[Help] Plumbers : Plastic/pushfit or copper ?

[happypig]

We're having the house done up and will be having a new boiler/radiators and other pipework.

My heart says copper, my wallet says plastic.

What's best ?

 

[Mr Bridger]

Done right, has to be copper.
On a budget if you have too, then plastic where you can’t see it, copper where you can.

What will happen to all those rubber o’rings in years to come when they start to perish

 

[banjo]

Do it once, do it right.

 

[Bodian]

Done right, has to be copper.
On a budget if you have too, then plastic where you can’t see it, copper where you can.

What will happen to all those rubber o’rings in years to come when they start to perish

Surely it should be the other way round then? Plastic where you can get at it to replace the perishing rings (where you can see it) and copper where you can't !?

 

[rogersix]

Solder unions also go dry in time, and with plastic there are less unions to leak

 

[WATFORD zero]

We're having the house done up and will be having a new boiler/radiators and other pipework.

My heart says copper, my wallet says plastic.

What's best ?

I wonder whether asking questions of NSC's plumbers at 6.45 is a little optimistic ? I understand that breakfast finishes sometime between 10 and 11

* it's a joke, I have always had excellent advice from the regulars on here

 

[scooter1]

We had a loft conversion last year including an upstairs shower room. The only plastic piping was the waste, everything else is copper.
Do it on the cheap, and chances are you’ll have to do it twice(sooner than you hoped)

 

[BN9 BHA]

Professional opinion - copper.

Plastic looks diy when on show, the fittings are more expensive than end feed copper fittings, rodents can nibble through plastic pipe and fittings.
Plastic pipe is obviously cheaper than copper and easier to fit under floorboards and quicker to join.

 

[Justice]

New builds are smashed out in plastic from what I’ve seen, what can go wrong One job the newly decorated show house resembled a shower when the plumber applied mains pressure.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Copper on show, plastic everywhere else, obviously if you can afford to go copper everywhere do that but it's not necessary

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

 

[moggy]

From an electrical point of view, best to go all copper for ease of bonding.

 

[nicko31]

Plastic much better these days, copper is going to cost you.

Copper ends for rads

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

Professional opinion - copper.

Plastic looks diy when on show, the fittings are more expensive than end feed copper fittings, rodents can nibble through plastic pipe and fittings.
Plastic pipe is obviously cheaper than copper and easier to fit under floorboards and quicker to join.

And plastic is a lot easier for a plasterboard fitter to accidentally put a nail through which you may not find out about immediately....

 

[Baldseagull]

Run plastic off a reel in white, it's possible to have no joins apart from at the rad valves, only issue is they can get chewed through by rodents.

 

[Rowdey]

Lots good advice here.
I'll add that i've only ever had one plastic fitting 'blow off' (Equator if anyone remembers them..) and a Brixton squirrel eat a JS fitting (not pipe) - If installer fits them correctly, with inserts, and well supported, then can really help when getting across joists etc.

The inserts on 22mm speedie make a bore smaller than 15mm copper, which on mains (other than direct to appliance) can really knock flow rates, and as we plan/install for heat pumps, we also want to keep up flow to rads (less temp, less area, less energy etc)

 

[Jack Straw]

Professional opinion - copper.

... rodents can nibble through plastic pipe and fittings.

My friend came back from holiday to find her house flooded. Luckily, Wrong Direction came to the rescue, and showed us the little teeth marks from mice that had gnawed through a plastic pipe which caused the problem.