the crazy part is that this shit was even worse 50 years ago. i found out my water service line into my house is lead, and the city is replacing them for free. Still waiting to hear back. Luckily im an adult with no kids. The previous family had 3 small children and lead pipes. yeesh.
It's my understanding that lead pipes are overall safe because of a chemical added to the water supply, but yeah probably best to get it replaced. We needed some repairs done and the plumber was like "alright, if I have to do something over there, this gets a lot more serious because those are lead and I don't work with lead"
phosphates can be added to keep pH at the appropriate ranges to not corrode the cement between pipewalls & waterflow (minerals from the water bond to the pipe). but physical disruption is also to be watched, you can lose cement from knocking pipes about too. and temperature.
shit is pretty fucking finicky tbh which is why its getting phased out even though it has other highly favored plumbing characteristics
the crazy part is that this shit was even worse 50 years ago. i found out my water service line into my house is lead, and the city is replacing them for free. Still waiting to hear back. Luckily im an adult with no kids. The previous family had 3 small children and lead pipes. yeesh.
Growing up in the third world gang!
Lead pipes, lead paint, leaded gas in the air!
It's my understanding that lead pipes are overall safe because of a chemical added to the water supply, but yeah probably best to get it replaced. We needed some repairs done and the plumber was like "alright, if I have to do something over there, this gets a lot more serious because those are lead and I don't work with lead"
phosphates can be added to keep pH at the appropriate ranges to not corrode the cement between pipewalls & waterflow (minerals from the water bond to the pipe). but physical disruption is also to be watched, you can lose cement from knocking pipes about too. and temperature.
shit is pretty fucking finicky tbh which is why its getting phased out even though it has other highly favored plumbing characteristics