Pex beginner

Paradiselost

I am in the process of buying a house which had the basement copper gutted. Everything from the main/meter to the floors. The pipes are still exposed at the floorboards but the pipes are broken off.

My plan is to replace everything at the basement level with pex and I was wondering if anyone knows of a "for dummies" or basics, book or website out there? Or if anyone here wants to do some hand holding lol

I'm fairly ignorant about incoming plumbing, I've fixed some drain issues as well as replacing stuff and roding the sewer main when needed but incoming is new to me. My father will be helping me but his experience is with copper.

From what I can tell I'll need to run a line off the main and split it for hot/cold, then run the cold into a manifold, hot to the water heater, then into the manifold, then I can run the lines to the individual pipes.

The heater is in the basement as is the main, I'll have 9? connections I need to make, washing machine h/c - basement, kitchen h/c which is on the first floor, then 2 hot, 3 cold (tub, sink, toilet) for the bathroom which is on the second floor.

I really can't afford to replace the pipes heading up currently so I want to just connect to the existing copper for now. While I've read that I can do these connections, I haven't actually seen the parts needed listed online. I figure I can cut the copper just before the breaks/twists to get a clean end and solder the pex connections on?

I would run 1 inch from the main and water heater to the manifold and 3/4 thereafter? I -think- the copper heading up is 3/4. I'm a tad confused about the bathroom though, it appears that there are only two pipes leading up, or is that normal? And then in the bathroom wall they split to the individual items?

Any help would be appreciated. The reason for more of a patch job than a complete replace is that I have to live there. I'll have about a month to get it up and running, but my father and his expertise is only available a week. Longer than that I'm on my own, longer than a month and I have to dump another 1k to my current landlord.

I will try not to ask too many stupid questions of anyone that can help. I can provide some photos of the existing broken pipes.

On the plus side, it would appear I don't have to "dewinterize" ...

genie01

These two sites should be a good starting point into PEX research

http://pexinfo.com/ - general PEX info
http://www.pexuniverse.com/content/p...earning-center - has few nice article.

Paradiselost

Thanks, that should help me get my feet under me.

I do have a question or two though, I'll need 2 manifolds total correct? One for cold one for hot? If I use Sioux brand. Or lowes offers apollo for 198 which has h/c inputs.

Also, from what I'm reading, 1/2 should be enough for the house, what about the shower though? It's on the second floor, would using 3/4 be a good idea for better pressure? Based on what I can see of the apolo, the fittings seem to be screw on, so in theory, I could just replace the 1/2 with 3/4?

Or would pressure be fine because of the home run set up?

secutanudu

First off, I'd get all your supplies at a plumbing supply house, not HD/Lowe's. They just sell better stuff. Apollo is a good brand, but who knows if (or how much) they lower their quality to sell at the box stores. I just find the stuff at the real plumbing supplies are worth a few extra bucks for sure.

I'd think if you have homeruns to every fixture, you can probably feed it all with 1/2". What is the incoming pressure to your house? You do lose less pressure over long runs if you use larger pipe, but you also wait longer for hot water if you use bigger pipe.

My upstairs bathroom is fed with 2 lines, and they splt in the bathroom. It's fine as long as nobody uses the sink/toilet and the shower at the same time. Things being fed off the main line allow fixtures to operate with minimum pressure loss in other areas. You'll always have some loss, but when two fixtures are fed off the same branch, you have even more.

I am not a plumber, but I am pretty sure this is how it works....

How far are the runs to your showers?

__________________
Andrew

genie01

You'll most likely get better advice/recommendation at a local plumbing supply place than at a HD type store.