I'll be installing 20 feet of exposed 2" copper, connecting to a backyard sink.
The copper is a straight horizontal run, except at the midpoint there's a short jog laterally followed by a short drop down, where it transitions from the retaining wall to along the house wall, then it eventually elbows into the house plumbing. It will be affixed to the walls using hospital brackets.
About half of the run will be exposed to the afternoon sun; the other half will be shaded by the house.
According to my calcs, the thermal expansion I can expect is 0.18", or about 3/16". But I expect there's also relative movement between the house and the retaining wall to account for.
A normal expansion loop would be a sideways U, but I'm thinking my jog + drop will serve approximately the same purpose?
I'm also considering leaving an unsweated copper connection at the short vertical transition, with a healthy coating of copper anti-seize, and a Fernco tightened only on the top band. I'm hoping that would allow enough movement that none of the soldered joints would be stressed, and would only have the potential to leak if the drain backed up.
Any thoughts on this approach? Any potential pitfalls?
The copper is a straight horizontal run, except at the midpoint there's a short jog laterally followed by a short drop down, where it transitions from the retaining wall to along the house wall, then it eventually elbows into the house plumbing. It will be affixed to the walls using hospital brackets.
About half of the run will be exposed to the afternoon sun; the other half will be shaded by the house.
According to my calcs, the thermal expansion I can expect is 0.18", or about 3/16". But I expect there's also relative movement between the house and the retaining wall to account for.
A normal expansion loop would be a sideways U, but I'm thinking my jog + drop will serve approximately the same purpose?
I'm also considering leaving an unsweated copper connection at the short vertical transition, with a healthy coating of copper anti-seize, and a Fernco tightened only on the top band. I'm hoping that would allow enough movement that none of the soldered joints would be stressed, and would only have the potential to leak if the drain backed up.
Any thoughts on this approach? Any potential pitfalls?