Thank you. Does not make sense to do just cold.

I just replumb whole house…removed all copper…put in pex. Also added whole house filtration just to be sure.
Very happy and price was great vs copper

One of Plumber's first ideas was to put in multi-stage water filter, ok, but then there would still be the aging, breaking down copper left to deal with. I like your way, do the whole thing. Bought a Yarna capacitive electronic water descaler but have not installed it.

When was the last time you had the well tested? What kind of piping and pipe connections are in the well?

Millions (more?) of people live in homes with copper pipe and lead solder. If it was a problem, believe me, everyone would know about it.

Interesting about the well connections, last time I saw it was when the pump had to be replaced in late December about 1991. So don't remember exactly what they were. Well was tested then. Had water tested a few months ago at accredited lab when lead showed up in a blood test, and results showed above allowed amount of lead with caution not to drink it.

Lead rairly occurs naturally in water. When you collected the water sample for testing did you leave the cold water run for a while to flush out the lines before taking the sample?

Can you take a water sample at the well and have that tested? Wouldn’t that give you a better idea if the issue was the well or the copper pipes in the house?

I followed directions from the Lab. Took first sample from a faucet that hadn't been run for 6-8 hours. Second after same faucet ran for 10-15 minutes. These were for the heavy metal test. Took other samples for other tests.

"Lead rairly occurs naturally in water."

Lead rarely occurs naturally in water? Do you have experience with groundwater chemistry in various parts of the US that leads you to that conclusion?

I agree with vinmarks. A sample taken in the well (if possible) could be useful to know. Might a source of the lead be part of the well hardware that's sitting in water at the bottom of the well hole?

Of course, I don't mind going further in testing. Just taking it step by step with the professionals available. Right now I know there's lead coming through. My original post was the question about our town's favorite Plumber wanting to do only cold water lines. And with all of your responses, it makes sense to do the further testing. Luckily, we put a rock to mark where the well is, may have put half a blue barrel over it before putting the soil back so we had less to dig out the next time. I had asked this plumber to replace the pump as well, back in the Fall when weather was still good enough to dig it up. Figured if it was replaced in '91, it's over 30 years old and could go at any time.

Interesting point about well hardware sitting down in well. Do you know what parts would contain lead?

I don't know, which is why I put it as a question. I started thinking about the path the water follows from the well to a tap and that's what occurred to me. Was the piping all the way down to the bottom replaced 30 years ago when the work was done or might it be older than that? As old as the pipes in the house maybe?

Again, I'm simply thinking about it. I have no first-hand experience with residential wells.

I would have replace the pump if it was 30 years old too. Things like to break down at the worst times. Hubby replaced ours at camp this past summer.

Any good plumber can replace water lines with pex or copper. Copper of course is more expensive. I think the plumbers idea of only replacing the cold line only was maybe to save you money. Usually the cold is used for consumption and cooking where the hot is mostly used for cleaning and bathing.

I would have your water retested. Lab errors do occur.

How much lead?

Here's the thing: I'd try to identify the source a bit more if I was looking at an expensive job. Would suck if the source of lead was the faucets themselves - or the well.

How difficult is it to re-plumb?

If this is a single story house on a basement / crawlspace, that would be easy. If it were on a slab or 2 story with bathroom upstairs, that's different.

If it were easy, I would be inclined to replace all of the plumbing, not just the cold (drinking water). The original 1950's plumbing is nearing end of life anyway.

A lead reducing filter on the cold drinking water isn't a bad idea even after it's re-plumbed.

Was wondering about the faucets too. The kitchen faucet is where most drinking water is taken from. It was replaced about 4 years ago with top of the line brand. For the heavy metal water test, I used faucet in half bath, rarely used for drinking water. It's a Moen, about 15 years old. Since lead is showing up in blood, I have to look at the kitchen faucet, which is in good shape. Good access to re plumb, single story with open basement ceiling. Agree about end of life for current plumbing. Made a list this morning of other plumbers. Current one is great, the go to guy for the town, which is ok. The big but is his solution doesn't fix the whole situation, he's all for hooking up to town water. Plus not thrilled he didn't replumb basement sink when the septic system was redone 3 years ago. No reply when I've asked him about it. He could say you need a pumb for that.... Obvious he only does what he wants to do, not the job I'm asking and paying for. So am moving on to getting quotes from others.

Pump, not pumb

If it's easy, for sure I'd do all of it. Clean up all the old plumbing. Think through the water heater also. There's no reason to piecemeal it.

When I did mine on this house, I switched to a manifold system. I have a seperate manifold for filtered cold water. The water filter is in the basement and supplies the refrigerator and cold water on the kitchen sink. It reduces chlorine, taste, odor as well as lead.

I went with PEX. Also replaced the kitchen faucet with a low-cost but lead free faucet until I redo my kitchen.

BTW: You can edit a post.

As another poster commented there are millions of homes with lead soldered copper pipes. There are millions of homes with lead piping supplying the municipal water going to the house. However lead getting into the water is not normally a problem however as the lead scales over and the scale protects the water from any lead leaching into the water. There is a problem however when the water is acidic instead of alkaline. For that reason responsible municipalities treat the water to ensure it stays on the basic side of neutral (more than a pH of 7). Sometimes that does not happen. Google Flint Michigan lead and you will see what happened there. The water supply was changed for a section of the city, and it was not treated to increase the pH above 7. The acidic water dissolved the scale and lead levels started increasing. Big lawsuits of course.

Your problem may be the pH of the well water. I would start there by measuring the pH of the water. If it is well above 7 then that is a dead end theory. If it is less than 8 or worse still below 7, that is the most likely cause.

Dealing with it, is another matter. Water companies do it by treating the water with ammonia to raise the pH. That may be more difficult on a individual home basis. You probably want to google something like "how to raise the pH of my well water". On a quick check, acidic well water seems to be a relatively common issue, and there are likely good solutions for it. I suspect they are less costly than replacing all the plumbing in the house. And that is not even a total solution as there may be lead in the brass fittings and fixtures in the house.

Do any of your family that have lead in their blood work in old buildings like a school that might have lead issues?

Has your town’s favourite plumber never heard of press fittings that can be used with copper and other types of pipings as well that is cheaper than soldered connections because its faster to install as each connection only takes seconds to press fit with cordless specialized tools requiring no soldering and no heat?

IMPO

SR

Thanks for your reply. About that plumber, have to believe he's aware of press fittings, but as he said "if you want copper, I'm not the person". Every plumber I contacted would not replace with copper. So I did have the system replaced with pex several months after original post along with new filtration system. Interesting about the old school idea, Doubt if anyone else has had the test for lead in blood, it's an expensive test, not normally ordered by physcian unless they're looking at specific symptoms

"Doubt if anyone else has had the test for lead in blood, it's an expensive test, not normally ordered by physician unless they're looking at specific symptoms."

Actually, I believe it's pretty common if anyone is living in the same household as someone with high lead levels that can't be explained by anything else. Check with your local occupational health and safety department.