Over the spring, my kitchen was destroyed from the first leak and the basement flooded with the second. Starting a bathroom remodel next month in the upstairs, and polybutylene is going to go.
I have the water line in the basement, main level, then bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs. It's not easy to get to, so walls and flooring are gonna come out. For flexibility, pex is the solution I think.
I need to know what size pex to run upstairs. Two bathrooms, and the laundry room is going to come off of it. It looks like you can tee off easily, so that's what I'll do.
For the life of me, I can't figure out the standard way to go from pex to bathroom sink. Shark bite makes fittings, but I don't want to spend 100$ on fittings. What other way is there?
In reply to lnlogauge :
3/4 lines will feed two bathrooms easily. There are pex angle stops for all the fixtures and some pretty cool straps that will hold them between the studs for stub-outs. Crimp on just like all the other fittings. I dislike shark bite stuff. Your local hardware store should rent crimpers.
In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :
Perfect! Thank you!
The plan is to completely replace everything with pex, so worth it to buy some crimpers on amazon.
In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :
Ditto on the shark bite stuff the one I was forced to use is a weeper. Since it's right over the floor drain I can live with it but if there was any way to get a crimper in there I'd yank that so fast.
Don't go too cheap and buy plastic fittings either. Yes you'll spend more for the brass ones but they will last and take a lot more abuse.
I bought my crimpers etc because Renting them for the time it would take me to do the whole house would have been more expensive than just buying them in the first place. Plus now I have them. If I want to add lines or change them it's a few minutes. Yes I have plenty of extra fittings and PEX
In reply to lnlogauge :
You'll want the main supply lines 3/4 but all the fixtures will be 1/2. There are a few different styles of crimp rings and crimpers. Some of the crimpers are designed for close quarters stuff where things are tight. Keep that in mind when putting it all together. Don't put fittings where you can't crimp them.
I used the oetiker clamp style and they have worked fine in my restored airstream and in three bathrooms in my house. The crimper is only like $15 and easy peasy to crimp watertight fittings.
I personally prefer the solid copper crimp rings fwiw. I've been running pex for a long time.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
I too prefer the solid ring crimps. Although there are some cost advantages. I'll pay the extra for a shark bite fitting, if I want something removable for some odd reason (usually just me being odd) or in a camper in a tight place. If seated correctly, I haven't had problems with weeps. Can be hard to do, in the very tight spots they do well for! But the cost... I avoid as many as I can!
