Black vinyl/plastic water main pipe leak

[mandrewlin]

I recently purchased a house in Lafayette, CA and had a water main pipe leak, enough to where the water company came and turned off the water. A plumber came and found the cause, a tree root pushed up on the pipe causing the break. Unfortunately, the water main pipe is made of thick-walled black vinyl or plastic, about 1.3in OD. The plumber said that he very rarely sees this type of pipe and that he thinks it was used in the 70's and 80's and then discontinued. He doesn't know how to fix this type of pipe as it is not made anymore and there are no fittings for it. He is recommending replacement of the main line, which is ~800 ft of pipe from the meter to my house, down a hill.

Can anyone here identify this type of pipe and how it can be fixed? Where can I find fittings for it? I'm really in a jam because the water to my house is off and I really don't want to spend 10k or likely more completely replacing the main water line!

Thank you,
Andrew

 

[GReynolds929]

Looks like 1" HDPE also known as polyethylene or poly pipe. You can use barbed poly fittings and 2 stainless steel hose clamps 180 degrees opposed from each other. There are also compression fittings available, I know them as ford fittings but that is a manufacturer, I'm sure there are others that are similar. In my area we use barb fittings and hose clamps.

 

[FishScreener]

It looks a bit like the old polyethylene service lateral material from the late sixties, or early seventies, through the mid eighties. That stuff would crystallize and split longitudinally. The Water District I used to work for spent literally millions, removing it from the system and replacing it with good ole reliable soft copper.

The manufacturers got it listed as an option and it was about half the cost of the copper, so everybody used it. Then the crystallization issues started showing up in the early installation sites. Every time there was a pressure wave down the pipe it stretched a little. Since it was linearly extruded it tended to have micro strands of plastic running the length of the pipe and weakly bonded to each other. After enough stress cycles it would just split. We’d dig down and find ten foot long failures.

Once the chemical companies who made it figured out what was going on, they invented methods to cross link the long strands, and Polyethylene Extrusion Cross Linked tubing, known as PEX, was invented. It took me years to trust PEX enough to use it.

 

[JG plumbing]

It looks a bit like the old polyethylene service lateral material from the late sixties, or early seventies, through the mid eighties. That stuff would crystallize and split longitudinally. The Water District I used to work for spent literally millions, removing it from the system and replacing it with good ole reliable soft copper.

The manufacturers got it listed as an option and it was about half the cost of the copper, so everybody used it. Then the crystallization issues started showing up in the early installation sites. Every time there was a pressure wave down the pipe it stretched a little. Since it was linearly extruded it tended to have micro strands of plastic running the length of the pipe and weakly bonded to each other. After enough stress cycles it would just split. We’d dig down and find ten foot long failures.

Once the chemical companies who made it figured out what was going on, they invented methods to cross link the long strands, and Polyethylene Extrusion Cross Linked tubing, known as PEX, was invented. It took me years to trust PEX enough to use it.

Pex was discovered in a lab explosion it wasn't invented.

 

[CT18]

Try lawn irrigation supply house or even a pool supply store

 

[GReynolds929]

Pex was discovered in a lab explosion it wasn't invented.

Not calling you a liar, but I would be really interested in seeing a source for that claim.

 

[JG plumbing]

Not calling you a liar, but I would be really interested in seeing a source for that claim.

You've never heard the story of pex?

 

[JG plumbing]

The lab exploded and there wasn't much left other than wax like material. Then they recreated the explosion and made more. Then it took a quite a few years to figure out how to cross link poly polyethylene effeciantly. The guy who figured that out is the one they say "invented" pex, but he just came up with a method to do it in a controlled way. Then we had pex/uponor /wirsbo now other makers. It was discovered that polyethylene could be cross linked in the 30's no one knew or thought to make it pipe, then in the 70's they did.

A rep told me the inital story and it's verifiable online. If your curious you can find it.