Who has experience with either?  I am looking at having to do something despite planning to sell the house in the near future and not wanting to do it.  Anyone got the breakdown of the two?  The repipe would be with PEX, the old piping in 30yr old galvanized.

The galvanized is probably so clogged up (especially the hot water line) that anything except remove and replace will not work.

Try opening a couplee faucets at the same tie and see how low the flow drops.

I removed galvanized from a 1950 house in 1988.

One piece about 5 feet long was so clogged you could not see light through it.

I cut it onto a series of ~6 inch pieces to look at the corrosion.

The worst spot had a lumen about 3/8 inch wide by 1/8 inch high.

REPIPE...think about it. The INSTANT a home inspector sees galvanized pipe under that house he's gonna check the water flow, which I bet is crap. At that point he'll explain to the prospectve buyers all the drawbacks and theres a good chance you'll lose the sale. On the other hand, new piping is going is one less thing for a buyer to be concerned about. I helped a friend replace the galvanizing in his home, he had maybe a 1/4" hole in the pipe for water to flow through.

My house was repiped with copper by Delta Mechanical.  They have done tons of houses nation wide funded by the class action lawsuit on Shell Oil for Poly butylene.  I went with copper because it was free.  The fellas replumbed in just three days and did all the drywall repair and paint match.  Inspection was done and they were gone in 5 days.  At that time another company quoted $2500 for a 3bdroom, 2 bath 2200sq ft house.

I would love to find a $2500 quote since I just got one yesterday for $10,000 with PEX.

That bid seems high, whats included and how large of a home?

2 bath, kitchen, W-D, and wet bar for water.  1800sq-ft so runs are pretty short and one story, all pipes are in the attic.

Whats wrong with PEX?  I thought it was the thing to do?

Yep, even without looking at it that 10g's is a very high bid, we have done the same in the KC metro area from between 4 to 6 thousand with the drywall patches, no paint work although.  I have been using pex for years, say early 90's and had only one problem with it, it was on a rehab and the line froze in the crawl space, before heat was even on and the finish was complete.  I have no negative things to say about it, although some Zurn fittings did have a problem not to long ago and a class action law suit was filed, but the problems have been rectified if installed correctly.

I used to say the same.  Hell, I made a living replacing PB to copper in AZ. But I am now fine with pex. (Albeit, I still only use Pex-A, Wirsbo brand in particular) Who knows, I've shunned most other plastic piping, I guess only time will tell which side of history I'll be on, in regards to pex.

To the OP: $10k sounds a bit high to me as well.

+1,000,000,000



Don't trade longevity for convenience in the place you sleep.

Replace with PEX.  PEX has an excellent track record.  

I've also fixed a lot of leaking copper in various houses that me and my family live in.  While I would use copper over other types of plumbing and would NEVER use CPVC, I would use PEX over copper any day.

No one that I am aware of recommends putting copper plumbing into concrete for circulating hot water heat.  They DO recommend PEX.  

Copper has a lifespan as well.  I've personally replaced quite a bit of copper in both my house as well as family member's houses (I am not a plumber)due to pinholes so copper isn't the perfect plumbing material either.  I've also seen quite a few leaks with copper as well over the years.

Europe has been using PEX since the 60s and it's holding up well.  

PEX A has an estimated life expectancy of 200+ years (of course that depends on who you talk to).  Excelerated wear tests indicate that the 200 year lifespan just might be possible.  

Plastic is an integral part of our lives....hell just look at Glock pistols.  When they first came out with a plastic frame, almost everyone was laughing at the idea of a plastic pistol lasting for any length of time.  Now, you may or may not like Glocks personally but no one can argue that the plastic in a Glock doesn't last or "becomes brittle".  

I'll keep using PEX in all my future plumbing projects.  I highly recommend it.

Nope.

Hell, I would fly out and do it for $9500............

Thanks, but I found a few other quotes for half the price, that include fixing the drywall.  Its good to have nice neighbors and ask them who they used and how their experience was.