So with the guest toilet gone and the wall behind laid bare, I ripped out the extraneous copper pipes, leaving one elongated stub leading to the backyard water faucets (a.k.a. "hose bibs" in the arcane lexicon of plumbers).
Transitioning to PEX requires a brass adapter, which must be soldered to the copper pipe. I dislike soldering. The heavy brass takes forever to heat up with a regular propane torch, so I bought a spiffy auto-lighting model that uses hotter-burning MAP gas. I put a piece of steel flashing behind the work to keep the house from catching fire, and proceeded to play the flame back and forth from thick brass adapter to thinner copper pipe.
The problem with this is the copper heated up quickly, getting hot enough to melt the solder, while the brass was still not hot enough. So the joint was bad. I unsoldered and cleaned everything up and tried again, this time putting the flame only on the brass, letting the heat go from there to the copper. That worked.
Lots up studs under the bathroom window. Lots of studs that needed holes drilled in them for the two new PEX pipes (a white 3/4" for backyard faucets and the blue 1/2" for the toilet water supply). The issue was how close the studs were together. Even with my two right-angle drills, it took at least two hours to drill the holes, using every adapter and contrivance I could find, but finally success. After that, joining the PEX was a pleasure.
From here, the pipes go up into the attic. The outdoor faucet line crosses to the front of the house and was connected to the ex-irrigation shut-off valve. This line is the full town pressure, which I just measured as 100 pounds-per-square-inch (psi). Very high, that is. So there is a pressure reduction valve, as I mentioned in a previous post, to bring the domestic in-house pressure down to a level that will not harm the plumbing or water heater. I measured that to be 68 psi, which is still too high. I read that "standard" domestic pressure should nominally be 50 psi. I am going to try to lower my domestic pressure from 68 down to 55 psi (assuming the pressure reduction valve holds up). With the high mineral content of the water, it's quite possible that the inside of the valve might be clogged with calcium and magnesium salts after 30 years. But I digress.
So the other end of the white PEX line started out at the front of the garage at the old irrigation system shut-off valve. There was already a threaded adapter soldered to the copper pipe — to join to threaded PVC irrigation system pipe; I used a female pipe-thread to PEX adapter, then an elbow to take the PEX vertical, a "tee" to a new front yard faucet, and then up to the attic for the run to the back of the house, like this:
Here's a look at the new front faucet. It's fastened to a plywood spacer, because when the garage gets its six-foot extension, the wall (now fake masonite shingles nailed directly to studs) will be covered with plywood and stucco. The new valve is a quarter-turn ball valve.
The other PEX line leaving the guest bathroom was the supply line for the toilet. That went up into the attic and thence to the new cold water distribution manifold.
The white 3/4" line (from the right, from the water softener) feeds the manifold, which has six half-inch outlets. The two outlets without lines connected will eventually feed cold water to (1) the washing machine (now connected into the old copper pipe network), and (2) a separate outdoor faucet for washing the car (softened water that doesn't leave white mineral spots). The 3/4" white line continues through the manifold to feed the hot water heater. You can see the separate quarter-turn ball shut-off valve for the water heater, just to the left of the manifold.
Here's a photo of the PEX water lines coming from (1) the sinks in the pottery studio, kitchen, and master bathroom, and (2) the master bathroom shower. All of the PEX lines in the attic will have no insulation underneath, and at least 10" of insulation on top (in addition to the regular black foam pipe insulation). The idea is for them to be as close to ambient room temperature throughout the year, rather than the winter-summer extremes of the attic (40˚ - 130˚ F, 4˚ - 54˚ C).
The new high-efficiency water heater has been connected into the new PEX supply system (but is not yet operational pending completion of the new system, especially the water softener, so as not to fill the water heater with damaging mineral scale). This is what it looks like from the laundry room:
That cylindrical container on the left is the expansion tank, required to prevent damage to the water heater and plumbing. When cold water is heated, it expands, which can result in a damaging pressure rise. This is because the pressure reduction valve (where water comes into the house) acts as a check valve (water cannot flow back out into the municipal system). If no faucet is open to relieve the pressure, the excessive pressure can damage components in the water system. The expansion tank is connected to the water heater supply line, and is half-full of air, which easily compresses, giving the excess water volume someplace to go.
My house did not have an expansion tank when I moved in. They are now required in most places, but I guess not 30 years ago here. This is a photo of the PEX piping servicing the water heater, above the ceiling:
The cold water manifold is in the upper right of the photo; the shut-off valve for the water heater is just to the left of that. The white PEX line continues left until it hits a "tee." The side line runs to the expansion tank; the main line runs to the cold water inlet for the water heater (left upper, going down through the ceiling). Just below that in the photo, the hot water outlet line comes up through the ceiling, goes to the right to the hot water distribution manifold (out of view). That manifold distributes hot water via half-inch lines. At the very right of the photo, you can see a "tee" that will send hot water via a 3/4" line to the new soaking tub in the guest bathroom. The larger diameter line gives a better flow rate, so the tub fills faster.
I'm now working on both bathrooms, so the next post will be on one of them.
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