Hello all,
Had a seasonal home built last year. Home is located in Canada. So we shut the water off and drain the downstairs faucet in the winter when we leave. We don't fully winterize because we leave a heater on low all winter, and also we are there every few weekends (we turn on the water while we're there). This has worked through the entire winter with no problem.
Question about building an outdoor shower in the yard:
I had the plumber stub out two 1/2" copper pipes on the back wall, with shutoffs inside the house. One hot and one cold.
Shower will be located about 10ft away so I plan to run pex for the hot and cold.
The cold stubout will also be my garden hose faucet.
Hot side is easy... I can solder but prefer Sharkbite, so I plan to install the following parts in this order:
(hot stubout) > Sharkbite to Sharkbite coupling (1/2 x 1/2) > 10 ft of PEX to the shower > Sharkbite to MIP fitting for the shower(1/2 to 3/4 MIP)
No additional shutoff required, as I'll shut the one off in the house in the winter. The shower panel hooks on the wall and uses two 3/4 FIP fittings, so I plan to just disconnect the shower every winter, unhook it, and take it indoors. That will leave 10' of buried PEX connected to my outside faucet, and the faucet will be shut off inside the house.
Cold side is harder.. I need a sillcock for a garden hose. But I believe those have to be mounted/screwed to the wall so not sure how I can tee off the shower supply hose from there. I don't want to do it after the sillcock with a splitter, because the shower should be operable at all times (if someone shuts of the garden hose, I still want the shower to work)
Can I do something like this?
(cold stubout) > Sharkbite to MIP/FIP adapter > Tee (one end to mip/fip adapter, one end to shower, one end to sillcock) > Sillcock (hanging mid-air?)
Questions:
1. Will the 10ft of buried PEX be OK assuming a)shut off inside the house and b) disconnected at the shower end every fall. Or should I consider adding a tee with a cap somewhere early in the line so I can drain it right at the outside wall of the house?
2. What the heck should I be doing for the cold side of things? I'm confused as to how to add a garden hose. Seriously considering either doing the above, or eliminating the sillcock entirely and just putting a ball valve with 3/4" outlet which I'll screw my garden hose to. Things should look nice (ideally one or two silcocks mounted on the wall with a barely-noticeable PEX line going down the wall into the ground. The wall is finished nicely in stucco and is very visible.. so it has to look good. Would hate to have an industrial ball valve hanging mid air with a bright red handle
3. Any suggestions on improvement to make this cleaner/nicer? Does anyone make a sillcock with two outlets (one controlled by knob and one not) for example? Was hoping there was something "groundbreaking" like those nice Moen hot/cold knobs (for example) that could fit my shower/hose application.
Thanks!!!!!
Had a seasonal home built last year. Home is located in Canada. So we shut the water off and drain the downstairs faucet in the winter when we leave. We don't fully winterize because we leave a heater on low all winter, and also we are there every few weekends (we turn on the water while we're there). This has worked through the entire winter with no problem.
Question about building an outdoor shower in the yard:
I had the plumber stub out two 1/2" copper pipes on the back wall, with shutoffs inside the house. One hot and one cold.
Shower will be located about 10ft away so I plan to run pex for the hot and cold.
The cold stubout will also be my garden hose faucet.
Hot side is easy... I can solder but prefer Sharkbite, so I plan to install the following parts in this order:
(hot stubout) > Sharkbite to Sharkbite coupling (1/2 x 1/2) > 10 ft of PEX to the shower > Sharkbite to MIP fitting for the shower(1/2 to 3/4 MIP)
No additional shutoff required, as I'll shut the one off in the house in the winter. The shower panel hooks on the wall and uses two 3/4 FIP fittings, so I plan to just disconnect the shower every winter, unhook it, and take it indoors. That will leave 10' of buried PEX connected to my outside faucet, and the faucet will be shut off inside the house.
Cold side is harder.. I need a sillcock for a garden hose. But I believe those have to be mounted/screwed to the wall so not sure how I can tee off the shower supply hose from there. I don't want to do it after the sillcock with a splitter, because the shower should be operable at all times (if someone shuts of the garden hose, I still want the shower to work)
Can I do something like this?
(cold stubout) > Sharkbite to MIP/FIP adapter > Tee (one end to mip/fip adapter, one end to shower, one end to sillcock) > Sillcock (hanging mid-air?)
Questions:
1. Will the 10ft of buried PEX be OK assuming a)shut off inside the house and b) disconnected at the shower end every fall. Or should I consider adding a tee with a cap somewhere early in the line so I can drain it right at the outside wall of the house?
2. What the heck should I be doing for the cold side of things? I'm confused as to how to add a garden hose. Seriously considering either doing the above, or eliminating the sillcock entirely and just putting a ball valve with 3/4" outlet which I'll screw my garden hose to. Things should look nice (ideally one or two silcocks mounted on the wall with a barely-noticeable PEX line going down the wall into the ground. The wall is finished nicely in stucco and is very visible.. so it has to look good. Would hate to have an industrial ball valve hanging mid air with a bright red handle
3. Any suggestions on improvement to make this cleaner/nicer? Does anyone make a sillcock with two outlets (one controlled by knob and one not) for example? Was hoping there was something "groundbreaking" like those nice Moen hot/cold knobs (for example) that could fit my shower/hose application.
Thanks!!!!!