Can You Paint Blue Pipe Green?

[LeeroyJenkins]

Hypothetical - you're in a tight spot, can't get a large size sewer pipe because your supplier doesn't keep it on hand and can't get any for you for a while (unless you want to drive hundreds of miles to get it yourself), but you do already have blue pipe in your inventory.  And you need the pipe to go in the ground NOW.

Aside from it being bad practice and it's not keeping in line with color standards, what's stopping you from using blue pipe and painting it green?

Just something that's bugged me for a long time.

 

[matt267 PE]

How are you going to repaint it when the paint wears off?

 

[MA_PE]

What material pipe, plastic?  PP, PE, or PVC? 

I believe "green" indicates a level of chemical resistance that "blue" doesn't have.  It's tied to the pipe material and the end use.  not just to make it a different color.

 

[matt267 PE]

What material pipe, plastic?  PP, PE, or PVC? 

I believe "green" indicates a level of chemical resistance that "blue" doesn't have.  It's tied to the pipe material and the end use.  not just to make it a different color.

In my area, underground green pipes usually mean sewer and blue means drinking water. It's common to see HDPE pipes with either green (wastewater), blue (drinking water), or yellow (gas line) stripe on it.

 

[MA_PE]

But I suspect if you look at the properties of each, they are different and the color is not just for visual identification.

 

[matt267 PE]

But I suspect if you look at the properties of each, they are different and the color is not just for visual identification.

Could be.

I personally think painting an underground pipe is/would be a sign of shoddy work.

 

[bradlelf]

Yeah; I agree with everyone above.

In my region SDR-26/35 is green for sanitary mains but the SCH40 laterals are white.

There used to be "Blue Max" water lateral piping , but there was a huge national lawsuit over it failing. Our water mains are typically DIP or AWWA-C900 ... laterals type K copper or C901.

Are you saying that you have gasketed (SDR26/35) pipe that is blue? or is it a pressure pipe for a grinder pump or water supply line?