Hey all! This is a bit of a follow-up to a post I made a couple months ago regarding our bathroom reno: https://sh.itjust.works/post/56769265
Long story short, the mortar bed subfloor was crumbling away, and I could literally tear up chunks with my bear hands, so we decided to take it all out. I’m going to sister all the joists to re-level the floor, put in blocking for under the clawfoot tub, then 3/4" plywood subfloor, Ditra, and tile. But that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about all that copper plumbing. I think the stuff above the tub spout is relatively new, but I think everything below that (tub supplies, toilet supply, sink supplies) is a lot older, maybe original, which would make that close to 70 years old. Some of it looks pretty crusty and corroded to my untrained eye, so my question is, should I redo any of that copper while I’ve got the wall open? If so, to what extent, and with copper or PEX? I mentioned earlier that we’re putting in a clawfoot tub, so we won’t need basically anything above the tub spout. I know clawfoots traditionally have supplies coming up through the floor, so I may end up reconfiguring to accommodate that, but I’m also considering taking the easy way out there and using some flex hose coming out of the wall.
I don’t have a torch or a PEX crimping tool, so either way I go I’m gonna have to buy a new toy. But which one? How would y’all go about this? Thanks in advance for the input!
Consider using neither and going with CPVC. It’s install is much more user-friendly, uses practically no special tools and it has a very long and successful track record(use in residential work for over 60 years).
Booo! Boo this schim! Boooo!
Lol I think you’re in a very select crowd of people that advocates for CPVC. I hadn’t considered it because it was pretty regularly recommended against in all the research I’ve done so far
As a thirty plus year plumbing veteran, I’ll gladly defer to your internet searches.
Lol
Internet searches that have turned up a multitude of other thirty year plumbing veterans scorning CPVC. I’m genuinely interested if you have reasons you like CPVC over the other options.
what’s the advantage of CPVC over PEX? I’ve run a few PEX lines off my old copper pipes and didn’t need any expensive tooling, just a ratchet cutter and sharkbite fittings, which were a little expensive but suited my small needs pretty well.
You might have answered your own question. Sharkbites should never be used in a non-accessible environment(think in walls, buried by insulation, etc.) They are incredibly handy for the DIYer but due to their complexity in the clamping mechanism, much more prone to failure than a glued or crimped connection.
They inherently rely on o rings that dry out like any other polymer.
Yeah but sharkbites aren’t necessary for PEX, I was just using them for convenience’s sake. Is there a benefit to doing home plumbing with CPVC over, say, PEX-B with crimped connections?
Never trust a sharkbite for long term use. Never seal it behind drywall. It may be code compliant but that’s a disaster waiting to happen.