Kitec Plumbing Replacement in Ladera Ranch: How to Spot Orange and Blue Pipe and What Replacing It Takes
Kitec, an aluminum-core plastic pipe with brass fittings, was installed in some homes built from the mid-1990s to 2007. How Ladera Ranch owners can check for it, why…
Ladera Ranch is young by Orange County standards. The first villages, Oak Knoll, Flintridge and Bridgepark, filled in around the turn of the century, with Township, Covenant Hills and later Terramor following. Most homeowners here assume their plumbing is too new to worry about. That is usually true, but there is one product from that building era worth checking for: Kitec.
What Kitec is
Kitec was a composite pipe sold from about 1995 to 2007. It has a thin aluminum layer sandwiched between two layers of plastic, and it was joined with brass compression fittings. It was marketed as a cheaper, faster alternative to copper, and it ended up in houses, condos and apartments across North America before production stopped and a class action settlement followed.
The trouble is mostly the fittings. Many of the brass fittings used with the system had high zinc content. Over time, water can leach the zinc out of the brass in a process called dezincification. The fitting turns porous and brittle, a crusty white or green deposit builds up, and eventually it can leak or break. The pipe itself can also degrade when run at high temperatures or pressures for years.
How to tell if your Ladera home has it
Not every Ladera Ranch home has Kitec. Most were plumbed with copper or with standard PEX. To check yours:
- Look at the water heater connections in the garage and the pipes above it
- Check under sinks and at the main shutoff for exposed pipe
- Kitec was typically orange for hot and blue for cold, though some was gray or black
- Read the printing on the pipe; you may see Kitec, PlumbBetter, IPEX AQUA, XPA or similar names
- Brass fittings with a white or greenish crust are a warning sign on any system
If you are not sure what you are looking at, take a clear photo of the pipe and its printed markings and send it with your quote request. We can usually tell from a picture.
What replacement looks like
Because Kitec failures start at fittings that are hidden in walls and ceilings, spot repairs tend to chase one leak after another. The lasting fix is to replace the system. We repipe with PEX-A (Uponor/Wirsbo, ASTM F1960 expansion fittings), which is a different, single-material product with fittings that do not rely on high-zinc brass.
In Ladera's two-story homes, the new lines usually run through the attic and down interior walls, with small access openings that we patch. New stub-outs and shutoff valves go in at every fixture, and the water heater gets fresh connections.
Permits and your HOA
Ladera Ranch is unincorporated, so plumbing permits go through County of Orange OC Public Works rather than a city hall. Interior work rarely needs Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation approval, but if you plan exterior changes, check with your village association. We handle the county permit and the final inspection.
Related reading
See our guide to PEX repiping and the local post on water heater expansion tanks. Neighbors can find us at Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano and Rancho Santa Margarita, and the full service list is at repipeinc.com.
Think you have Kitec?
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Repipe OC, 23821 Hillhurst Drive, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677, (949) 524-2362, CSLB #1087885 C-36.
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Written by Repipe OC · CSLB #1087885 C-36 · 23821 Hillhurst Drive, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 · (949) 524-2362