Comment by hobo123
2 hours ago
Lead is very flexible and was used even in the last century in Germany for I think roof transitions, fresh water pipes etc. I inherited a nice town house from 1900 which still has lead pipes, but I let them install new ones so the old ones are now dead in the walls as a piece of history.
Lead flashing is still in use for roofing elsewhere in the EU. Most of the builders yards near me have rolls of it.
I think the idea was that water pipes will build up a later of calcium anyway, so they aren't harmful.
In Germany there are probably tons of lead pipes still in existence and and only from 2026 is there a law that they all _have_ to replaced (previously they could stay as long as the water lead content was in the permitted range, but I don't think anybody ever checked).
In the UK lead pipes were legal to install until 1970s.