Pex through foundation help needed.

[MrJoshua]

I think I made a terrible mistake. Hopefully someone can help me out with some advise. Okay here's the deal;

I have a detached 24x28 garage sitting on a full foundation. I placed 3" pvc conduit before foundation was poured. Now I want to run my pex through my conduit which goes through foundation wall (36" down) then 90's up through floor. I'm running 1" Pex out to the garage. Anyone see my problem yet? No way 1" pex is going through a 3" pvc 90. Now what do I do. As I'm writing this I realize that I don't need to go in with the 1". I could reduce it although I will then have a connection underground. Anyone think I could get 1/2 through it or maybe 3/4? Any suggestions? What would have been the proper way to get the water in?

 

[chrisexv6]

How about not running it as one piece? Throw a Sharkbite 90 degree fitting on the end you are fishing into the 90, then once its at the garage in the 90 snap another piece of Pex (or better yet, copper if its going to be exposed) into the other side of the Sharkbite 90, then you are done.

I ran Pex out of my foundation and straight down into a concrete patio this way.....the 90 degree elbow sits behind the vinyl siding on my house.

BTW the bend radius of Pex is 6 times its OD.....so 1" Pex has a bend radius of 6".

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Why, I pulled 1" copper through one.

See if you can feed a decent rope through the line using a fish tape or something. Take the rope and put it through the tubing about 6 Inches down the line, Duct tape the **** out if it so it's so strong you could hang off it, make sure you have no spots where it can hook an edge, try pulling the heck out of it. You should have used a long sweep electrical 90 and 3 electrical tubing but Oh well. If you make it so the rope comes out through the actual tubing it will steer it better.

Good luck.

 

[MrJoshua]

Frank, yea I used the white sch40 stuff. the regular 90. Didn't realize it. So if I use the rope I still may be able to fish it through? Its gonna be real tight. I asume pex will kink at some point. Do you think it will be easier if I heat the pex up with a heat gun first? Or will that damage it.

chrisexv6, I see what you are saying about the Sharkbite 90. I could just press it in there. Not sure I trust those fittings tho.

 

[bigred292]

Had the same problem recently. I ran a 3 inch line from garage to house. I used 90 degree elbows and ran 2 1/2 pex lines through. I was able to run it before garage was backfilled by "helping" the pex make the corner.
Ideally you want to replace the 90 with either a "sweep" elbow fitting or use 2 45 elbows with a small piece in between.

 

[SuperSocket]

If you can run two 1/2" pex lines you can basically trunk them if you need that type of volume.

 

[MrJoshua]

I ran 1" due to the distance (130' aprox.) and for future use when I put a pool back there. The water line will be feeding two hose bibs, a sink, and a urinal. Will a single 1/2" line be enough.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

why not just run it exposed on the outside wall? use a pc of copper and just have a connection to the pex below grade.
when I did mine i roughed in a 2" electrical conduit with a long sweep 90 and I still had a hard time getting a 3/4" pex thru it.

 

[MrJoshua]

Need it underground to avoid freezing.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

is 36" down enough? around here its 42-48"

 

[mrobins297aaa]

i'm 170' from my house to my barn and 3/4" gives me plenty of pressure.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

maybe you should try and get a 3/4 thru there, that would be better than 2 -1/2".
3/4" is bigger than 2-1/2", 2 -1/2" are less than 1/2 the size of a 1" line

 

[chickenhauler]

I pulled (2) 3/4" Pex through a 3" 90 in my house without much of an issue. Worst part was when it caught on the PVC joint.

 

[70redbee]

Do like Frank said and pull 3/4 or 1" but grease the hell out of the 3" to make it pull easier. I think it can be done with a little patience and work.

 

[ddawg16]

Do like Frank said and pull 3/4 or 1" but grease the hell out of the 3" to make it pull easier. I think it can be done with a little patience and work.

Allow me to expand on that.....you need industial KY.....lube that ***** up as if it was momma ready for a *(&&%%$......

In more simple terms....PVC is good stuff...but wire does not slide on it like it does on metal...friction is a lot higher....

 

[jhelrey]

Like others have said... You can do it so do it! Haha1

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Put some of the electricians line lube on there, cut into the tube, run the rope through the hole in the tube, put the pulling so the rope ends up in side the tubing, duct tape the heck out of it grease the heck out of it with the grease and pull straight up, you may need to jag it a bit to get it to bend the way you want but it will go. I used a come along strapped to the roof of my buddys garage to pull in his 1". The dope bought a regular DWV 90. We tore the hell out of the first 2 feet of that copper pipe but once it started coming it slid out like a visit to the throne on a Sunday morning.

Oh yeah he cried like a baby about that 2 feet too. Beer money.

3/4 would be easy. It would take twice as long to fill the pool though.

 

[MrJoshua]

Thanks for all the help guys. Tied a big knot on the end of the rope then used a vacuum to **** the rope up the conduit. Taped it to the end of the 1"and it came right up. A lot easier than I thought. Did it without the lube since I didn't have any on hand. So if anyone wants to know, you can easily feed 1" Pex through a 3" 90 without much trouble at all.