When houses with slab foundations are built are the water pipes always beneath the house, or can they be buried in the ground outside of the house? The house was built in 1975.

I'm considering buying a house with a slab foundation that needs to be repiped and the plumbers said this could be done through the attic. The sellers are saying that the pipes are not under the house, but buried outside. I'm not sure how they would know this.

Thanks for any assistance!

Ask the sellers how they know this, do they have a blueprint? Ask to see it. It doesn't matter if you are going to repipe through the ceiling anyway.

There's a third possibility in a 1975 house: pipes buried in the slab. Discovered this in my parents' 1970 house. Big pain!

How did I know? My parents had told me. But the macho contractor chose not to believe me and promptly cut through a copper water pipe.

With Pex nowadays, why not run them through the attic?

There are a lot of re-pipes, poly pipe, that are run outside and then up to the attic and back down. Other ones are run into the wall of a garage or other open location and run through inside wall, the walls patched later.

I agree with ma0641 now days most re-pipes are done as he says it is easy and cost saving, Thanks.

John

Pipes are most likely under the slab. That's how they used to do it back then. Problem is, once they start leaking, it is a mess to fix it. If the house was built in 1970 than you may face repiping soon after you move in. In my area of operation, all water pipes must be routed through the walls and ceilings. No more copper pipes under slab.

They may have few pipes buried around the perimeter of the house but there will always be some sections where they went under slab. Ask the present owner to excavate in couple of areas to prove to you the pipes are run on the outside and around the house. They should not be that deep.

Hope that helps

Milo