Full plumbing replacement

[m.gonzalez102]

Hi All,

I was hoping to receive some input regarding fully replumbing my home.

My home has fully original galvanized steel pipe throughout. Due to a few astronomical quotes for replacing the plumbing I am looking into tackling it myself. I have already replaced the main water line using pex and replaced an ancient hot water heater. I crawled under the house and all of the piping is very accessible.

The house only has one bathroom, the kitchen faucet, and a utility sink that supplies the washing machine as well as four outdoor spigots. The hot water heater sits in the garage and we plan on installing a water softener due to incredibly hard water in our area as well as add a fridge line so we can use the water/ice from it.

I've attached a picture with the current setup that the old pipes follow. Would it be as simple as replacing the main line to the softener with 3/4in tube, branching off for the outside spigots with 1/2in. Continue to the water heater and tee off with a 3/4 return to all the outlets I would like softened (and 1/2 in branches to those)? Then run a 3/4 hot from the heater towards the shower with 1/2 branches for the hot outlets?


I've done some plumbing repairs before but this would be, by far, the biggest thing I've attempted.

Thank you for any thoughts!

 

[Slomoola]

1.I would run a 1" Sioux Chief PEX A pipe to the center of the house.
2.Mount a Sioux Chief copper manifold in the center of the house.
3.Run lines to each faucet/valve from manifold.
4.Use nothing but Boshart stainless steel PEX A fittings. Buy direct from Boshart. Roughly the same price as brass and way better flow/pressure.
5.Get a pressure gauge. