charliehorse
New Member
Hi,
I am new to posting here but have lurked for a long time and recognize the wealth of information here on the forums. I would appreciate your help.
I am doing a shower remodel and the main shower plumbing supply lines will feed from the crawl space to an interior wall where there will be the shower heads and valves. Fine, no risk of freezing there. However, we are also adding a hand shower and would like to have the fixture and associate volume control (note: not a diverter!) mounted on the exterior wall (one side of the shower) about 18" away from the corner where the interior shower wall intersects. The exterior wall is 4" thick 2x4 construction, east facing.
I realize it is not great to have the pressurized plumbing (one side of the volume control) on the exterior wall, but the design really works best this way. Of course I would add plenty of insulation behind the pipes (and not infront), but that's not a ton of insulation given only a 4" wall. I live in Oregon and it rarely gets below freezing, but we do have 1 or 2 weeks below freezing and has been down to 18F for a day or two at times.
Here are my questions:
Since the amount of pipe inside the exterior wall is relatively short, would heat conduct from the interior wall through the pipe/water to keep the pipe from freezing?
Is it better to use copper or PEX in this application? The volume control is 1/2" copper.
Is it legit to use automatic heat tape on pipes concealed on an exterior wall? What if I put heat tape on the pipe as it leaves the interior wall, (and made it serviceable from the other side since it is a closet), would the heat conduct the 18" through the exterior wall enough to keep it from freezing?
How bad of an idea is this?
Thanks for your help!
I am new to posting here but have lurked for a long time and recognize the wealth of information here on the forums. I would appreciate your help.
I am doing a shower remodel and the main shower plumbing supply lines will feed from the crawl space to an interior wall where there will be the shower heads and valves. Fine, no risk of freezing there. However, we are also adding a hand shower and would like to have the fixture and associate volume control (note: not a diverter!) mounted on the exterior wall (one side of the shower) about 18" away from the corner where the interior shower wall intersects. The exterior wall is 4" thick 2x4 construction, east facing.
I realize it is not great to have the pressurized plumbing (one side of the volume control) on the exterior wall, but the design really works best this way. Of course I would add plenty of insulation behind the pipes (and not infront), but that's not a ton of insulation given only a 4" wall. I live in Oregon and it rarely gets below freezing, but we do have 1 or 2 weeks below freezing and has been down to 18F for a day or two at times.
Here are my questions:
Since the amount of pipe inside the exterior wall is relatively short, would heat conduct from the interior wall through the pipe/water to keep the pipe from freezing?
Is it better to use copper or PEX in this application? The volume control is 1/2" copper.
Is it legit to use automatic heat tape on pipes concealed on an exterior wall? What if I put heat tape on the pipe as it leaves the interior wall, (and made it serviceable from the other side since it is a closet), would the heat conduct the 18" through the exterior wall enough to keep it from freezing?
How bad of an idea is this?
Thanks for your help!