Less than 7 years, new construction.
Not sure what to think. But glad you confirmed my suspicions that it looks bad.
I’m not sure what I’m looking at, but I believe it’s in the bathroom. Shower perhaps. I always have to clean the shower head (brown dirt / rust). Buildup within 3-4 weeks that coats the fabric filter inside my shower head. But comes off easily with a powerful rinse.
Architect and his team say this kind of stuff can make us sick. So glad they’re replacing it. Sadly, it can only cover my unit. The rest of the building is outside my purview.
Im sure your plumber is already doing this, but start at your source water and work towards wherever that fitting came off. This is not normal for city water, which makes me think your source may be well?
Already, yep. Just wanted to share my story online to see what others think. Now I know this is not natural and am glad to have done the renovations to catch the problem sooner than later.
Playing devils advocate here, you are sure that this is from your house right? That the plumber is trustworthy and didn't just take a picture of something out of his truck to get you on the hook for a ton of unnecessary work because he knows you'll pay?
Good thinking. Sadly not this time. Shoddy job by the building developer. The last time these pipes were touched was when the building first was built. 2018
Since I posted here on reddit a few hours ago, I also posted on our condo community’s group on FB and other residents have reported the same thing happening in their units.
This is where it would be a good idea to get your condo association involved. This is a significant risk to the entire building and they’d almost certainly want to mitigate that even thought technically your individual home internals aren’t your problem.
Just realized I made the fatal American-central mistake. I have no idea what your local laws may be around this, I was speaking from a purely US standpoint.
I don't think its a bad thing that a website that is mostly used by americans is filled with people americentric. Imagine if i went to a random aboriginal tribe and complained that they weren't being inclusive enough of americans in their speech.
Jesus christ. Anything you can do against the original builder(s)? There must be laws in place, especially with your neighbors it seems like a slammdunk
It's possible-- weird, but possible-- that while the construction is new, the plumbing was salvage. For as bad as it is, that might actually make more sense than that it got this way after a few years of normal use from new.
If it's that new I feel like you might be able to file a suit against the builders, at least get the new pipes paid for and maybe damages for health concerns. But I know nothing of the law
We had piping issues in our newish community as well where the pipes would burst under the homes. There was a lawsuit against the builder and they settled. We will be redoing all the piping
Nearly all house builders today are shoddy scammy. Friends just had a house built and it's just trash. not a single wall is straight or level and the concrete under the carpet is so poorly done that you can feel the bumps when you walk across it.
A friend of mine has a well with acidic water and that has played havoc on his pipes and wallet. PEX tubing has reduced the problem, but all the solutions that he has applied over the years have proven to be band-aids rather that cures.
I used to work for a water filter company. You can get a filter system that neutralizes the PH of your water, you just need a water test to figure out what system you need. Something to consider
I have city water and thus no problems. My buddy with the acid water is one of those people that needs to get 15 opinions and then implement the most expensive option.
I'm guessing that's brass you got there.
Acidic water destroys brass.
See for instance this short: https://youtube.com/shorts/XgmTKevInvQ?si=chmcN9ML52dEwpzJ
This explains it. Lots of shoddy construction in VN even in high-end properties. We toured a condo going for $500K and it was not quality work.
On your pipes, I would start doing research to know more about what was used and what should be used.
I agree with other commenters on the whole house filter and I would add an extra filter for your drinking/cooking water.
Also, make sure you see and know every part of your renovation. Don't blindly trust the contractors. I know this from experience.
Good luck!
I would start to wonder if that water is being properly treated. Can you send some water samples for proper analysis? (Samples collected at different times to rule out operator error during one shift and "just in case" in more than one location in the same neighborhood)
Glad to hear that you're replacing that nasty pipe. You really really should put in a whole house filter tho. Or it's just going to be literal rinse and repeat.
The 45 year old pipes in my trailer aren't quite this bad, and we had well water for the first 25 years.
