What's in your walls, by decade.

Galvanized pipe was the standard for decades, and time is not kind to it: rust-scale builds inside until the bore is a third of what it was. The tell isn't a leak — it's pressure that fades at the far fixtures while the hose bibb outside still blasts. Cast iron drains from this era develop scale and root intrusion at joints. Many pre-1960 homes around Florence have already been partially repiped in copper; the mix is worth mapping out.

WATCH FOR: Fading pressure at upstairs or far-end fixtures; rust-tinted first draws; recurring main-line clogs.

Copper took over in the sixties and it's genuinely durable material — most of it is still doing its job. The failure mode is the pinhole leak: a tiny spray-point that shows up as a damp ceiling stain or a bulging patch of drywall. Aggressive water chemistry speeds it up. Drains moved to thinner-walled cast iron and early plastics in this window.

WATCH FOR: Small damp spots on ceilings or walls with no fixture above; green-crusted pinholes at exposed runs in the basement or crawlspace.

The builder-dependent decade. Polybutylene supply — usually gray or white plastic with crimped fittings — was installed in some homes and is known to fail at those fittings, sometimes behind walls. Not every 80s house here has it, but it's worth identifying either way: the pipe itself can look fine while the connections let go. CPVC (cream-colored plastic) and copper both appear too and hold up differently.

WATCH FOR: Gray or white plastic supply with metal crimp rings at joints; a history of unexplained wet spots; insurance-driven replacement questions.

CPVC and early PEX carry most houses from this era, and both are generally sound. When we do get called to a 90s house, the trouble is usually at fittings and connections — a sloppy solvent joint, an over-crimped ring — rather than the pipe material itself. Fixtures and water heaters age out long before the piping does.

WATCH FOR: Drips centered on fittings, not runs; water heater age (this era's original heaters are all retired by now — replacements on replacements).

PEX is the modern standard — flexible, corrosion-free, and quiet about problems. Failures live at connections, manifolds, and kinked runs, not in the pipe. Most calls from newer Shoals homes are about fixtures, heaters, and the odd builder shortcut, not the piping. Expansion tanks and heater pans are the common 21st-century add-ons we check.

WATCH FOR: Drips at manifolds or shutoff connections; water hammer after appliance valves; heater pan rust on attic units.