Walk into any home improvement store and the pipe aisle looks simple — until you actually need to buy something. Black pipe, white pipe, red and blue flexible tubing, heavy gray metal: they all carry water or waste, but they are not interchangeable. Pick the wrong material and you can fail an inspection, void a warranty, or end up cutting out your work and starting over.
This section exists to make pipe selection boring in the best possible way. Below you will find plain-English guides to every pipe material used in American homes, head-to-head comparisons, sizing charts, and practical how-tos for cutting, joining and identifying pipe. Start with What Is ABS Pipe? if you are new here, or jump straight to ABS vs PVC — the comparison homeowners ask about most.
The two plumbing systems in your home
Nearly every question about pipe starts with a confusion between the two separate systems inside your walls. The supply system delivers clean water under pressure to faucets, toilets and appliances. The drain-waste-vent (DWV) system carries wastewater away by gravity and vents sewer gases out through the roof. They use different materials, different fittings and different rules — and most of our guides, including everything about ABS pipe, concern the DWV side.
ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is a rigid black plastic used almost exclusively for drain, waste and vent lines. It is light, inexpensive, and joined with solvent cement in minutes. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is its white cousin and the more common choice nationally. PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) dominates new water supply lines, while copper — once the default for supply — survives mainly in high-end work and repairs. Cast iron and galvanized steel still lurk in older homes, usually on borrowed time.
How to use these guides
Each guide below follows the same structure: what the material is, where it is used, how it compares to alternatives, and what it costs. Comparison articles include side-by-side tables so you can scan the differences in under a minute. Installation guides assume you are a careful beginner — every step is spelled out, including the mistakes that cause leaks.
A note on codes: plumbing code in the United States is local. The International Plumbing Code and Uniform Plumbing Code agree on most pipe fundamentals, but your city or county may restrict specific materials — some jurisdictions limit ABS, others limit PVC. Always check with your local building department before a major project, and pull a permit when one is required. Our guides explain the general rules; your inspector has the final word.
Why pipe material matters more than most people think
Three reasons. First, compatibility: joining dissimilar plastics requires the right transition cement or fitting, and doing it wrong creates the single most common DIY drain leak. Second, longevity: a properly installed ABS or PVC drain system can last 50+ years, while a bad material choice in the wrong application (say, standard PVC where code requires schedule 80, or ABS exposed to prolonged sunlight) fails early. Third, resale: home inspectors flag pipe problems routinely, and buyers negotiate hard on them. Knowing what is in your walls — our pipe identification guide shows you how — is genuine leverage.
Browse the full library below. If you own an older home with black plastic drain pipe, read the ABS pipe lawsuit explainer too — it covers a chapter of plumbing history this very website was created for.