I think with the new methods that plastic pipe is being implemented, there might not be as much trouble. Our apartment buildings were plumbed in a manner that was similar in design to copper or galvy. In other words, there were runners with taps giving us 9 million fittings in the wall. I never had a problem with the pipe itself (although, I understand that PB still has outgassing problems like PVC), it was the fittings. So far the PEX fittings that I've dealt with (we've had to use them with our PB, since real PB fittings aren't available anymore) have all been brass. So we'll see. I think with the manifold and dedicated runner system eliminating most of the fitting in the wall, it'll curb most of the trouble. Hell, if you went to the trouble to put conduit into slabs and then pulling the pipe through, you could even make it easy to fix if there was a problem.
That being said, copper is still my favourite, and were I to plumb a house I'd build a central manifold and use flared soft copper tubing to all fixtures.
Catchya on the Flip Side.....
Emerald Wolf -- the only other problem with copper is that recirculating water in it cuts it's life is half...
