The Historic District

Ok, so here's the current bee in our bonnet...

When we moved here two years ago, it was noted in our home report that the main water line coming into the basement was heavily corroded and would need replacing. Initially, it was just super rusty but seemed dry. Over the past month or so, the threading around that line has begun to leak... first just some dampness, then a bit of dripping, now a steady slow drip. Clearly this must be addressed as we don't want it to blow!

So, my question is this... we also have exterior galvanized piping. My husband thinks we should replace the main line coming into the basement and get the whole galvanized piping system replaced to the road while we're at it- he thinks of it as security that no problems lie waiting.
My thinking is to just replace the portion that comes into the house (so, only the corroded portion). It will be cheaper, and last year our next door neighbour had all of their exterior galvanized piping replaced (as condition of the sale of the home), and it was all clean as a whistle, no issue. I'm guessing that ours is about the same, although my husband did raise the point that our house sat empty for about 1.5 years before we purchased it and perhaps that stagnate water could have gunked them up.

So... I assume that all of you lovely people have had to address something like this at one point or another. What did you do?

I was really hoping the pipe would last a few more years, as we will have to dig the basement floor down a couple of feet and waterproof it... and probably relocate that pipe down two feet as a result. Ah well.

Sitting would not have effected the buried pipe in a negative way, if anything it may have helped very slightly as the sitting water would have become anaerobic and so had less corrosive effects on any pipework. Having said that, just because your neighbors was fine does not mean yours would be. If you have the money I would say do the whole thing, otherwise I would maybe talk to a plumber about options and the best way to do it two step

Thanks for the two cents, Mick. Very much appreciated!!

Are there any sections of your piping which could be restricted or blocked on the inside? If you only replace a portion of the piping you'll get excellent flow through the new section and not so much through the old parts which could cause some additional stress on the weaker pipes. If you can do it, I'd replace it all at the same time.

I have no idea how to tell if any sections of piping are restricted on the inside... I know our toilets flush fine and our drains have no issues... but I'm not sure if that really is a good bar to judge by.
Thanks for the suggestion, Sinoed!

Not the answer you want to hear, but I would replace the entire service run from the meter to the house with 1" copper. The water coming in from the meter averages about 75 psi and what you have is a ticking time bomb. I know from experience.

We didn't have any water pressure issues until one night in January 2012 the whole thing blew and started to flood the basement. I was outside at 2 AM with my head down in the meter barrel shutting off the water to the house. The line blew right where it came through the basement wall, rendering the shutoff valve inside the house useless.

Another vote for replacing the whole service line from the meter. I don't have personal horror stories, but I have seen and heard plenty. That aside, I am a 'do it once and be done' kind of guy. In my earlier years, I did only the part that was necessary, etc and ended up paying for those decisions later...I like to think it was just a costly education.

I really appreciate all the advice. Although not what I was hoping for, I knew it was a possibility and obviously don't want to save a quick buck here only to have a major issue in the not-so-distant future, which sounds like more of a possibility than I was thinking.
I have no experience with this, so it is so helpful to hear these stories. Thank you, Colonial and Skip!

Colonial, a quick question... what is the standard piping that would be typically used to re-do the exterior piping to the town's main line? I assumed it would be PVC (totally uneducated guess, no one has said this), this is the first I am hearing about copper. Isn't copper outrageously expensive? Or is it the standard material used for this? I have no idea.

It can be done using either plastic or copper. In most environments, the copper line will far outlive the plastic. I chose copper because I only like to do things once and I didn't want to have to replace a nearly 100 ft run of line in another 20-30 years. I really don't remember the cost, but it wasn't all that much more than if I had used plastic. When you consider the durability of copper, the extra cost is more than justified no matter what the application (plumbing, roof flashing, gutters, etc). The downside is that a lot of junkies think copper is worth a fortune and steal it to get $1.75 a pound at a scrap yard. With a water line in the ground, you won't have to worry about that. Those people don't want to do too much that resembles work.

This is one of the very few things I contracted out, as there had to be permits to touch the water meter and the ground was frozen solid at the time.

I'd replace it all if I had the money. However, you can spend some money and get it inspected with a camera and know where the problems, if any, are located. I just went through this and the pipe to the street looked good (KNOCK ON WOOD), but the whole house trap gave way shortly after moving in. We then replaced everything from the roofline to the connection under our house. This involved busting up concrete, etc., but everything is now new and PVC.