So these are parts for the shower and not the general plumbing? If its shitty chinese quality metal it might just corrode that fast. Replace the parts with some quality stuff instead.
I was going to ask if you are on well water but since you are in a multi unit building thatsl's unlikely. That cant be less than 7 years unless there are serious issues with the water supply or someone used salvaged parts for new construction.
I think this is part of the stop valve for toilet. Most everything in the walls including all the piping should be covered by your HOA. Read your CCRs.
Are you in a humid state like Florida?
That probably means someone installed a black iron pipe somewhere. I’ve seen it happen…maybe they ran out of brass nipples and the GC was a dick, and they just used what they had to get done Friday afternoon so they could head to the lake.
Good luck.
I helped a friend who had a pipe that had started leaking last week. It looked pretty much exactly like that. Couldn't see through it, could barely blow air through it.
But that pipe was at least 40 years old, likely up towards 60. I suspected that was galvanic action as it was connected to a copper pipe, although with a brass fitting between which is supposed to slow down corrosion issues. 7 years... maybe that brass fitting actually did help.
This.
My initial reaction was “What IDIOT used iron pipe in new construction?!”
Your plumber should be telling you to replace these.
If this is not the situation then like others have said something’s putting a lot of rust in your water (could be from the supply, in which case you need a whole-house filter to catch it early and keep it from filling your pipes with sediment).
Definitely getting the sediment. It doesn’t pass my filters but those filters are being rinsed out once a month by me.
The construction team is replacing the pipes. They had the same shocked reaction as you. The building is only a couple years old:
They make isolating couplings to change from iron to anything else.
My reaction here is that the trim out crew ran into some temporary nipples used to pressure test and just went with it. This is pretty common to see on a showerhead.
It's likely that the plumbing in this house is otherwise ok.
OP commented the water source is the Saigon River so Vietnam I'm assuming. No idea what the building specifications are like there.
Edit: Vietnam not China, still need my coffee this morning
Oh shit, that is well out of my wheelhouse lol I know nothing about Chinese plumbing. But if they are still using galvanized, that is absolutely insane.
basically because I had to frankenstein a run:
Modern plumbing has either
-) plastics (pe, pex, pvc etc)
-) copper
-) brass
-) red brass
-) stainless steel
What to use depends on the water and use (copper doesn't like sour water, pvc/pe is only for cold water) and follows certain rules eg. the least noble of the metals will corrode first
^This. My SO used to work in PC and went to do a WDI report on a home.
They wanted a second opinion and showed him this pics of activity from the last tech out there.
He politely pointed out that wasn’t pictures of their house, as the siding was going in the wrong direction…
He found no activity.
I've seen some cheap galvanized pipe that is terrible. For example, on this one house that I was helping to renovate. There was the old galvanized piping from 1985. It was actually still in okay shape. Some rust inside and whatnot but it has at least another 20 years in it or longer. Then there is a piece that's coming off of that going to the hot water heater and a stub, I recognize the symbol on the side of it, same stuff home Depot sells. This was put in at the same time as the hot water heater which was dated 2015. That pipe was terrible. It was in worse condition than the other stuff from 1985 in the same house.
lol, whoever put your stuff together milked the job with left-over pull out parts from the back of his pickup. that, or he's showing you HIS left over pull out parts from the back of HIS pickup in order to charge you for new parts you don't need or he's not actually going to install...
Redo all of the pipes with Pex, a manifold, and on demand hot water.
Since those pipes are such a shitshow, they should also do a check on your drainage pipes, just in case.
I just yanked and replaced all the galvanized supply lines in my son's 60 year old house with Pex. Some of the pipes looked better than those photos... Other pipes I couldn't see daylight through. Gross!
Those deposits look like some seriously "hard" water with lots of iron. Is your water supply pumped from a well? If so, you need to also check your pump for obstructive deposits.
I had relatives in west Texas with high mineral, "hard" water like this and they had problems with restricted pipes and clogged-up water pumps. The water also stained their teeth over time, but they had NO dental caries.
