[jguerin21]

Hello all, thank you in advance for anyone that tries to help! This is my first time posting here so i hope this all makes sense. My fiance and 2 children recently bought our first house, it's an older home built in the early 50's. It has the older style galvanized piping throughout the house. We had a "family friend" who was suppose to know what he's doing helping us out. We were doing a complete remodel so he recommended we tear down the wall with the toilet and vanity on it and replace the galvanized piping with new pex lines. Right behind the wall is a wide open chase so this was to be fairly straight-forward. He cut the two feed pipes in the basement, then ran new pex down for the vanity and toilet and use a fitting to connect them in the same place the two feed pipes tied in. Well after getting the wall back up, the new tile all done, we realized our bathtub doesn't work. The two feed pipes fed the whole bathroom, and the bathtub tied into somewhere underneath the floor. He ran 1/2 pex all the way down the chase. My first question is, will 1/2 inch be suffice? From what I read 3/4 would be much more viable, especially now because my plan is to t-off the current line and running it over to the tub / shower. I tore up 1 and a half rows of tile and backerboard along with the subfloor. I'm going to cut an access panel in my wall so I can run a T into the lines coming up and go underneath the floor into the tub. I have a panel on the outside of my bathroom that shows me the otherside of the front of the tub.

Question 2: Am I doing myself a serious disservice by not upgrading the galvanized in the basement right away? Will it start corroding and cause issues sooner rather than later? We have money going out like crazy, while I want this done right I'm trying to hold off on some of the less pressing issues.

Any advice / tips would be GREATLY appreciated, as I said before, this is my first home and I'm doing the best I can.

 

[joecaption]

There should have been 3/4 mains and 1/2" for the supply's.
3/4 has almost twice the flow of a 1/2 pipe.
All galvinize pipe will leak at some point, what that point is it's anyone's guess.
It rust from the inside out and will in most cases start at the threads because that's the weak spot.

 

[jguerin21]

There should have been 3/4 mains and 1/2" for the supply's.
3/4 has almost twice the flow of a 1/2 pipe.
All galvinize pipe will leak at some point, what that point is it's anyone's guess.
It rust from the inside out and will in most cases start at the threads because that's the weak spot.

The guy who did it is now completely ignoring me, so I'm going to attempt to do some of this on my own to save money, are you recommending I take out the 1/2 lines he ran up the chase, replace that with 3/4 inch pex, then run 1/2 for the hot / cold supply for the vanity, and a 1/2 line to the toilet? Would you still do 1/2 to the bathtub / shower then? Or would you recommend staying with 3/4 under the floor over to the tub.

 

[joecaption]

In most cases 3/4" to the shower would be best.
With the 1/2" main you have now your going to find if someone flushes a toilet, runs any water on the main floor the flow out of the shower up stairs is going to slow way down and the temperture is going to change.

 

[Daniel Holzman]

If you use a temperature control on the shower (many people do), you need to read the directions on the controller carefully before you put the pipe in. I have the same setup you do, and the temperature controller requires copper between the control and the shower head, NOT Pex. The rest of my house is PEX.

 

[Tally Wacher]

If I read your post correctly, the two "feed pipes" that were cut were one hot and one supply to this bathroom? What size were they? I am assuming that they were 1/2" drops each. Does the tub lack hot, cold, or both? Normally a 1/2" drop can feed 2 fixtures, if you are trying for 3 fixtures you need a 3/4" drop. Depending on your answers, you can run another 1/2" line to the tub from the trunk or Tee a 3/4" drop from the trunk to feed the 3 fixtures.

 

[jguerin21]

If I read your post correctly, the two "feed pipes" that were cut were one hot and one supply to this bathroom? What size were they? I am assuming that they were 1/2" drops each. Does the tub lack hot, cold, or both? Normally a 1/2" drop can feed 2 fixtures, if you are trying for 3 fixtures you need a 3/4" drop. Depending on your answers, you can run another 1/2" line to the tub from the trunk or Tee a 3/4" drop from the trunk to feed the 3 fixtures.

Thank you all for the replies. Yes the old set-up had two galvanized feed pipes which ran up to the bathroom fed the vanity / toilet then went underneath the floor over to the tub, then underneath the tub and come up at an access panel in my hallway to the front of the tub. So the old set-up had two feed pipes feeding the whole bathroom. I spoke with a plumber who swears 1/2" will be more than enough all the way up, along with feeding the tub,vanity, and toilet. My current plan is to T into the pex that's running all the way up the chute and go under neath the floor into the access panel and run it into the copper where the old galvanized is now, then check the pressure with the sink running, the toilet flushing etc. If it's okay probably just leave it, if it's not since I have a few rows of tile up and part of the wall torn into I could just replace the 1/2 pex feed lines with 3/4. If anybody has any other suggestions I'll definitely listen, but I figure why not at least try to do this, I cannot think of any draw-backs other than maybe wasting my money on a few fittings. The guy who originally did all this that forgot to hook up my tub left about 20 feet of pex which will be more than enough. The only issue I'm having now is the access panel in my hallway has very limited space. Cutting out the galvanized will give me a little more room but it's still going to be tricky to get a couple holes in the last joist as i dont really have enough room inside the bathroom even with the floor up to get a drill into the last joist that's underneath the tub, so my only option is to drill it from the panel out so I can feed the pex through. I am trying to avoid having to buy a right angle drill if anybody has some suggestions I would really appreciate it!

 

[Tally Wacher]

Thank you all for the replies. Yes the old set-up had two galvanized feed pipes which ran up to the bathroom fed the vanity / toilet then went underneath the floor over to the tub, then underneath the tub and come up at an access panel in my hallway to the front of the tub. So the old set-up had two feed pipes feeding the whole bathroom. I spoke with a plumber who swears 1/2" will be more than enough all the way up, along with feeding the tub,vanity, and toilet. My current plan is to T into the pex that's running all the way up the chute and go under neath the floor into the access panel and run it into the copper where the old galvanized is now, then check the pressure with the sink running, the toilet flushing etc. If it's okay probably just leave it, if it's not since I have a few rows of tile up and part of the wall torn into I could just replace the 1/2 pex feed lines with 3/4. If anybody has any other suggestions I'll definitely listen, but I figure why not at least try to do this, I cannot think of any draw-backs other than maybe wasting my money on a few fittings. The guy who originally did all this that forgot to hook up my tub left about 20 feet of pex which will be more than enough. The only issue I'm having now is the access panel in my hallway has very limited space. Cutting out the galvanized will give me a little more room but it's still going to be tricky to get a couple holes in the last joist as i dont really have enough room inside the bathroom even with the floor up to get a drill into the last joist that's underneath the tub, so my only option is to drill it from the panel out so I can feed the pex through. I am trying to avoid having to buy a right angle drill if anybody has some suggestions I would really appreciate it!

You could try it but I think you'll be disappointed. You could get one of these : http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-Right-Angle-Drill-Adapter-DWARA50/203867866

 

[ponch37300]

1/2" PEX isn't big enough to feed a full bathroom. Remember the fittings go inside the pex which makes it even smaller diameter at the fittings. I'm not sure if there is a plumbing code that addresses this but whenever I have more then one fixture on a supply line I run 3/4" main and then Tee off the 3/4" with 1/2" to each individual fixture. You will not be happy with 1/2" PEX with the sink running and toilet flushing.

Some pictures of your last joist you are trying to drill would really help.