What are Polybutylene Pipes?
If you're asking yourself, "What are Polybutylene Pipes?", you maybe worried that your home or business was built with them. If your building was built between the late 70's and mid 90's, polybutylene pipes may have been and may still be there.

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So, what's wrong with polybutylene pipes? To put it simply, they have an unusually high rate of failure under normal operating conditions. Deterioration linked to chlorine water additives has been linked to the failures, however customers on private water supplies have reported many problems.

  • Polybutylene pipe is grey, black or blue. Interior polybutylene plumbing is almost always grey and exterior polybutylene plumbing is mostly blue.
  • Polybutylene pipe was installed and manufactured from the late 1970's till the mid-1990's, however, stockpiles of polybutylene pipe at supply vendors, such as supply risers were still known to be available up to 1999.
  • The most common sizes for polybutylene pipe are 3/8", ½", ¾" and 1".
  • Polybutylene piping was used for both residential and commercial water distribution piping.
  • Polybutylene pipe connectors can be copper, brass, or plastic. The connector types are barbed with a crimp ring or compression with a plastic or metal ferrule.

What are the details of the Polybutylene Lawsuit and resulting Polybutylene Class Action Settlement?
The polybutylene class action lawsuit applied to houses with polybutylene pipe installed between 1978 and 1995. The following pages are excerpts from the Consumer Protection Recovery Center that was formed to disperse funds for elgible homeowners and businesses. There are strict guidelines for reimbursement and the following pages should be read carefully to determine whether or not to spend time filing a claim.

When the source of the water leak is not easily found, a leak detection specialist may be needed.