What material used for water supply pipe?
Answer:
polymar pipes nowerdays...pressure welded on the big jobs
plastic
Many materials can be used. Ancient romans used pipes made from stone.
Modern supply systems are generally iron or steel pipe. I say iron because there's pipe under the roads in my area that have been in the ground for close to 100 years.
I have no knowledge but assume that these pipes are welded.
Household supply has also used steel iron/pipe in the past, but has gone to copper pipe and now to PVC tubing on some areas.
The old steel pipe was threaded together. Copper tubing is soldered and PVC is crimped together.
Most main water lines from the city water supply are made of cast iron. The oldest ones were made of Terra Cotta and also lead . Most of those have been replaced with iron. Somecitys are replacing the main lines with concrete or heavy duty PVC lines. In the interior most lines are copper or PVC . Copper is more expensive but the solder points break more easily with freexe and thaw. PVC is cheap. Cast iron stacks for toilets are nice in a house because they are much quieter than PVC too
polymer pipes blue ones.
polyethylene piping..
Check with the AWWA they have the information you need
Most utilities use cast iron pipe. It is usually joined using either flanged connections or mega-lugs. At your house, the most common materials are copper, pvc, c-pvc (for hot water), or polypropylene.
This gets complicated..
For underground piping.. About 100 years ago underground water supply pipe was mostly cast iron with lead cast joints ("Bells" on the ends of the old iron pipes were used to join it to the next length of pipe. The new lengh was stuffed into the bell and the joint was stuffed with hemp and sealed with lead solder). From the underground water supply pipe there was actually a 1inch or so flexible lead pipe that lead into most residences.. both the cast iron and the lead were corrosion resistant to normal tap water so.. This type of water supply systems still in use today.. it can last well over a hundred years
In residences ... the supply was typically iron pipe with threaded fittings.. in industrial settings welded fittings were sometimes used (threading pipe weakens, thins and provides a spots for corrosion of pipe) Sometimes this iron pipe was "black iron" (e.g. plain iron/ steel) sometimes it was "galvanized".. (e.g., iron pipe coated with zinc for corrosion protection). This usually lasts 25 to 50 years..
For sewers.. black iron pipe with leaded joints was used inside the house leading to ceramic or molded cement piping underground..
This was state of the art but then it was discovered that lead was a toxic..and it leached from the joints and the flexable lead lines into the drinking water supply in a house.
Typically the in ground stuff stayed iron pipe but uses lead free solder to fill the joints AND flexible copper piping for the leads into a residence...
Inside the house, it was found that iron pipe eventually became choked with corrosion and either leaked or the flow stops.. so copper pipe became the norm (copper pipe just corrodes and leaks .. it does not have the choking problem that shuts off the flow)...
Caution.. you cannot connect copper to iron pipe without a special fitting (called a di-electric fitting) because copper and iron form a galvanic coupling and the iron pipe will corrode preferantially and very fast.. sometimes in a matter of months..
Inside the house.. copper piping is now the normal water distribution system and plastic pipe is used for drainage.. still connectied into those ceramic or cement sewage pipes.
One other person said that iron sewage pipes are good in a house.. for VERTICAL drops this is correct since it has more sound dampening qualities however, a similar sound dampening can be done with insulation..
Some houses use plastic pipe for water distribution and it can be cheap and efficient..and it does not really corrode so it can be good. However, plastic pipe cannot take the abuse that copper can.. it must be rated for the pressure so excess pressure can burst it, plastic less flexible and, especially for hot water distribution plastic can deform or flow over time.
I have a client condominium association that is having a problem right now since the plastic water shut off valves that were installed 30-35 years ago are now failing -- where the metal valves installed at the same time are just fine.
25mm LDPE or MDPE, (blue) would supply the house. Copper pipe and 20mm LDPE/MDPE inside.
there are so many materials that can be use in water supply...
but to me the first step is for you know what is the available pressure or the pressure requirement of your system...
then compared it with the available specification of pipes in the market.
match the pressure requirement of your system with the pressure capacity of the pipe...it can be wrought iron( BI), cast iron, steel pipe, copper tube, or PVC pipe.
the choice of material will also depend on the water quality...so physico-chemical test of the water is also important...
the method of lay out is alos important...is it underground or buried pipe...exposed or encased piping...PVC is ideal for buried piping...steel pipe is ideal for abovegruond or exposed piping...
Pipe materials
1 Steel
2 Copper
3 Plastics
& see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/domestic_wa...
For large scale water supply many different materials are used throughout the US. These tend to be regional in nature. The most common materials currently used are steel, concrete pipe, concrete lined steel, and thermoplastic materials. Thermoplastic materials used include polyethylene, PVC, and CPVC.
For houses, copper pipe is still the most common. PEX (cross linked polyethylene) is becoming much more common. CPVC (but not PVC) can be used in house water distribution systems. Older houses will typically have galvanized steel or copper.
i work for a company who supplies pipe jointing equipment.blue polypropylene. if you see a yellow pipe don,t cut into it, cos its gas.
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