The Complete Handbook of Plumbing Pipes
Essential Knowledge for Installers, Contractors, Builders, and Serious DIY Practitioners
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The technical reference for anyone who specifies, installs, or maintains plumbing pipe systems. Code-aware, jargon-free, grounded in real-world constraints.
About this book
Plumbing pipes seem simple until you're standing at the supply counter trying to choose between materials, or you find water damage behind a wall, or you're designing a system for a new building and need to know which pipe will actually work.
This handbook is written for professionals, contractors, builders, and serious hobbyists who need to make informed decisions about plumbing pipes—not marketing claims or oversimplified rules of thumb. You'll learn the properties of each major pipe material (copper, PVC, PEX, ABS, cast iron, and others), what the specifications actually mean, how pressure and temperature affect performance, which codes and standards apply, and how to diagnose and fix the most common failures.
Whether you're selecting pipe for a new installation, troubleshooting a leak, evaluating a supplier, or building a business around plumbing systems, this reference gives you the concrete knowledge to work with confidence.
Reader Reviews
Jason Thompson
★★★★★I'm a general contractor and was hoping this would actually explain why copper costs more than PVC and whether it's worth it, and it does—the whole chapter on material properties and cost tradeoffs is exactly what I needed for client conversations. The troubleshooting section helped me diagnose a pinhole leak situation I would have just guessed on otherwise. My only gripe is I wish there was more on local code variations; maybe that's beyond scope, but I had to cross-reference the code sections mentioned with my city's amendments anyway.
Joshua Taylor
★★★★★Solid reference book. The explanation of how copper and PEX actually behave differently under temperature changes cleared up a lot of confusion I had. I do think the installation chapter could be more detailed on the newer joining methods—the PEX expansion fitting stuff feels a little thin. But overall it's the most no-nonsense pipe reference I've found, and I've already recommended it to two other contractors.
Jonathan Hall
★★★★★This is exactly what plumbing technical literature should be. I manage facilities for a commercial building and have been trying to understand our aging galvanized steel system and when we actually need to replace it—this book gave me the concrete numbers on corrosion rates, failure timelines, and what codes actually require. The material comparisons are brutally honest about tradeoffs instead of selling you on one option. Wish I'd had this five years ago instead of learning from trial and error.