Apartment and condominium buildings across the Washington DC area that were built before the 1990s are, in most cases, running on piping in the second half of its service life. Domestic water supply lines are usually copper or galvanized steel, and both age from the inside. Galvanized steel rusts internally, restricting flow and discoloring water long before it leaks. Copper is generally durable but vulnerable to pinhole leaks from erosion and water chemistry.
The warning signs are system-wide
Discolored water, falling pressure and pinhole leaks on domestic lines signal internal corrosion that is system-wide, not local. When they keep returning, the question for the board is no longer one fixture but the whole distribution system.
Why we replace water lines instead of coating them
Epoxy coating of drinking-water piping is sometimes offered as an alternative to repiping. Dynamic Drain Technologies does not line or coat water lines with epoxy or any other barrier coating. Pressurized drinking-water piping is rehabilitated by replacement. Lining is the right tool for drainage: sanitary and storm stacks and risers, horizontal collectors, under-slab piping and laterals are renewed with cured-in-place pipe (CIPP), a new structural pipe formed inside the old one.
How PEX replacement works in an occupied building
- The aging copper or galvanized supply piping is removed, and new flexible PEX piping is installed through the building's existing penetrations and wall cavities rather than through new demolition.
- Each unit gets a manifold feeding dedicated hot and cold lines to every fixture, reconnected through carefully planned access openings. The manifold gives per-fixture isolation, eliminates concealed fittings in walls and simplifies future service.
- Risers follow the same existing-penetration principle, with work sequenced zone by zone so water interruptions are limited to scheduled windows.
- Tubing meets ASTM F876 and fittings meet ASTM F877, certified to NSF/ANSI 61 for drinking-water contact. Each completed zone is pressure tested, disinfected and flushed per the governing plumbing code before it returns to service.
Taking care of residents and tenants
A common concern for property management is whether residents will have to relocate. Most of our projects have been completed in buildings that stayed open and occupied. Residents and tenants receive clear notices: what is happening, when their line is affected and what they need to do. The result is an all-new, corrosion-free water distribution system with the disruption profile of a trenchless project, instead of a gut repipe that opens walls in every unit.
Plan both systems together
Older buildings often need both: drainage that can be lined and water lines that should be replaced. Planning them together, with a condition assessment behind the drainage work, lets a board or facilities team phase the project and fund it on actual condition rather than average age.
