Charlotte Pipe

Posted on June 19, 2016

Some things change.  Others stay the same.  Our local plumbing supply is a bit of both.  Old-school methods and materials tested over generations, some unchanged since Roman times.  New ideas to save time and expense now, some destined to fail yet introduced to a hungry public.  The spawn of change?  Entire developments of luxury homes with Tinker-Toy waste pipes, flexible water lines secured with hose clamps, already springing leaks not one lustrum after completion.

All that new stuff, proven in manufacturers labs but unproven in the final test, Time.  Not for me.  Copper and cast iron is what I learned and how I stay.  Lead and oakum, a centuries old method of pipe connection, or the “new” method of No-Hub® cast iron pipe attachment – now decades old and proven durable.

When the call for multi-generational durability goes out, I head to the same supply house patronized as an apprentice.  To the same stack of cast iron pipe I drew from as a lad.  The same brand, Charlotte  (or Tyler.  This is almost a “Skippy or Jif” comparison).

When the builder asks, “Plastic or iron?”, they are talking about the horizontal waste pipes dropping through your home.  Perhaps your dining room or den walls.  Nothing beats the quiet serenity of cast iron pipe.