Most homes were built with copper piping plumbing a few decades ago. It was the plumbing material of choice, largely thanks to its affordability and supposed durability. As time moved on, experts started to see some significant problems with this type of plumbing system – especially in some areas of the country.

It turns out that copper piping plumbing isn’t a great choice in your home after all! If you’re living in one of the millions of homes with copper plumbing systems, you might want to consider repiping or taking some preventative measures to protect the system, as the following issues are likely to happen:

Copper Pipes Corrode Easily

We say “easily,” but corrosion doesn’t tend to happen for a few decades. Nevertheless, copper piping is known to corrode quite consistently – particularly if you live in a hard water area. Minerals stick to the pipes and cause build-up, which then weakens them and causes small holes in your plumbing.

These holes are called pinhole leaks, and they’re very difficult to detect. There’s every chance your copper piping already has a few of these without you knowing. This is hugely problematic as pinhole leaks wreak havoc throughout your home and are only noticeable when the worst-case scenario happens and you have huge water damage.

Corrosion Is Consistent Throughout The Pipes

Unlike other types of piping materials, copper is extremely consistent in how it corrodes. If one part of the pipe corrodes and creates a pinhole leak, then you’ll probably see many other instances of corrosion in different places at the same time!

Thus, this boosts the chances of multiple leaks happening throughout your home at once. It makes it very difficult to get on top of copper piping pinhole leaks because you don’t know how many there are. This will eventually lead to a massive water damage restoration project, which costs a lot of money as you attempt to fix your home.

Copper Pipes Don’t Deal Well With Cold Weather

Another problem with copper piping plumbing (beyond corrosion) is that they don’t react well to cold weather climates. When the temperatures drop towards freezing, you stand a strong chance of seeing one of the most common plumbing issues: burst pipes!

Copper pipes love to freeze over and burst, causing even more damage to your property during the winter season. Thankfully, you can prevent this by insulating your copper pipes to keep them warm during the colder months.

How To Deal With Copper Plumbing Systems

Modern homes aren’t built with copper piping because better options exist now. It could be worth installing a whole new system – especially if your copper pipes are showing signs of corrosion and you’re spotting pinhole leaks.

However, you could live with copper plumbing, depending on your location. If your water is soft and not full of minerals, then corrosion is less likely to occur. Likewise, warmer climates are better for copper pipes, so it could be a case of maintaining them rather than paying for a full renovation.

This is something to consider when buying a new home as well. It’s a lot smarter to avoid homes with copper plumbing (if possible) because those with more modern systems are less prone to incidents. And after having created robust plumbing system, one can assess the open floor plans of the house.

[All images were downloaded from unsplash]