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Bathroom vanity plumbing

Reit38

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Nov 12, 2011
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Iowa
Probably a dumb questuon. I am in the process of gutting my bathroom and redoing water lines with pex. How do I go about running pex thru the wall into the vanity and having the transition look appealing. My wall is gutted down to studs for easy work. I have water shuttoffs already in basement directly under the vanity so I don't really need another set in the can vanity.

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Reit38

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Nov 12, 2011
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626
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Iowa
I looked at those. I'm not good at sweating pipe tho. I'm assuming I would put an elbow on the flex line?

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sixty4

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I looked at those. I'm not good at sweating pipe tho. I'm assuming I would put an elbow on the flex line?

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No sweating needed. Just crimp your pex on to bottom of stub out (of course the crimped side). After wall is finished cut the copper stub out end and push the valves on. :thumbup:
 

Todd.Brock

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I assume you have copper? My thought is learn how to sweat copper. I am old school in that regard.

That said. I had to use some pex last month and the world has not come to and end yet....yet.

If you really don’t want to sweat, use a shark bite connector to go from copper to Pex down in the basement where it is accessible. Run pex to the sink and then use shark bite quarter turn shut offs at sink.

You will have probably and extra 20 bucks in shark bites, but cheaper than learning to sweat or buying pex tools like I had to do for 4 crimp joints
 
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CJ7VFR

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Central New Jersey
Do you have stub outs for the hot and cold water installed yet? I think they make them for Pex now. I have seen that Sharkbite makes a version for copper/Pex/CPVC connections.

Here is a picture of both a copper stub out connected to a Pex line and two direct hookup Pex pipes coming up from the floor to create the same thing.



Jim
 

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Todd.Brock

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I have only seen one shark bite leak at my FIL house. It was hard to get a torch in this corner plus a 100 year old house ready to light up:)

I would never put shark bite in an area where it’s not accessible. I have sharkbite 1/4 turn valves on all my sinks and they are fine.

For the short bit of pex I did, I used a sweat on crimp fitting.
 
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coljar

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Belpre, Ohio
I agree with Todd. Use pex, but learn to sweat copper. I have probably sweated hundreds of feet long before You tube and I find it easy and fun.
 

moparfreak

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Jan 24, 2005
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Milwaukee, WI
Between PEX, copper, threaded pipe and shark-bites there's literally a thousand ways it could be done, it just depends on:

1) what material your supply piping is coming up from the basement
2) How much shows and how you want it to look
3) How economical you want to do it (does spending an extra $10 - $20 worth of fittings bother you to make it either easier to install or look better?)

But, I'm going to go out on a limb and make some assumptions here:

1) Your supply pipes from the basement are PEX (since you mentioned you're redoing the plumbing in PEX)
2) It's in a vanity cabinet, so unless you open the doors it's not visible, so how it looks isn't the biggest deal (as opposed to for pedestal sinks w/ exposed plumbing)
3) You want to avoid sweating copper joints (though it is a skill well worth having)

Based on this I'd recommend a turn plate such as the lower portion of the Family Handyman picture linked in Jim's post above, you can bring the PEX at a gradual 90 bend right into the cabinet, leave it long, cap it while the rest of the room is finished off. Other option is to crimp in a 90 PEX fitting if you don't have enough space to make that sweeping 90 degrees. The sweep is better for flow especially on PEX but sometimes in 2x4 stud walls it's tough to make that turn, especially when vent and drain & electrical lines can also be crowding things. Then once it's time for finish plumbing, you cut to length & install a fitting like below:

http://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-PXASQ050-1-2-PEX-Angle-Stop-Valve-1-4-Turn-Lead-Free
h160500lf-3.jpg


Since you need an adapter to switch from PEX tubing to the threaded nut that the flexible braided hose from the faucet connects to anyways, the angle valve stops all do that for you anyways, so for $4/side you're set and it's simple.

Regarding Sharkbites, they are very handy to have. I like to keep one or two around in the common sizes for emergencies or certain situations, but they are pricey, usually 2X - 3X as much, so not the best to use as a first rule. I have had two in my time fail:

1) Was a cut O-ring, ever so slightly, from the edge of the copper pipe as it was inserted, slow leak afterwards but made a mess. That one was my fault. Always make sure if you are inserting copper especially that is is well deburred on the cut edge as well as a bit of lubrication applied (such as faucet grease) to the O-ring and the pipe goes a long way. I also recommend emery cloth on the area of the pipe that will stick into the fitting so that once it is seated it's a nice smooth surface for the O-ring to seal onto.

2) There was a side load on one of the pipes, which caused it to not seat well inside the fititng. This was a plumber's fault that did a water heater replacement for me a few houses ago (never again will I hire a plumber!) and I had to fix that w/ properly shimming the HWH so that the pipe was level and not loading the sharkbite fitting to one side.

So, they work well but are not infallible. I agree with the above comment that you should definitely avoid installing them in hidden or covered cavities or in the wall. In cabinets or basements or out in the open is OK.
 

Bruce 993 SEA

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La Conner, WA
I have used the Shark Bite elbows with the "bunny ears" that allow you to screw the fitting to a bit of wood blocking in the wall.

There are 2 types, one with a 1/2 in threaded end that you can attach a brass or copper ****** to and then thread your angle stop on. The other is a push to fit Shark Bite on both ends of the elbow that you can attach your angle stops to with the compression joint on the angle stop.

Then you have your shut off where it belongs under the sink.

Cheers!
 

theoldwizard1

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Feb 22, 2011
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SE MI

630wg248e-4.jpg

The tube is closed so that you can pressure test the "rough" system. The stop is part of the "finish" plumbing.


No sweating needed. Just crimp your pex on to bottom of stub out (of course the crimped side). After wall is finished cut the copper stub out end and push the valves on. :thumbup:

THIS GUY HAS THE SOLUTION ! Everyone else is just wasting bandwidth.

I wish I had done it this way on my son's bathroom remodel 5+ years ago !
 
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sixty4

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630wg248e-4.jpg

The tube is closed so that you can pressure test the "rough" system. The stop is part of the "finish" plumbing.




THIS GUY HAS THE SOLUTION ! Everyone else is just wasting bandwidth.

I wish I had done it this way on my son's bathroom remodel 5+ years ago !

After 30 plus years in the trade, I better. Always another way to do something and I hope the OP made out ok with my suggestion. We are all here to help each other out. Thanks for the kind words.
 

rburke65

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Nov 10, 2007
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Canfield, Ohio
I would have to vote for a shut off under the vanity. You really don't want to run to the basement to shut off water when the shut off should be right in front of you.
 
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