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FROM THE FIELD Whole house re-piping
Golden State plumbing firm sees benefits with plastic push-fit fittings
MAnTECA, CALIF. — California rep- resents a giant housing market, but unfortunately these days not too many new homes are being built,
considering the inventory of unsold and foreclosed homes on the market because of the housing meltdown. Plumbing contractors like Discount Plumbing, Heating & Air of Man-
...Using Speedfit, a cold connection could be accomplished in less than three minutes...
teca, Calif., in the Central Valley re- gion east of San Francisco, have made a successful transition to retro- fit work. “Retrofit and re-piping is where the
market is today,” said Bob Campana, owner of Discount Plumbing, which handles several whole house re-pipe jobs a month. Recently, Discount discovered an
easier and faster way to do house re- piping using engineered plastic fit- tings and PEX provided by John Guest®
USA. A “whole house” re-piping job is
one of the most time-consuming and demanding plumbing jobs a tech comes across. Re-piping jobs in- volve high complexity variability due to different construction meth- ods and also regional construction codes. This type of variability can leave
a plumbing contractor open to addi- tional expenses and unforeseen extra time-on-the-job that can be very dif- ficult to foresee when quoting. When problems arise that incur ad- ditional cost, they can hurt both the contractor and the customer, so any- thing that can be done —or used on the job— to increase the speed in completing a home re-pipe job is very beneficial. The opportunity to use John Guest’s Speedfit® fittings and PEX
ing, leading to critical breaks in the home’s water system and visible de- terioration of the pipes. In opting to use an engineered plas-
tic product like Speedfit — as opposed to traditional copper or CPVC — Dis- count wanted to determine what amount of perform- ance, time and materials sav- ings could be achieved. Speedfit, manufactured by
John Guest Ltd. of Great Britain, is an advanced push- fit fitting featuring twist & lock technology that em- ploys a patented collet and o- ring to securely grip pipe, be it copper CPVC or PEX. One of the time ben- efits that using Speedfit provides the contractor is that there’s no require- ment for tools, and Speedfit PEX is highly flexible, allowing techs to work faster and easier in tight spaces, like under the house and behind walls.
John Guest maintains that plumb-
came on a 2,000-square-foot home with a 50-year-old galvanized water pipe system. The homeowner under- stood the need to re-pipe his home after the original piping started fail-
ing contractors can save as much as 40% time-on-job installing Speedfit as opposed to a rigid system that re- quires tools and solder. The product — which is lead-free compliant to AB 1953 and the new federal Re- duction of Lead in Drinking Water
•THE WHOLESALER® —MAY 2011
(S. 3874) legislation that becomes law in all 50 states as of January 1, 2014 — conforms to all U.S. plumb- ing standards and is backed by a 25 year warranty. After the initial steps of breaking
down the existing, damaged system, removing deteriorated sections as well as capping off abandoned pipe, Discount’s senior plumbing Dave Parra and a fellow tech got to work installing the Speedfit system. They
estimate that they were able to finish their work in approximately half the time it would have taken using other methods. For example, using Speedfit, a cold connection could be accomplished in less than three minutes. Campana and his crew estimates that using Speedfit is some 10% to 15% faster than using PEX, the method they previously used most, and easier too. The installation was very cost-ef-
fective for Discount and its customer, because there was no cost for an in- stallation tool or other add-ons that can sometimes be needed when doing re-piping work. For this whole house job, 20 Speedfit fittings were used, along with 100 feet of PEX tubing and six feet of copper pipe for connection stubs.
According to Campana, the use of Speedfit was a “complete success.” Speedfit reduced the time, complex- ity and cost of a job that could have been extremely problematic and a profit-drain. “Speedfit’s a good system that
keeps the job moving fast,” added Parra. And Campana noted, “We — and
the homeowner — were very happy with the job,” echoing what other U.S. plumbing contractors are dis- covering about this time-saving, lead- free compliant alternative pipe joining method. Discount can pur- chase Speedfit fittings and PEX at their local Ferguson supply house and intend to use it again on their next whole house re-pipe.n
Information supplied by Discount Plumbing, Heating & Air and John Guest USA. For more information, log on to
www.johnguest.com.
• Be sure to visit
www.thewholesaler.com for web exclusive articles and videos! •
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