The repair bill for damage done to a home from burst water pipes can run into the thousands. It’s a risk you take if you use plastic for your plumbing.

You don’t have to look too far to find home owners you have had their plastic plumbing attacked by rats, distorted by heat or damaged by chlorine. Much of this damage is not covered by standard home insurance.
 
Sydney-based plumber, Alistair Robson, chooses copper tubing over plastic because he has seen first-hand the damage that can be caused by vermin to plastic.

“Rats nibbled a hole in my toilet cistern at a point lower than the water level so they could always come and have a drink. If they can chew through my cistern, I’m not surprised to hear of people’s homes being ruined by vermin attacks to plastic tubing. 

Alistair believes copper is less likely to cause any damage in the future to the homes he plumbs. “It’s a tried and tested product that I know will stand the test of time.”

Polybutylene plastic pipe makers, Shell Oil and Dupont were subject to a massive class action lawsuit in the US in the early nineties, when homeowners found their polybutylene pipes bursting and flooding their homes. It was claimed that polybutylene became brittle and damaged from chlorine. A legal settlement provided nearly a billion dollars to cover re-piping and repairs nationwide, and even today homeowners in the US are still claiming damages as a result of polybutylene plumbing.

Another plastic product, a cross-linked polyethylene, known as PEX, is now often used in place of copper plumbing.

Campbell Wilson, of Sydney-based Pearla Plumbing, explains that he uses poly products like PEX to keep the cost of the job down, but prefers copper for its proven high quality.

“We might look at using a poly in place of copper for long runs, such as running water from the home to the backyard, or when working in the sub floor layer of a house that is up on brick piers.

“Anything on the outside of the home we use copper because it is durable and will put up with a knock. You can run it in the ground, put it in concrete or run it through any application you want. Unlike the poly products, copper is not affected by heat or sunlight, so will weather without any detrimental effect on its quality.”