ASK This Old House | Preventing Plumbing Disasters (S19 E2) FULL EPISODE

In this episode, Richard and Ross Trethewey explain why, when, where, and how to prevent major plumbing failures.

Richard explains how, where, and why plumbing systems fail.

Richard gives a deep dive on when and how plumbing pipes and connections can be repaired or replaced.

Ross explains and demonstrates how to prevent plumbing failures with new technology.

Preventing Water Damage
Kevin O’Connor and damage prevention specialist Michael Milligan toured a home to identify ways to prevent plumbing leaks and other flood damage.

How a Frozen Pipe Bursts
Richard demonstrated that pipes, when frozen, expand in volume, which exponentially increases the water pressure and forces the pipe to burst. In these circumstances, shut the water off at the main and immediately call a plumber.

To prevent the pipes from freezing in the first place, Richard recommended keeping cabinet doors open and insulating the pipes with pipe insulation. This can be found at home centers.

How to Replace Polybutylene Piping with PEX
Richard travels to Richmond, Virginia to help a homeowner replace her polybutylene piping with conventional PEX.

Where to find it?
Polybutylene pipes are no longer to code and need to be replaced by a licensed professional. Richard was assisted by Capital Mechanical. The tools and materials required to replace the pipes, including the PEX lines, fittings, and the expansion tool, can all be found at home centers and plumbing supply houses. The PEX piping for this project was supplied by Uponor.

Future House | Smart Automatic Water Shutoff Valves
Ross travels to Los Angeles to learn about innovations being made to automatic water shutoff valves.

Where to find it?
While automatic water shutoff valves have been around for quite some time, there are a number of different companies that are now modifying the units to make them smart devices.

In this segment, Ross learned about the functions of a Flo by Moen automatic water shutoff valve. During the discussion afterwards, Ross and Richard also talked about the Phyn automatic water shutoff valve, which is a similar device in the smart automatic water shutoff valve space.

Testing Smart Automatic Water Shutoff Valves
Richard Trethewey tests two different styles of smart automatic water shutoff valves.

Where to find it?
Richard explained that most modern automatic water shutoff valves fall under two categories of design: sensor-activated and valve body activated.

The sensor-activated valves are usually more economical and have a faster response time, since their primary function is to detect leaks and other plumbing failures. The sensor-activated valve Richard demonstrated was a Floodmaster App-Based Wireless Plumbing Leak Detection & Automatic Water Shut-Off System, which is manufactured by Reliance Detection Technologies. The kit comes with two sensors and additional ones can be purchased and paired.

The valve body activated valves have more features to them, including usage reports and running health tests to try and catch plumbing failures ahead of time. The all-in-one smart valve Richard demonstrated was the Phyn Plus Smart Water Assistant + Shutoff, which is manufactured by Phyn.

Expert assistance with this segment was provided by the Walter F. Morris Company.

Products and Services from this Episode

Technical guidance:
State Farm Insurance

Automatic shutoffs:
IntelliFlow

Flo by Moen
Phyn

Floodmaster App-Based Wireless Plumbing Leak Detection & Automatic Water Shut-Off System
Phyn Plus Smart Water Assistant + Shutoff

Expert assistance:
Capital Mechanical
Walter F. Morris Company

PEX piping:
Uponor

About Ask This Old House TV: From the makers of This Old House, America’s first and most trusted home improvement show, Ask This Old House answers the steady stream of home improvement questions asked by viewers across the United States. Covering topics from landscaping to electrical to HVAC and plumbing to painting and more. Ask This Old House features the experts from This Old House, including general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, landscape contractor Jenn Nawada, master carpenter Norm Abram, and host Kevin O’Connor. ASK This Old House helps you protect and preserve your greatest investment—your home.

Follow This Old House:

ASK This Old House | Preventing Plumbing Disasters (S19 E2) FULL EPISODE

[arcadiagreen]

my hot water heater blew up this morning. Me and my father replaced it today. Shows like this old house have been stoking my interest in home improvement and repair for a long time. now that im 35 and have been watching for 20+ years, all the lessons ive learned are being put to work

[bjornjoseph]

This old house has taught me so much and gave me confidence to tackle projects on my own

[crbourret]

One thing we always do when we go away on vacation is shut the main water shutoff to the house, that way if something does spring a leak the house doesn't get completely flooded only the water that's in the pipe can leak out.