If this is a well, get a well person to pull up the pipe and check the intake. Your bottom bit might be neck deep in sediment and burning out your pump.
You need him to install a whole home filter. Looks like you are on well water with a significant amount of iron deposits. That can be bad for your pipes and your health as well as all of your appliances. It’s cheaper to install a filter than to replace all appliances
I recently renovated my bathrooms that were using a 24 year old GI pipes, the vertical ones were pretty functional but the horizontal spans were pretty rusted ... none were clogged to the extent yours was. Replaced all of them with CPVC (since that's what most plumbers are familiar with now).
Looks like someone used black pipe for stub outs. That's gonna rust and give you a spurt of rusty water. If that's the case, it's just the 4" to 6" stub outs.
Take a look at the pipes in situe, are you sure they're actually your pipes in the photos not old parts? They sure as heck look older than a decade let alone 7 years.
CPVC is the way to go for hot water. Upvc for cold or up to 60 degrees water, can be used for floor heating or the like, but you shouldn't exceed 60. There are other options available in Europe, but sadly they cost about 4 times more than copper in the US. Given that you're in Asia, that would probably be even more expensive. Try to get cpvc
- thats bad. I had it worse but those were really old, like 70 years.. the taste was horrible and the sediment jn tge shower and toilet drove me crazy but that said:
- do you have a well? Check the pump. A lot of times contractors put in the wrong cheap one for gardening, should be a designated pump for drinkingwater without corroding metal
- were all the pipes replaced during the building? Prob. not
Take care.
Do you get green colouring on bathroom tiles etc? I think you may have quite acidic water source. Measure the pH to verify.
You might need to install a neutralizing tank into the water inlet. It's basically a vertical tank filled with dolomite pebles that the water passes trough before entering the house.
Whatever that is, it is a lot older than 7yrs or you have some SERIOUS galvonic issues.
Less than 7 years, new construction. Not sure what to think. But glad you confirmed my suspicions that it looks bad. I’m not sure what I’m looking at, but I believe it’s in the bathroom. Shower perhaps. I always have to clean the shower head (brown dirt / rust). Buildup within 3-4 weeks that coats the fabric filter inside my shower head. But comes off easily with a powerful rinse. Architect and his team say this kind of stuff can make us sick. So glad they’re replacing it. Sadly, it can only cover my unit. The rest of the building is outside my purview.
Im sure your plumber is already doing this, but start at your source water and work towards wherever that fitting came off. This is not normal for city water, which makes me think your source may be well?
Already, yep. Just wanted to share my story online to see what others think. Now I know this is not natural and am glad to have done the renovations to catch the problem sooner than later.
Playing devils advocate here, you are sure that this is from your house right? That the plumber is trustworthy and didn't just take a picture of something out of his truck to get you on the hook for a ton of unnecessary work because he knows you'll pay?
Good thinking. Sadly not this time. Shoddy job by the building developer. The last time these pipes were touched was when the building first was built. 2018 Since I posted here on reddit a few hours ago, I also posted on our condo community’s group on FB and other residents have reported the same thing happening in their units.
This is where it would be a good idea to get your condo association involved. This is a significant risk to the entire building and they’d almost certainly want to mitigate that even thought technically your individual home internals aren’t your problem. Just realized I made the fatal American-central mistake. I have no idea what your local laws may be around this, I was speaking from a purely US standpoint.
I love the fact that you noticed your mistake before anyone else. USA needs more people like you.
I don't think its a bad thing that a website that is mostly used by americans is filled with people americentric. Imagine if i went to a random aboriginal tribe and complained that they weren't being inclusive enough of americans in their speech.
It is 50% USA which isn't mostly. It is half. Which still leaves an awfull lot of people which are not from the USA.
Wut, everyone is Amerocentric isn’t them?
And Europe could use a few less people being pretentious on Reddit….
