Of everything in your house, the main water line probably works the hardest and gets thought about the least. It runs underground from the meter to the house, and every gallon you cook with, clean with or shower in has to come through it first. Since it’s buried, most folks don’t think about it at all until something goes wrong, and that something is usually one of three things: the water pressure drops, a soggy patch turns up in the yard, or the water bill suddenly jumps.
If you know roughly how long a water line lasts, you can plan ahead for it and avoid paying emergency rates on a Sunday. PF Plumbing does water line repair and water line replacement for homeowners across Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad, so we see the whole range. Here we’ll go over how long each type of pipe typically lasts, what wears it down, which warning signs to watch for, and how we’d decide between repair and replacement if it were our own house.
Key Notes
- The EPA puts the water wasted by household leaks at nearly 1 trillion gallons a year nationwide, and if that sounds too big to picture, try this one instead: about 10% of homes have leaks wasting 90 gallons or more every day.
- Somewhere in the United States a water main breaks about every two minutes (that’s from the American Society of Civil Engineers, not us). We bring it up because buried water pipes all wear out over time, and the water line on your property is one of them.
- Lead pipes were banned in 1986, and yet the EPA estimates more than 9 million lead service lines are still in use around the country, mostly feeding homes that were built before that ban.
How long do water lines last?
How long a water line lasts depends mostly on what it’s made of. Around the Piedmont Triad, homes of different ages can have very different piping in the ground, so honestly the first step is just finding out which type you’ve got.
Copper water lines
Copper has been a popular choice for decades, and for good reason, since it’s durable and it resists bacteria. A copper water line typically lasts 50 to 70 years, and we’ve seen them go longer than that in good soil. The catch is that acidic soil or acidic water can cause pinhole leaks a lot sooner. So if your home was built in the 1960s or 1970s and it’s still running on its original copper water line, we’d say it’s worth having it inspected.
Galvanized steel and lead water lines
Galvanized steel is what went into a lot of homes built before the 1960s. The trouble with it is that it corrodes from the inside out, and a galvanized water line usually lasts 40 to 50 years before the rust starts restricting flow and causing leaks. Lead water lines are a different story, because they can physically last a long time, yet they’re a health concern and not just a durability issue. If your home has a lead water line, we’ll tell you replacement is the safest choice regardless of what condition it’s in.
Plastic main water lines: PVC, PEX and polybutylene
The modern plastic pipes are affordable and they resist corrosion, though they aren’t all equal:
- PVC: We’d expect a PVC water line to give you 50 years or more.
- PEX: This one is flexible and it holds up well in the ground, and its expected lifespan runs 40 to 50 years.
- Polybutylene: It’s a gray plastic pipe that was widely installed from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, and it’s known for failing early because it can break down when it’s exposed to the chlorine in the water supply. If a polybutylene water line is what you have, plan for line replacement before it fails on you.
What shortens the life of a main water line
The pipe material sets the baseline, sure, but it’s the conditions around the pipe that decide how long it actually lasts. We’ve seen two identical pipes wear out decades apart, and it nearly always came down to one of the factors below.
Soil conditions and corrosion
Anybody who has dug a hole around here knows the red clay soil that’s common across the Piedmont Triad. It holds moisture and it can be acidic, and both of those speed up corrosion in metal pipes. Given enough time, that corrosion thins out the pipe walls until a leak forms, which is how a metal water line sitting in wet, acidic soil can fail years ahead of schedule.
Tree roots and ground movement
Tree roots are strongly attracted to moisture, so even a small leak in a water line will draw them in, and once they’re there they can wrap around the pipe, crack it or pull the joints apart. The ground itself moves too, whether that’s from freezing and thawing, heavy vehicles, construction or soil that’s settling, and any of that can shift a buried water line and put stress on its connections.
High water pressure and poor installation
Water pressure above about 80 PSI puts extra strain on every joint and fitting in your plumbing, the main water line included. Then there are the installation problems we run into, things like shallow burial, poor backfill or mismatched fittings, and those shorten a pipe’s life as well. One thing a plumber can do is test your water pressure and put in a pressure regulator if it’s too high, which is about the easiest way we know to protect the whole system.
Signs your water line needs attention
A failing water line doesn’t usually go all at once. It tends to give you some warning signs before it breaks completely, and if you catch them early you may be looking at a simple repair where you’d otherwise have had an emergency.
Low water pressure and discolored water
When the water pressure drops gradually all through the house, it can mean the water line is leaking or that it’s clogged up with corrosion on the inside. Rusty, brown or cloudy water is another red flag, and we take it especially seriously in homes with galvanized pipes. The way to tell is to check more than one fixture, because if every fixture in the house is affected, the problem is likely in the main line and not at an individual faucet.
Wet spots, sinkholes and unusually green grass
Water that’s escaping underground has to go somewhere, and it usually leaves a trail. Walk the yard and look for soggy patches when it hasn’t rained, for small sinkholes or depressions along the path of the water line, or for a strip of grass that’s greener than the rest of the lawn. Water pooling near the foundation or down in the basement can also point to a leak right where the line enters the house.
