In US, I live in Illinois, the state we install water pipe thats pex, cpvc, and copper. For drainage, we use PVC, but in the city of Chicago the drainage is cast iron.
Plumbing
A place for Plumbers and those interested in Plumbing to ask questions and discuss the trade.
Community guidelines:
If you have a plumbing question please include a picture in your post.
If you have a question such as "does this look correct?" please include the code your area adheres to. If you're not sure please include state/province/country you're in. Codes can vary state to state and what's wrong in one area may be perfectly acceptable in another.
Just as codes vary, prices do too. That's why we won't discuss any pricing because there's so many factors that can't or shouldn't be conveyed to strangers over the internet.
Why in Chicago you use cast iron?
Mostly political reasons haha, the plumbers union has done a lot of work to keep cast iron in the code, because it means the people doing it have to be skilled plumbers. There are other benefits of it though, like if a building catches fire, plastic will melt and the fire could easily spread to other floors through the holes while cast iron would block it.
lead
What is this?
Water pipe: pex-a & pex-b and copper DWV: cast iron & abs Pumped waste: sched 40/80 pvc
Ceramic for older Australian houses. PVC is now used all over.
Ceramic pipe?
Clay or terracotta is more accurate.