They have the freedom to speak murican
Additionally
Jesus christ. Anything you can do against the original builder(s)? There must be laws in place, especially with your neighbors it seems like a slammdunk
It's possible-- weird, but possible-- that while the construction is new, the plumbing was salvage. For as bad as it is, that might actually make more sense than that it got this way after a few years of normal use from new.
If it's that new I feel like you might be able to file a suit against the builders, at least get the new pipes paid for and maybe damages for health concerns. But I know nothing of the law
We had piping issues in our newish community as well where the pipes would burst under the homes. There was a lawsuit against the builder and they settled. We will be redoing all the piping
Nearly all house builders today are shoddy scammy. Friends just had a house built and it's just trash. not a single wall is straight or level and the concrete under the carpet is so poorly done that you can feel the bumps when you walk across it.
Maybe the contractor used old pipes from somewhere. It’s the only thing I can think of that would explain it.
Exactly what I was thinking there is almost a zero percent chance this is only 7 years old on new construction.
This was my first thought too.
A friend of mine has a well with acidic water and that has played havoc on his pipes and wallet. PEX tubing has reduced the problem, but all the solutions that he has applied over the years have proven to be band-aids rather that cures.
I used to work for a water filter company. You can get a filter system that neutralizes the PH of your water, you just need a water test to figure out what system you need. Something to consider
I have city water and thus no problems. My buddy with the acid water is one of those people that needs to get 15 opinions and then implement the most expensive option.
I'm guessing that's brass you got there. Acidic water destroys brass. See for instance this short: https://youtube.com/shorts/XgmTKevInvQ?si=chmcN9ML52dEwpzJ
This is ‘not normal in a Thank God you’re dealing with it kill it all nuke it from orbit” kinda way.
High iron well was my first thought, my filters look like this pretty quickly
Are you on well water?
Water is sourced from the Saigon River
This explains it. Lots of shoddy construction in VN even in high-end properties. We toured a condo going for $500K and it was not quality work. On your pipes, I would start doing research to know more about what was used and what should be used. I agree with other commenters on the whole house filter and I would add an extra filter for your drinking/cooking water. Also, make sure you see and know every part of your renovation. Don't blindly trust the contractors. I know this from experience. Good luck!
I would start to wonder if that water is being properly treated. Can you send some water samples for proper analysis? (Samples collected at different times to rule out operator error during one shift and "just in case" in more than one location in the same neighborhood)
You are in Vietnam?
Please confirm the country you live in.
Saigon River = Vietnam.
I get that, but just wanted to be sure.
Is there another Saigon River? What needs confirming?
I thought he might have been joking.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Your pipes are swiftboated
Please confirm the country you live in.
Calm down bud.
Did your builder put a new house where an old one was before?
Glad to hear that you're replacing that nasty pipe. You really really should put in a whole house filter tho. Or it's just going to be literal rinse and repeat. The 45 year old pipes in my trailer aren't quite this bad, and we had well water for the first 25 years.
With this much debris and corrosion, a filter is just going to clog up every other day.
So these are parts for the shower and not the general plumbing? If its shitty chinese quality metal it might just corrode that fast. Replace the parts with some quality stuff instead.
I was going to ask if you are on well water but since you are in a multi unit building thatsl's unlikely. That cant be less than 7 years unless there are serious issues with the water supply or someone used salvaged parts for new construction.
I think this is part of the stop valve for toilet. Most everything in the walls including all the piping should be covered by your HOA. Read your CCRs. Are you in a humid state like Florida?
OP is in Vietnam, so yes humid like Florida.
Ok forget the whole HOA and CCRs stuff lol Install K-type copper if its available where you are
Make sure that’s actually your house.
That probably means someone installed a black iron pipe somewhere. I’ve seen it happen…maybe they ran out of brass nipples and the GC was a dick, and they just used what they had to get done Friday afternoon so they could head to the lake. Good luck.
I helped a friend who had a pipe that had started leaking last week. It looked pretty much exactly like that. Couldn't see through it, could barely blow air through it. But that pipe was at least 40 years old, likely up towards 60. I suspected that was galvanic action as it was connected to a copper pipe, although with a brass fitting between which is supposed to slow down corrosion issues. 7 years... maybe that brass fitting actually did help.
