Are plumbing issues common in 40 year old homes

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Greentea

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I am looking at a house built in 1980. There seemed to have been quite a bit of plumbing issues:

1) Piping under the bathroom sink of 3 bathrooms had a leak and pipe replaced

2) Leaks in the walls behind tub faucets due to piping issues for 2 of the bathrooms

3) Leak that went down all the way to the garage roof from one of the tubs

The owner said the issues have been fixed for a while now. Are these types of plumbing issues common in a 40 year old home? Would you go for a house with these types of issues and how would you approach it?

I am in Houston, Texas. Thank you.
 
There are any number of factors that occur, over time, in any residential property, such as, is it in a tract, was it the last finished and occupied and how long was it unoccupied, how was the system used and maintained.

The problems you cited could have occurred within 6mo.

You may never see any of these reoccur, or, depending upon the quality of the repairs, it may be a continuous repair.

It was built by man, it will fail, and it's how you address it that will determine the outcome.
 
What type plumbing?
Quest (gray plastic) was a major disaster and was tons of class actions sutes.
All steel plumbing is going to rust out from the inside out and get smaller on the inside and leak at some point.
Depending on what's in the water even copper can corrode and develop pin holes.
 
Any home that old will likely need to have plumbing updated if it hasn't been updated in renovations. Plumbing codes have changed over the years. Older houses used to allow S-traps and materials that are no longer used. Things may not be vented properly. Also, if there has been settling/shifting of the foundation/house, the slopes for the pipes may not be right anymore.

The owners may have addressed the visible issues, but there may be more hidden issues.

Was a house inspection done?

I think whether or not you should get it depends on how much you can afford (or are willing to pay) for repairs. I would always err on the side of caution and budget for the worst case scenario- total redo of plumbing & electrical. Mind you, I'm not expert, but I believe in Murphy's Law.
 
Just because the code changed doesn't mean you need to yank out the existing plumbing to replace S traps with P-traps. A home built in 1980 would have PVC (white) or ABS (black) drain lines. It might have some cast iron drain lines, but unlikely. My home built in 1998-99 has cast iron lines going between the first and second floors but PVC everywhere else. Cast iron is quieter with water rushing through it so in higher-end homes it became common to use cast iron for the vertical lines while using PVC elsewhere.

Supply lines could be copper or gray plastic Quest lines as Joe mentions above. The main issue with the Quest supply lines was crappy fittings. There was an opportunity 20 years ago to get it replaced under a class action lawsuit but that ship sailed a long time ago. Pex didn't get widespread use in the USA until the late 1990s. It has been used in Europe for quite a bit longer.
 
True, you don't have to change it, but it's not a bad idea to do it. Right now I have S-traps that siphon the water out of the traps in my old home, so it's a problem.
 
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