Posted: Mar 22, 2016 3:07 pm
Onyx8 wrote:
Lifespan is forever: it's code. Ie someone else's fault. The copper lasts forever, the joints not so much. Although it was the absolute best for decades if not centuries. Pex will outlive your responsibility.
They've been using it in Europe for many years.
The initial outlay on the crimper is a bitch, everything else is who cares.
Probably use PEX then. I designed the addition so I'd have one continuous run of copper with no joints from the service and water heater to the bathroom, so all joints would be easily accessible. Copper is a bit of a bitch to work with in any sort of cramped environment, though, like under a sink.
Next house I build or buy will be up in the Panhandle, maybe Dog Island if I can talk the missus into living on a remote island with no bridge and no stores. You have to build up on stilts, I think current code is 13 feet above Mean High Water. It never freezes there, so all the plumbing and electrical hangs from the joists under the house, SO fucking easy to work on. Two step ladders, a couple of 2x12s and you're ready to go. Relocating a bathroom is basically cutting some access holes in the decking and running some pipe. What a pleasure.
This one just sold, worse luck, we're just not in a position to buy yet. It's directly on the Gulf of Mexico (pic is taken from teh beach). 2000 square feet on a full acre of land, next to a nature reserve so NEVER any neighbors, about a mile over sand roads from the harbor. $350K. And they say money can't buy happiness. They lie.
Likely spend a lot of time replacing the wood on the raised walkway, but it would keep me busy. Lots of restrictions on land use though, as the entire island is a nature reserve. No livestock of any kind, can't have a grass lawn or bring in any alien plant species, must have elevated walkways, etc. A small price to pay, methinks, to live as close to Heaven as possible in this profane world. Oh, and NO outdoor cats. On the plus side, an empty, unspoiled beach with no tourists, where doggies can frolic with the dolphins and perhaps get eaten by the numerous sharks.