Existing water line (re)routing inside the building

[jwvess00]

Hi there!

My property's previous owner built my 36x50 metal pole barn in 2004, and as part of that he ran a water line from the house to the back of the shop. The line comes into the shop on the back wall near a corner. The line is a PVC pipe run thorugh a lager PVC pipe coming up through the floor against the back wall. He used it to feed a sink and a urinal in a small room.

I removed the urinal and sink, as well as all of the other structure he built. Earlier I just stuck some more PVC pipe on it and ended it with a spighot for a garden hose, which is why it has an absurd length of pipe on it. The pipe was used to temporarily punch through a partition wall, but I've since removed that wall too. The foil tape on the pipe was a temporary hack to help hold the pipe out of my way while we coated the floor.

Having that water was handy while I was cleaning and refinishing the floor, and it would be useful for filling buckets and such too.

The problem I have now is that I've added studs for finishing the outside walls, and I've added a partition wall to split the building into a wood shop and an auto/meta/mechanical shop. You guessed it -- the water is in the wrong room (the wood shop side), and along a wall I intend to build a full-length 17' long workbench/stand for my radial arm saw.

I'd like to route the water into the auto shop side, but I'm not sure how. If I run it along the wall on the inside of the wall, I'd have to punch through the 6x6 posts, and I really don't like that idea.

I could just finish the wall with a spighot (like a washing machine connection) and that would be okay. I'd just have to run a garden hose from there through the wood shop into the mechanical side, but that's inconvenient. It seems like there's a way to do this more permanently but I'm not sure what it would be.

There's no reason I couldn't run a line on the outside of the wall -- that's how I intend to get shop compressed air into both rooms.

Thoughts?

 

[ZRH`]

Up to the ceiling then across the partition?

If Im understanding this correctly.

 

[Cyberbear]

If you can run external air lines, why not external water line as well. Since appearance does not seem to be a problem, keep it simple. That would also allow any changes in the future, and you could add as many hose bibs as needed.

 

[Playwme]

Run it along underneath the workbench.

 

[6768rogues]

I would use a spade bit and drill the centers of the 6x6 posts. It won't hurt anything.

 

[CNGsaves]

Unless your garage is kept well heated, that PVC water pipe is in danger of freezing now or next couple days with record low temperatures.

Do you have way to shut off water and blow out lines with compressed air??

 

[rexpittman]

I would use a spade bit and drill the centers of the 6x6 posts. It won't hurt anything.

+1 simple, easy, fast and cheap!

 

[dfiler2]

Any of those methods would work, but I would use PEX from the old pipe to the new spigot.

 

[Flatland Dave]

Shop heated or not?
I'd shy away from too close to the wall or in post if the space is not continually heated.

 

[jwvess00]

Hi there!

The shop is heated only when I'm out there.

There's a shutoff at the house for the water line, so I shut it off this fall, and drained the lines since I figured I wouldn't need water out there over the winter while I work on hanging the walls and ceiling, and other finish stuff.

I'm a fan of PEX, so that would definitely be my plumbing line of choice.

It's kind-of a neat setup, in that the house was built with a cistern under the back patio. The house has county water as well as the cistern. I think the county water hookup was done later, and that's what feeds most of the house. The cistern can be used to feed the house, or just the home's back spigot and the shop. I can also feed the back spigot and shop with county water.

The gutters can drain into the cistern, so I can use captured rain water for water in the back yard and in the shop. That was really nice this past summer, when I was scrubbing/risning/repeat the shop floor getting it clean enough for epoxy. I used what looked like quite a bit of water, all from the cistern, which my water bill appreciated.

 

[n8n]

If the shop is left unheated make sure you don't leave any low spots where water could freeze when it's drained down. Learned about a couple of these the hard way in my garage at my last place where there were some concealed low spots above a drywall ceiling. D'oh.

 

[csp]

I would use a spade bit and drill the centers of the 6x6 posts. It won't hurt anything.

Exactly, and if you're going with PEX the hole won't need to be as big is with PVC.

 

[mires]

Just drill the holes through the studs and route pex through it. We're only talking about 3/4'' holes in the middle of 2x6 studs. 1'' if you're going to run 3/4'' pex. Every house in America has holes drilled through studs. Keep it low behind your workbench and you'll never even know it's there.