The house was built in 1977 by Ponderosa. It is located in Milpitas CA. I am buying the house but the current owner doesn‘t know nor does the inspection report state anything. How can I tell?
I may be tooting my own horn here, but I have seen - all too often - bad plumbing overlooked by, well, everyone in the purchase/sale of a house. And it might not show up until you've been using it a while. Replacing a terra-cotta building drain that is root-infested can be expensive. A house built in Miltipas in the '70s is almost certainly copper cast, but it wouldn't hurt to walk a plumber through. It may not be a bad idea to pay for a camera inspection of the building drain either. Just my $0.02.
Hello. My name is Richie. I am an electrician and a home improvement expert. I will help you the best I can. For as old as it is, I would hope you have copper. Run the water from each faucet and see if the water is brown in color at any time. Look under sinks, on top of the water heater and see if you can see any evidence of copper around the water spigot outside. I know it is nor CPVC or PVC because it was not used back then. Galvanized pipes were the standard up until the 1970's. I do not believe they went any further than that. Here is some history regarding galvanized pipe used for water. Galvanized pipe is iron pipe coated with zinc. It was once the standard for piping in homes. Those living in older homes likely have galvanized steel piping carrying water to all their spigots and from the municipal water main in the street to your home. The problem with galvanized pipe is the protective zinc coating's proclivity to interact with the minerals in the water and clog over time. When pipes clog, it reduces the water pressure. (rust buildup) After plumbers and homeowners began to realize galvanized pipe was prone to clogging from interaction with minerals, home builders switched to using predominantly copper pipe or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes, which aren't susceptible to the same kinds of interaction with minerals. Since they don't clog, water pressure stays relatively constant over long periods of time. Particularly in older homes (pre-1980s), it was found that the zinc used for galvanization contained high levels of lead, which is a naturally occurring impurity in zinc. The irony is that galvanized pipe supplanted lead pipe as the water line of choice. Good luck and God Bless. Jesus Christ loves you.
If there is a basement that is not finished, look in the ceiling joists. You should see the pipes running through the joist spaces. Also look in the Cabinets below sinks suchs in the kitchen, washroom. Often you can see some of the piping where it comes through the wall or floor.
