If your water supply lines are made of galvanized steel or iron, you will need to make one of the following decisions:. Since you completely demolished the shower down to the wood studs, you have access to the internal water supply line plumbing. Your work area is completely exposed, therefore, the rough-in valve and piping is visible. If your work area were obstructed, you would then need to either cut into the shower wall face or you would need to gain access from the rear by cutting into the adjacent wall.
Here is an example of how to gain access from the rear of a shower rough-in valve for replacement. Some manufacturers ship shower rough-in valves together with the shower valve cartridge.
In these instances, you must remove the shower valve cartridge before attempting to install the shower rough-in valve, and especially when soldering copper pipe into the water inlets, The high heat of soldering could melt the plastic parts that make up the shower valve cartridge and cause internal leaking. These are the primary methods for this:. Crimping is really easy, and any amateur can do it.
You simply need to attach a copper ring to the end of the PEX, connect it to the attachment, and use a crimping tool or cinch to bend the PEX around the metal. You will need a crimping tool to do this effectively. An expansion connection involves using a special tool to expand the diameter of the PEX pipe.
You can then slip it over the connection, and it will revert back to its original size, making a watertight seal over the pipe.
This is then connected, and you can use a ratchet tool to compress the clamp and the pipe over the connection, so it's watertight. For this method, you need to fit a brass nut over the end of the tube along with a compression ring. You then need to tighten the nut over the fitting. Push-fit connections are the easiest and most popular way to fit a PEX pipe.
This system is really effective but uses a lot of water. This makes it more expensive and time-consuming to install. Smaller pipes then run from the manifold connecting into each of your appliances.
These systems use the least energy and are generally the most efficient. Hot water will reach your taps quickly, so you won't have to run the water for ages to get it warm. The home-run manifold is a flexible system and gives you a great deal of control over the flow of water to each application.
This allows you to save water, but you will use many pipes to connect everything up. Submanifold systems operate with a separate manifold for each room. These can be designed in several different ways and generally use less pipe than other systems.
There are a few different installation methods, but for DIYers, you'll want to make sure you have two main tools:. PEX plumbing offers a variety of benefits, and you can use it for plumbing your shower, bathroom, and sinks.
This is still significantly cheaper than using other piping, though. PEX and copper both have their advantages and disadvantages. PEX is a lot more affordable than copper. But, you need to look at its inner diameter and not the length since the diameter of the PEX tubing will control its compatibility for different fixtures and fittings.
Thus, you will find the true size for the PEX diameter for showers. Next up, you must consider your required water pressure. It is even more important since homeowners are increasingly tilting towards a plumbing system that reduces water wastage. Hence, homeowners prefer a PEX system that slows down the water flow rate these days. Henceforth, you might consider installing a narrower PEX pipeline to reduce the water flow rate and water wastage for the shower fixture.
However, you might still go with the same diameter for the shower fixture. It will allow you to get the full water pressure and flow, and it could be a game-changing decision for many people. Also, consider that choosing a narrower PEX for showers will increase your bathing time since it will reduce the water flow rate.
Next up, you need to consider the manifold system of your household and shower fixtures. Which PEX diameter is compatible with the manifold system of your shower?
Technically speaking, with the flexibility and continuity of PEX, you can use it with various manifold systems of your household. Plumbers also permit such applications. You will typically find blue and red valves on two sides of your whole-house residential manifold system. Here, you will need to follow the thumbs of the rule, which suggests that you might choose a narrower water supply pipeline than the diameter of the standard manifold system of your shower fixture.
However, remember that choosing narrower PEX will decrease the water flow rate. So, be aware of it. You should also consider the distance of the shower fixture from the manifold system of your home.
The longer the distance, the wider your PEX pipeline should be for proper water pressure. Henceforth, you should determine the distance of the manifold system from the shower fixture and choose the PEX size accordingly. However, there are currently no studies that back these theses, and we have vast experience with PEX and installing it in our showers. Pipe sizes are followed by two numbers. The first number is the bore of the pipe and the second is the outside diameter of the pipe.
The lower number will always be smaller than or equal to, but never larger than, the upper number. As you can see above, the perfect size for your shower would be a 3-inch pex pipe. In our experience, 3-inch pex has better durability than smaller versions, especially if you like long hot showers.
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