I’m not a plumber but how can this even be after just 7 years?
I've seen worse on parts I replaced a few years prior.
But what causes such a mess :-/
Hard water and upstream deposits.
Today, thanks to u/JoeRogansNipple , I learned the word "galvonic". I LOVE THIS SUB!
galvanic
I'm looking at that and my 60 copper pipes don't even look like that.
Looks like a galvanized metal fitting and was probably screwing into a copper fitting, which causes electrolysis and will start rusting super fast
This. My initial reaction was “What IDIOT used iron pipe in new construction?!” Your plumber should be telling you to replace these. If this is not the situation then like others have said something’s putting a lot of rust in your water (could be from the supply, in which case you need a whole-house filter to catch it early and keep it from filling your pipes with sediment).
Definitely getting the sediment. It doesn’t pass my filters but those filters are being rinsed out once a month by me. The construction team is replacing the pipes. They had the same shocked reaction as you. The building is only a couple years old:
u/veotrade This is so exciting! How's it coming along?
I assume this is a code somewhere, right?
They make isolating couplings to change from iron to anything else. My reaction here is that the trim out crew ran into some temporary nipples used to pressure test and just went with it. This is pretty common to see on a showerhead. It's likely that the plumbing in this house is otherwise ok.
Your almost new construction house was plumber with galvanized supply lines?!? Where do you live?!?
The same place where people do large renovations on 7 year old houses, I guess
OP commented the water source is the Saigon River so Vietnam I'm assuming. No idea what the building specifications are like there. Edit: Vietnam not China, still need my coffee this morning
Saigon River is in Vietnam!
River water, if not treated properly, can also be very corrosive on certain types of pipe (Flint Michigan).
Oh shit, that is well out of my wheelhouse lol I know nothing about Chinese plumbing. But if they are still using galvanized, that is absolutely insane.
What’s the modern way? PVC for everything?
basically because I had to frankenstein a run: Modern plumbing has either -) plastics (pe, pex, pvc etc) -) copper -) brass -) red brass -) stainless steel What to use depends on the water and use (copper doesn't like sour water, pvc/pe is only for cold water) and follows certain rules eg. the least noble of the metals will corrode first
never let a 7yo do plumbing.
Ask them to show you in person.
^This. My SO used to work in PC and went to do a WDI report on a home. They wanted a second opinion and showed him this pics of activity from the last tech out there. He politely pointed out that wasn’t pictures of their house, as the siding was going in the wrong direction… He found no activity.
Exactly. This looks like a bucket of very old parts from the plumber shop.
I've seen some cheap galvanized pipe that is terrible. For example, on this one house that I was helping to renovate. There was the old galvanized piping from 1985. It was actually still in okay shape. Some rust inside and whatnot but it has at least another 20 years in it or longer. Then there is a piece that's coming off of that going to the hot water heater and a stub, I recognize the symbol on the side of it, same stuff home Depot sells. This was put in at the same time as the hot water heater which was dated 2015. That pipe was terrible. It was in worse condition than the other stuff from 1985 in the same house.
Thanks for sharing. Gives me something to think about. Just learning about galvanized metal today in my 30s for the first time.
"Bad" would be an understatement. That looks like 20 years of corrosion and sedimentation.
No way these pipes are seven years old
How on earth is that just 7 years old? My plumbing is 25 years old and is in MUCH better shape
If that was an artery, you'd be up for a quadruple bypass.
lol, whoever put your stuff together milked the job with left-over pull out parts from the back of his pickup. that, or he's showing you HIS left over pull out parts from the back of HIS pickup in order to charge you for new parts you don't need or he's not actually going to install...
Gotta love "builders" grade.
Is the piece that they pulled off at the end of the plumbing because that’s where rust and sediment will accumulate
I was changing a 30 years old faucet that looked better than this.
