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!
If you live somewhere with hard water, replace the copper with pex. The minerals eat away the pipes. We had a home in a hard water area once, sooo many pinhole leaks over time, and water heaters had really short life spans. If your water doesn’t require a softener, then keep the copper. If there’s a chance the pipes were exposed to freezing conditions at all in the past, look for bulges in the copper which will indicate weakened lines that should be replaced.