Rising water bills and a running meter
An unexplained jump in the water bill is one of the clearest signs of a hidden leak that we know of. If you’d like to confirm it, your meter will tell you:
- Go through the house and shut off every faucet, along with each appliance that uses water.
- Walk out to the meter and write down the reading.
- Give it an hour or two with everything still off, and then look at the meter again.
If that reading changed, water is escaping somewhere, and the water line is a common culprit. PF Plumbing’s leak detection service can pinpoint the source, and we can do it without digging up your whole yard.
Main water line repair vs water line replacement
OK, so we’ve confirmed there’s a problem. Now comes the question everybody asks us next, which is whether we just fix the section that’s damaged or go ahead and replace the entire water line. We can’t answer that from the truck, honestly, since it hangs on how old the pipe is, what it’s made of and what kind of overall condition it’s in.
When a repair makes sense
Water line repair is usually the right choice when the pipe is relatively new, it’s made of a durable material and the damage is limited to one spot. Take a single leak caused by a tree root or a shovel strike, for example, which can often be fixed by replacing just a short section of pipe. A repair costs less upfront, and it gets your water back on quickly.
When replacement is the smarter investment
Water line replacement is what we’d lean toward if any of these describe your situation:
- Your pipe is getting close to its expected lifespan, or it’s already past it.
- What’s in the ground is galvanized steel, lead or polybutylene.
- There have been multiple leaks over the past few years.
- We ran a camera inspection and it shows widespread corrosion.
By that point, repairing one leak often just means you’re waiting around for the next one. A new water line solves the problem for decades, and as a bonus it can improve both your water pressure and your water quality.
How a plumber makes the call
A good plumber doesn’t guess at this. What we do is look at the age and the material of the pipe, test the water pressure, use leak detection equipment to find the problem area and go back through your repair history. At PF Plumbing we walk you through everything we find and give you honest pricing for both options, so that you get to choose the one that makes the most sense for your home and your budget.
What to expect from water line replacement
Replacing a water line sounds like a major project, we know, but the modern methods have made it faster and less disruptive than most homeowners expect going in.
Traditional trench replacement
The traditional method is the one people picture, where the plumber digs a trench along the path of the old water line, takes it out and lays new pipe in its place. It works well when the line is short or easy to reach, or when trenchless methods just aren’t an option on that property. The downside, and there’s no way around it, is that it disturbs the yard, the landscaping and sometimes the driveway along the route.
Trenchless water line replacement
With trenchless methods, the water line gets replaced using only a small access pit at each end. From there the plumber pulls new pipe through the ground, either following the old line’s path or going through a freshly bored channel. What that means for you is less damage to your lawn, driveway and landscaping, and quite often a job that’s finished faster. Whether trenchless is possible at your house depends on your soil, the pipe’s route and whatever else is buried nearby.
Permits, testing and restoring your yard
Water line replacement usually requires a permit and an inspection. After the new line is in, the plumber pressure tests it to confirm there are no leaks, and only then connects it to the meter and to your home’s plumbing. The last step is backfilling the trench or the access pits and restoring the area. A professional plumber takes care of the permit and all of those details, so what you end up with is a new water line installation that’s built to code, minus the hassle.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a main water line last? We always answer this one by asking what it’s made of. Copper typically lasts 50 to 70 years, galvanized steel gets you 40 to 50 years, PEX is also 40 to 50 years, and PVC goes 50 years or more. Polybutylene is prone to early failure, and with lead lines we recommend replacement for health reasons no matter how old they are.
What are the signs of a broken water line? The ones we hear about most are low water pressure throughout the house and discolored water coming out of the taps. Out in the yard you might see soggy spots, unusually green grass or small sinkholes, and then there’s the sudden jump in your water bill.
Who is responsible for the water line to my house? In most communities the utility maintains the line up to the meter, and from the meter to the house the water line is on the homeowner. It does vary a little, so we’d check with your local water utility to confirm where your responsibility begins.
Should I repair or replace my water line? If it’s a newer pipe with a single problem spot, repair usually makes sense. We’d call replacement the better investment for older pipes, for galvanized, lead or polybutylene lines, and for any line that has leaked more than once.
Does water line replacement mean digging up my yard? Not always, no. Trenchless water line replacement only needs small access pits, so there’s much less disruption than you’d get with a traditional trench, and your plumber can tell you which method fits your property.
Maybe your home is getting older, maybe you’ve noticed one of these warning signs, or maybe you just aren’t sure what your water line is made of. Whichever it is, PF Plumbing can help, and our licensed plumbers handle leak detection, water line repair and full water line replacement for homes in Winston-Salem, Clemmons, Kernersville, High Point and throughout the Piedmont Triad. Give us a call today and we’ll schedule an inspection. And if it’s a broken line that has left you without water, our 24/7 emergency team is ready to help.