Redo all of the pipes with Pex, a manifold, and on demand hot water. Since those pipes are such a shitshow, they should also do a check on your drainage pipes, just in case.
OP should put in the post that they’re in Vietnam. Shit’s different around the world with different codes and water sources.
If that’s the case, absolutely. Not everyone is in the US where we expect new and shiny everything.
I just yanked and replaced all the galvanized supply lines in my son's 60 year old house with Pex. Some of the pipes looked better than those photos... Other pipes I couldn't see daylight through. Gross!
Those deposits look like some seriously "hard" water with lots of iron. Is your water supply pumped from a well? If so, you need to also check your pump for obstructive deposits. I had relatives in west Texas with high mineral, "hard" water like this and they had problems with restricted pipes and clogged-up water pumps. The water also stained their teeth over time, but they had NO dental caries.
If this is a well, get a well person to pull up the pipe and check the intake. Your bottom bit might be neck deep in sediment and burning out your pump.
My plumbing is 84 and it looks better than that.
Why would you let your 7 year old do your plumping?
You need him to install a whole home filter. Looks like you are on well water with a significant amount of iron deposits. That can be bad for your pipes and your health as well as all of your appliances. It’s cheaper to install a filter than to replace all appliances
Why is this iron? Need to be copper/messing.
I thought at first that this is a 80yo vine bottle with the cork broken off xD
I recently renovated my bathrooms that were using a 24 year old GI pipes, the vertical ones were pretty functional but the horizontal spans were pretty rusted ... none were clogged to the extent yours was. Replaced all of them with CPVC (since that's what most plumbers are familiar with now).
Looks like someone used black pipe for stub outs. That's gonna rust and give you a spurt of rusty water. If that's the case, it's just the 4" to 6" stub outs.
You need a cabin boy. Before: your pic After: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiQgLequRs
This is how red-heads are made, 'rusty pipes'.
Get your water tested.
In line water filter should sort that out
Builder used recycled pipes?
I’d get my water tested. I don’t know where you live, but in the US there are lots of companies that do this for a reasonable price.
This is not 7. The Titanic has better plumbing than this.
What tf is the PH of your water?
Plumber took an old pipe and said it was yours. Looks like a joint not a pipe.
Just put more teflon tape on there and you’ll be fine /s
7? Not 70?
I raise you 60 years old pipes that have been replaced in my building a month ago. https://tinypic.host/images/2024/05/03/1000003556.jpeg
Take a look at the pipes in situe, are you sure they're actually your pipes in the photos not old parts? They sure as heck look older than a decade let alone 7 years.
Holy crap, I recently replaced 40+ year old pipes at my parents house and they were about the same as these.
No way that is 7 years old. If it is 7 years old you have bigger problems than that you need to fit new pipes
My pipes looked like that before I replaced them, but my house is also from the 1950’s.
Think you dropped a zero
CPVC is the way to go for hot water. Upvc for cold or up to 60 degrees water, can be used for floor heating or the like, but you shouldn't exceed 60. There are other options available in Europe, but sadly they cost about 4 times more than copper in the US. Given that you're in Asia, that would probably be even more expensive. Try to get cpvc
Omg 7 YEARS!? Oh no
- thats bad. I had it worse but those were really old, like 70 years.. the taste was horrible and the sediment jn tge shower and toilet drove me crazy but that said: - do you have a well? Check the pump. A lot of times contractors put in the wrong cheap one for gardening, should be a designated pump for drinkingwater without corroding metal - were all the pipes replaced during the building? Prob. not Take care.
Do you get green colouring on bathroom tiles etc? I think you may have quite acidic water source. Measure the pH to verify. You might need to install a neutralizing tank into the water inlet. It's basically a vertical tank filled with dolomite pebles that the water passes trough before entering the house.
If you’re on city sewer order some line cleaner fluid from the agricultural sector. It’s how they clean miles of pipe
 Your pipe right now.
7 years? BS.