

Of course this is a very expensive option and we don’t have that cash lying around right now.

My question is, can dielectric couplings be installed now to at least halt further corrosion? Or can something be done like ground the pipes to the earth to try to reduce the electrochemical reactions? What I need to do is to put in place a temporary measure that will buy me some time until we can get the money to fix this mess.

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Seattleman

The good news is, dielectric unions slow down the degradation of galvanized pipes. The bad news is, galvanized pipes only have an expected lifetime of 40-100 years. After the first 20-30 years, the corrosion inside those pipes is so disgusting you will want to rip them out immediately. If you have leakage problems now, your galvanized is at end-of-life. Water supply pipes carry pressure, so when they fail it can get ugly.

My last house had galvanized. The main supply line ruptured at about 35 years old. We replaced as much galvanized pipe as we could reach when we remodelled each bathroom, then the kitchen, and finally replaced the long lines at about 52 years.

If funds are limited, your best bet is to do a thorough inspection of every section of pipe and start replacing the worst of it each year. This will likely cost more in the long run. Or you could learn to install PEX or copper yourself, but if you make a single bad joint inside a wall, that could potentially cost you a LOT more in the long run. FYI, although I installed all the fixtures and toilets and sinks, I had one plumbing company do all the repiping and remodeling work at that house for as long as I owned it.



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