REPLACE or not to replace OLD PIPES?
http://cdn.brownstoner.com/5176092e333ca-.jpg
We are renovating our brownstone. We are flipping the 1st floor kitchen and bathrooms on 1st floor and 2nd floor, however keeping the orginal ground floor bathroom and 3rd floor bathroom in its orginal place. The plumber said it would be best to completely replace all the old pipes including the main water line (and rerouting it) and the 4″ sewer line. The pipes work well and we had not heard any complaints yet from the tenants, so the question is Do we replace them or not? Please take a look at the picture of that helps. Question to the appraisals, if we were to replace all the plumbing pipes Would it increase property value if we were to ever sell?

homebuyer
in Plumbers and Plumbing 12 years and 2 months ago
9
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no-permits | 12 years and 2 months ago
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and to answer the OP’s question, that’s a good looking pipe and i would defintely leave it alone. like someone else said, that pipe will easily be there for another 50 years. it will make no difference on resale unless you replaced every piece of pipe in the house.

no-permits | 12 years and 2 months ago
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$12K?!?! you’ve lost all credibility with me cate.

johnmclaren | 12 years and 2 months ago
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I would also say that you should go for it and replace the pipes because if you don’t do it now it would get even more a difficult situation later posing even more problems. SO, just go for it.

Erstwhile | 12 years and 2 months ago
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I’d probably replace the risers but leave the cast iron stack line (which appears to be in excellent condition). Holy shmoly Cate, I’m sorry to say but (based on your description of the work) I think you grossly overpaid your plumber. That is outrageously expensive.

BobMarvin | 12 years and 2 months ago
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When we bought our house 38 years ago we listened to bad advise about not replacing our water supply pipes and ended up replacing them in three stages, over 15 years, with considerably more mess and expense than would have been required had we done it before moving in. However, our pipes were lead, installed in 1899–your’s look considerably better. Our original waste pipes have been fine, except for the point in the horizontal pipes where evrything comes together under our top floor bathroom. that had to be replaced 20 years ago (with still more mess and expense).

eme1million | 12 years and 2 months ago
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You do not need to replace your supply lines unless they are undersized (unlikely), or you need to reroute them. Even then, I would just cut out the part you need to reroute. They are either brass or copper and neither material wears out from routine use. What you replace it with will probably be less robust. For drain – vertical stacks are usually fine and you can leave them alone. Horizontal runs collect sediment and can rust from the inside. $15000 is not a fantastic unbelievable price if the work is unnecessary. You could easily 50 years of service left in your plumbing.

cate | 12 years and 2 months ago
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That is a fantastic, unbelievable price. We just spent $12,000 just to replace one vent stack and a tiny portion of another. How old are the pipes? They look to be in good condition. However, do it now while the walls are open and before you move in and you will save yourself tons of money and crazy headaches later.

brucef | 12 years and 2 months ago
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Do it. It will be less headaches later.

homebuyer | 12 years and 2 months ago
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i forgot to mention they gave us a $15,000 cost which would include seprate water lines to 3 units in the house. is this a good price?