I crawled underneath the house the other day to replace a thermostat wire that wasn't conducting very well, and discovered a big ol' puddle of water in the crawl space. Which meant that replacing the house plumbing just rocketed up the to-do list.
After laboriously reconsidering all of the options for plumbing, from copper to stainless to PEX, we settled on the latter. After reading through documents including the EIR that accompanied California's readmission of PEX into code, we decided that unburied PEX had the least nasty things leaching into the water, a reasonable life-span, and the fact that it's easy to install didn't hurt either.
I settled on the Upinor ProPEX system because all of my contractor and handyman friends said "go to Pace Plumbing Supply", so I did. I asked the guy behind the counter for some parts and he said "the tool is $400". I'd looked at the various crimp-on systems, and the Shark Bite press-on (more later), but everybody'd said to use these guys, so we started with that.
A little video overview of the system:
It's a Milwaukee M12 tool that expands the end of the tubing and a ring encasing the tubing just long enough that you can slide it down over the fitting.
So on a Saturday morning, I started tearing out the old galvanized steel plumbing. Mistake #1: I didn't figure out until, I think late that evening, that unscrewing it is a fool's errand. Get a big-ass (or at least the beefiest ¾" stroke) Sawzall you can find (I bought a Milwaukee Sawzall) and start cutting.
I managed to get much of the house clear, and was working on the re-plumbing late on Sunday afternoon, when I made a call to a friend who came over and bailed my butt out. By the time he left at 11:30 or so we had water.
I then went down on Tuesday to City Hall and pulled my permit. Sshhh, don't tell anyone.
There are three things left:
- I still have some major holes in the wall.
- The holes are there 'til I can get my inspection, which is waiting on some electrical rework for the bathroom.
- The shower faucet is an interim faucet.
We also ended up with a few Shark Bite fittings. These were the only things that leaked when we pressurized the system, and I'd like to work them out as I get the chance. On the other hand, they were available from OSH and Lowe's late on a Sunday afternoon.
