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mbaldwin577

House replumb

19 years ago

Thanks to the experts on the list who take their time to share their vast knowledge with us. I browsed through all 67 pages of posts, and I got some questions answered and came up with some more questions.

I am going to be doing a bath/laundry room remodel in my basement, so I decided to just replumb the entire house. My house is a single story with basement built in 1949 with galvanized pipes. LetÂs see if I can explain what I currently have. The water enters the basement wall, then tÂs off. ¾ pipe goes up to a hose bib, and ½ pipe goes under the basement floor and comes out about 15 foot away, under the kitchen. After it comes out of the floor it is then changed to ¾ pipe and ½ branches off for the sink. The sink has been replumbed before, because it is copper. The ¾ galvanized then continues to a T. The straight leg continues to the fixtures on the other side of the house, and the other leg is reduced to ½. The ½ comes to a T, one leg goes down to the water heater at ½ the other leg goes to ¾ and is connected to a hose bib. The other fixtures have ½ coming off the main ¾ pipe. The hot water is all plumbed with ½. The second hose bib is very noisy, I am assuming because of the higher velocity while going through the ½ pipe then being changed back to the ¾ pipe. There is not much of a pressure drop when more then one fixture is open. Oh, I have ¾ water main coming in to the house.

After the remodel these are the fixtures I will have.

Kitchen sink

Dish washer

Fridge with ice and water

2 toilets

2 bathroom sinks

1 shower tub

1 shower

1 utility sink

1 washer

2 hose bibs.

The washer will be the furthest fixture from where the water enters the house, about 60 feet away.

I have decided to use CPVC for the replumb.

This is how I am thinking of doing it. Please give me feedback on my plan, and/or alternative solutions.

New ball valve where the water comes in the house.

¾ pipe main branch, running it along the floor joists, so nothing under the basement floor, and every fixture will branch off with ½, then go to a valve for the fixture, then to the fixture with 3/8 or ½ flex hoses, depending on the fixture.

¾ will go to the water heater, but everything after the water heater will be ½.

A few years down the road I will be installing a 1 inch main to the house, because I will be installing an under ground irrigation system.

Thanks for any comments or suggestions you may have.

Michael

Comments (6)

  • 19 years ago

    Good start, but you need to do a little more planning first. The cold side looks OK to me, but the hot side needs to be upsized some. The 'fixture unit' method will allow you to design your piping system in a methodical way that will meet your water supply needs. To do this, make a layout of your proposed plumbing scheme, then make a list of your fixtures, assign 'fixture unit' values and then look up the appropriate pipe size to feed the number of fixtures served by each section of piping. This way the piping is adequate and never undersized for the fixtures that will be served downstream. The one difference you will see is the water heater output probably needs to be 3/4" for some distance before it can be reduced to 1/2". That is just one item I caught. An example of fixture unit values and pipe sizing is attached below, different plumbing jurisdictions use different codes for the fixture units, etc. A good reference available at the box stores or from amazon is Taunton's 'Code Check Plumbing'. This is an easy calculation to do, but it will insure that you have adequate supply without those annoying droops in supply when something else starts using water in the home.

    Here is a link that might be useful: fixture unit sizing

  • 19 years ago

    Thanks for the link. If I am reading the table right, it says to have 1/2 going to the fixture, does that mean I should have 1/2 hook to the sink, and not use one of those 3/8 flex hoses you can buy to make that kind of connection?
    Michael

  • 19 years ago

    No, the fixture unit piping is the 'main supply' piping that would located in the crawlspace, basement, or walls. Its' intention is not that you extend 1/2" supply piping to a 3/8" inlet on a faucet. Where you approach a fixture (as under a sink or behind a toilet) place the shutoff valve and then transition to the 3/8" supply to the sink (or as appropriate for the fixture).

    BTW, I should have acknlowledged in my first post that a lot of this I picked up from lazypup and his thorough teaching. Thanks!

  • 19 years ago

    Yes, I have read a lot of lazypup's replies, and they are full of good info. this plumbing stuff is more confusing then i thought.
    I was doing more research today, and i came across some info that said CPVC has a smaller ID then copper, so a 1 inch CPVC is about the same as a 3/4 copper. If this is so, should I go to the next biggest size when figuring my pipe sizes, (i.e. when it says to use 3/4, I use 1 inche)?

  • 19 years ago

    Well, yes, CPVC does have a little smaller ID. Looking at the NIBCO website data for CPVC and copper Type L, 1/2" has about a 20% smaller cross-sectional area and 3/4" is about 17% smaller.

    You could go with a 1" cold water supply line if you're really concerned with the area reduction.

    Honestly, I'd be willing to bet that you probably wouldn't notice the difference between the two types of piping.

    In regards, to the 1/2" supply lines to fixtures (say a 1/2" line feeding a toilet and vanity), you won't see a problem - 1/2" CPVC will still provide ample supply.

    But, in regards to your main supply lines, you could adjust your fixture unit numbers upward by a corresponding % to compensate for the smaller pipe diameters. This would result in extending the larger diametr piping farther along your plumbing tree before reducing the piping downward.

  • 19 years ago

    thanks for your assistance, I really appreciate it.
    Michael