LESLIE: Joe in West Virginia wants to talk plumbing. What can we do for you?
JOE: Is it OK to put the copper pipe into concrete?
TOM: Joe, it is completely possible to install copper inside of concrete because it’s done all the time with radiant floor systems. A couple of things that you have to be concerned about. Just where the pipe enters and exits the concrete itself you have to leave room for expansion and contraction and another thing that you can do if you’re worried about abrasion is the copper pipe itself can be wrapped with a sleeve or a tape that kind of will act as an insulator so that the pipe can expand and contract inside the concrete because copper does expand and contract a lot. So for example, if you were going to do an embedded hard right angle of the copper pipe you would probably want to have some insulating tape around there so it had some give and didn’t push against the copper; against the concrete as it was moving because that could cause a break. But it’s been done for years. It works very, very well and there’s no reason for concern about any chemical reaction between the copper and the concrete.
JOE: Alright, then I thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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