PEX piping?

[DGUS]

I'm relocating a hose bib and also considering adding another on the outside of my split level house. My basement is unfinished so I have access to the inside of the walls and ceiling. Plumbing will run mainly through the basement ceiling but some in the walls too. Is PEX plumbing a good choice for this? The rest of the house has copper piping so I'll have to make 1 adaption (copper to PEX) into it for the supply. Can that be done easily? Ideas and photos are greatly appreciated!

 

[Ezzie]

Yup - easily done if you have a PEX crimp tool. That is the expensive part and if you don't have access to one, would not be worthwhile buying one for just one connection/run. I redid my whole house in PEX and ripped out all of the old corroded copper piping. Much easier to work with.

 

[walrus]

They make compression fittings for Pex also. They work fine, not sure I'd bury one in a wall though

 

[craftsmann]

During my garage mahal reno, I relocated the outdoor facet from the back of the garage to an outside wall as I got sick of my garage floor and **** getting soaked. One single piece 50' in length. It was a PITA feeding it thru all the wall studs but worth it. Just keep in mind that pex expands and contracts with temp changes, about 1 inch per 100 feet. Copper to pex fitting is cheap, just use propane torch and sweat the brass fitting to copper like any other pipefitting. You can rent a pex copper ring crimper amd go/no go guage for cheap, I would not recommend the pex pinch fittings as not as secure. Pex is far superior to copper as it does not sweat and will not freeze and burst, and a lot cheaper.

___________________
Happiness is a big tool box.

 

[kvom]

All the water pipe in my garage build is pex. I used two "Gator Bite" copper-fittings, and they have been fine. You can rent the crimp tool.

 

[VHF]

I would do it in PEX. (Now that you mention it, I could use an additional hose bib on the back side of my house!)

Menards sells an inexpensive crimp tool for around $40 that requires using a wrench. Slower, but 1/2 the cost of the next model up.

However, with only two connections you could also use a SharkBite-type fitting (around $10 ea) on each end of the PEX.

If you do invest in the crimp tool, they sell through-the-wall freeze-proof outdoor fawcets that are made for PEX.