DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,

I'm a novice renovating a flat - part diy, part calling in the professionals.

We've just employed a new plumber, as the first one went awol (!) with the job half done :(

We have 2 bathrooms each with a shower with pipework chased into a masonry wall. The old plumber has already installed the pipework and mixers by chasing into the wall. He has used plastic pipe up to the mixer and the pipes have been plastered over ready for tiling...
BUT
the new plumber wants us to rip out the pipes from the wall and replace them all with copper pipe as he says the plastic will degrade in the wall. It isn't the quality of the work that's in question, just the choice of materials...

Is this necessary? I would have thought that this may be one instance where plastic was a better fit than copper, but as I pointed out in the beginning, I'm a novice :-/

Is it a problem to have plastic pipe chased into the wall? Is it better to have copper instead of plastic? (and why?). Or am I just wasting time and money if I replace them?

The old plumber has left behind some mistakes which definitely do have to be fixed, but I am not convinced that this is one of them and can't afford to pay for work which doesn't need to be done, and I don't fancy having to re-plaster the wall either if not necessary (fun as this would no doubt be!)

Any more informed input would be much appreciated!

Thanks :)

Hi jep

I'm old fashioned, copper for me every time. Having said that, there's really nothing wrong with plastic, it's used on most new builds these days. I've not heard of any problems due to plastic being chased in. Both plastic and copper should be sleeved in any case.
So just a personal opinion - If it were mine, I'd rip it out.