Healthy Home Basics - Plumbing and Moisture

48. Should I use metal or plastic water pipes in my new house?

Plastic water mains are now widely used by utilities, and they’re also common in many new houses. They tend to be easier and less expensive to install than metal pipes. Many plastic pipes use both a toxic solvent-based cleaner and cement to fuse the pipe and fittings together. While these are very noxious, they’re so volatile that they outgas quickly—usually within a few hours—if there’s plenty of extra ventilation.

When water moves through new plastic plumbing lines, many sensitive people report a plastic-like taste. This occurs if contaminants are being released into the water, either from the pipe itself or from the cleaner or glue.

While you can’t do much about what your water utility uses for underground water mains, we prefer to use copper for supply lines inside houses. In the past, lead-based solder was common. But today, Federal regulations forbid the use of lead in plumbing solders. Galvanized-steel piping is also relatively inert, but it’s usually more expensive than copper.

Drain pipes are bigger in diameter, making copper drains expensive. Therefore, we often recommend using plastic for these. The plastic really doesn’t outgas very much into the air. But to minimize outgassing , we buy the pipe and fittings early in the construction process and let them air out before they're installed. Then, when the cleaner and glue are used, we stay away for a while and provide extra ventilation until everything has aired out.

Because plastic drains are almost always inside wall or floor cavities, they’re rarely exposed directly to the living space. That means, they usually aren’t an outgassing problem. Still, just to be extra safe, we often recommend to sensitive people that plastic drains be wrapped with household aluminum foil before the wallboard is installed over them.

49. Do you believe all houses need a water filter?

That’s a tough question to answer. The goal isn’t to obtain pure H2O, because pure H2O can be tasteless, and its very purity makes it aggressive. Aggressive water will dissolve and grab minerals from whatever it touches. If you drink aggressive water, it can actually pull minerals out of your body—minerals you need for good health. So, you don’t want to purify water too much.

Before you think about filtering at all, you should determine how polluted your water is. If you’re on a public water utility, it should be able to give you a water-quality analysis which will tell you what contaminants are in the water. If you’re on a private water supply (well, cistern, or pond), you’ll probably need to have your water tested by a private laboratory. Many different cont...