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View Full Version : Adding Pex to exsisting copper


mikect05
Feb 21, 2010, 07:57 AM
I am in the process of quite a bit of home repair and remodeling. Right now I am going to be working on adding a new bathroom to my basement and I would like to use Pex. When I am done I plan on redoing my other bathroom in the house and changing out the copper there to Pex. I don't want to redo the whole house with Pex but I am planning on doing roughly 7 fixtures in all with Pex (5 hot lines and 7 cold).
My question is how and where should I tie this into my exsisting water lines? I am thinking about adding a Pex Manifold in my basement to run all this off it but am wondering if this will affect water pressure on the other fixtures on the copper. I have seen the Pex run two different ways, one way is from the manifold and the other way is a larger diameter Pex with Ts off it to fixtures. Is one way better or would it work for me to just put Ts in my lines and add Pex Directly from there and T that off to different fixtures.
Thank you very much!
Michael

mikect05
Feb 22, 2010, 11:15 AM
Bump :-)

royals91
Feb 24, 2010, 12:51 PM
Mike are you just looking to branch off the copper to just run to your bathroom which I believe that it you can access it from the basement as well as a basement bathroom? If so then you want to branch off so you are not redoing your kitchen and maybe other baths with pex and just leaving them copper. If you run a manifold then it needs to be after the branch from other runs in the house. I guess it depends on your lay out and what you can get to and what you can't

mikect05
Feb 24, 2010, 01:18 PM
Thx for the reply, To answer your question, I can get to every thing very easily now. The only thing I want to leave on the copper is the kitchen (sink, fridge, dishwasher) I also want to leave the furnace/hotwater heater on the copper. I do want to install the manifold after the furnace/hotwater heater but before the kitchen, perhaps I should just run the kitchen with Pex too, it won't be that difficult but I wonder about Pex leaching chemicals into our drinking water, even though I know it is considered safe, but new things always come up and since it is already copper I figure just leave it.
I have very good water pressure. So could I put the manifold branching off before the kitchen, or is it code not to do that?
Thanks for your help,
Michael

royals91
Feb 24, 2010, 01:32 PM
Well I do know that uponor (wirsbo) is potable drinking water I have it in my house. You can T it off or run a manifold if you have good pressure then that's up to you. You need to check the code where you are.