Need to move a shutoff valve
 

So I just bought this new vanity for the bath room and it turns that both supply line shutoff valves will not fit inside the back of the vanity cabinet (i've already cut the backside as much is possible).

So Id like to move one of the shutoff valves to the left 6 inches. It's copper piping. So I was wondering if I could chop the pipe (or do something else?), put a compression elbow on it, run a short length of flex piping, put in an inline shutoff valve, then run another flex pipe to the faucet. I don't really want to solder because of the surrounding drywall and the fact I need to keep the extension piping close to the wall. Is this possible, not possible or stupid? Is there an even easier way?

THANKS!

Can you post a picture? Might be hard to envision 'both valves not fitting in the cabinet'.

Sure. There are some attached. Excuse the rough cutting on the vanity. I was using a crappy hand saw cause I haven't bought a reciprocating saw yet.

Anyway, technically the valves do fit, but I need to move the vanity over a few inches to center it up on the wall and as you can see from the pics I'm right against the drawers in the vanity. Can't go left anymore.

If you don't want to solder, I'm sure you don't want to cut into the wall, put in an elbow or two, and reposition the valve so it fits easily in the space; that would be my preference.
Otherwise, I think you'll have to cut the cabinet/drawers to make room for the valve. One of those laws of physics or something: two things can't occupy the same space.

yeah i'd rather not solder or cut into the drywall. not that im not capable of such things, im just looking for the easy route. So then would my idea work? And that is, put in a compression elbow, extend a flex line from there the desired length I want, attach an in-line cut off valve, then extend another flex tube to the faucet?

It would likely work as long as you needed clearances. The compression elbow will need no solder on the wall stub to seal properly; how is the current valve attached to the stub, sweated or threaded?

not sure actually. it doesn't look sweated though. we are the new owners of this house that was built in '77. I found these some shark bite adapters so I'll likely use those. I'm going to solder up an inline ball valve and copper piping on the work bench, then use a shar bite elbow to attach it at the wall. Sounds easy enough! :-)


thanks everyone for your help!

if you are going to use shark bites you don't need to do any soldering as the shark bite will work on pex as well as copper. Just a note in case you didn't know.

yeah i knew that. i was told by someone else to use as few shark bites as possible at first, so that's why i was going to solder the valve. I thought I was told that because shark bites may fail, but it turns out that the advice was based on shark bites costing more. im not worried about the cost on such a small job, so i will use three shark bites, the elbow, the ball valve, and the threaded 1/2 MIP for the faucet attachment. i want as easy and quick as possible. thanks for your input!

sounds like you got it all under control......good luck

ccaltacc,

If you're going to use the sharkbites on copper pipe, do not use the white plastic insert (stiffener) on that joint. I've been told that they can leak when the stiffener is used and since it seems to me that you'll be using inside a wall (behind the vanity) and therefore may not know for a while which could cause some serious water damage.

Good luck.