Pages

Friday, August 09, 2013

request to share experiences replacing a lead pipe leading into the house

See this question from a prospective Bloomingdale resident:
 
Our home inspector found that there was a lead pipe leading into the house and recommended that we either replace the pipe entirely (while coordinating with DCWASA) or get a reverse osmosis filtration system. Has anyone else in the neighborhood replaced their lead pipe? I'm curious to hear about their experience, and knowledge as to costs and recommendations for contractors who carried out the work.

3 comments:

  1. I'd check first and make sure you actually have lead in your water. DC Water has a test kit you can order and they'll pick up the samples and e-mail you the results. We have a lead pipe, but the lead in our water was far, far below EPA standards.

    ReplyDelete
  2. right...most probably the DC gov't replaced everything except up to your house. The only lead section for us is from our yard into our house. However, that line is 90 years old and coated with mineral deposits...which means that no lead is getting in at all. However, if you want you can always replace it. It just might not be necessary unless you have the extra cash and don't mind them digging up your yard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had our front yard dug up and they replaced the pipe when the city had a discount deal on this a while back so I didn't have to pay full price which is thousands of dollars ($6K?). It took about 3 days of work and essentially half the front yard was a dirty mess. However someone told me that the pipes are not lead but iron or some other substance sealed with lead fittings and these joints are coated/limed over so it's unlikely you're getting lead in the water. But some expert needs to look into it as there seems to be so many opinions on it.

    ReplyDelete