[Pk_Garage]

Great video. I'm surprised they didn't go into more details about shut off valves. From my experience, 95% of water leaks came from a shut off valve under the sink. We've lived in our home over 25 years, and I have replaced pretty much all the shut off valves. It's a good idea to buy extra shut off valves so when this happens, you can just fix it and not leave the house to buy one.

[banjotramp]

A pan under a washing machine would fill up pretty quickly with a major leak. Like when a mouse shoved a nut into the supply line of my 32 year old GE. We had grown to trust it after all this time. But the thing is in the basement and it only a hassle.

Also, my best story re. water damage. Decades ago I had a job doing punch out on some crappy condos in South Carolina. Winters there are usually warm, except when they are not. A couple of really cold days a year. That, and the thin copper water lines run in parts of the building with no insulation, and hardly any of that stuff resulted in at least a couple of dozen units with frozen pipes, deep into the units. The next day warms up and all those frozen, but now broken pipes thaw.

I remember coming to work watching waterfalls down folks stairs, ceilings on floors, a billion yards of ruined carpet and everything else. We spent the next few days repairing leaks, but not fixing any damage.

Shortly after that, we were all laid off, I guess right after the people that were liable were all safely in Mexico.

[Victor-tldk]

Wow! That's a really "clear" and good "explanation!"

Much better than 95% of the "greedy" "clickbait" on Youtube.

I did not know how much a simple drop could help!

[XzTS-Roostro]

Flo by Moen is a great system, and they've later on added in point sensors to assist in the system's leak detection.

[brianc]

What brand of pex a is the one with the brass ring around the expanded pipe? I am used to Uponor

[dzsink]

Great video and information. It would have been great if you have discussed more the copper Viega connections more. I think with hand tool or the pro-press tool it is very good alternate product.

[joseph-ine]

Outstanding. Great advise and great product pex. Will use it when i build my house

[tinysand]

any body knows the tool Richard used at 13:13 to expand the pipe, what is it call?

[hawkmanva]

When I go into home depot and start crimping pipes, they kick me out for some reason but Richard gets away with it

[straight_to_finish]

Water pressure was briefly mentioned in a few of the segments, but high water pressure from the street was never mentioned. My city water pressure is 115lbs! This is up from 105lbs from 6 years ago. After discovering 2 water claims on my house before purchasing 6 years ago, I immediately installed a pressure reducing valve (PRV) and kicked it down to 60lbs. I’m very surprised this was not covered. Appliance solenoid valves are more susceptible to failure due to high water pressure.

[richarddicktaylor]

Very helpful & I learned a new (actually it's the old version) of a non transitory verb - 'bursted'

[artyzinn]

a great episode. Owners need to insure a home shut off valve works quickly and know where it is, in an emergency. If a leaks occurs anywhere, its faster to shut this one valve than locatr the shut off for a particular line. Many homes have gate valves, which tend to malfunction over time, and should be replaced with a ball valve. As a commenter mentioned, if you routinely shut off your home water when away, you get a solid feeling how well this works, were the valve is, and how quick it is to get to.

[wsfwsf]

Some years back, customer in an older 28 story high rise, had Miele washer and dryer installed using supplied Miele supply lines. Customer was gone, one of the supply lines broke, took 45 minutes before water was turned off. Gravity did its thing. 28 stories flooded and $10 million in total damages.

[allegory]

13:06 "This is too wide a diameter"
13:14 "You crank it up, you can actually see the pipe expanding right here"
Kevin...master of the obvious.

[roxinebolling]

My tub faucet is leaking and I don’t know what size stem to replace it. Can I buy the kit with all three Will it fit.

[lee]

From what I've seen, the valve fails far more often than a hose. The problem with the washer shut off, is if you keep turning on/off valve repeatedly, it may cause it to fail sooner. Instead, keep it on for the most part but turn it off during long periods away from home.

[graciemiller]

I use Uphonor and worsbo fittings and pipe much more simpler than the methods shown in this video. Used in Europe so it works. They should do a video on that method.