The Plumbing Issues We See in Summerlin South Homes
The Gardens, Ridgebrook and Siena went up between 1999 and 2006, the Kitec years, when PEX-AL-PEX lines with high-zinc brass fittings went into some 30,000 valley houses. Recalled in 2005 and still sold here into 2007, the fittings corrode from the inside until lines split. A Kitec house is a repipe candidate, not a patch job, and one visit tells us.
Our water runs about 16 grains per gallon, per the Las Vegas Valley Water District, so scale does more here than dull a faucet. It flakes loose inside the lines and settles in aerators, fill valves and angle stops, which is why the shutoff under a sink will not turn when you need it. A whole-home softener stops it at the source.
Almost no home here has a basement: caliche hardpan makes digging one impractical, so lines run in the slab or overhead. A slab leak shows up as a warm patch of tile or a water bill that jumps, and an upstairs leak lands in the ceiling below. We find it electronically and open only what we have to.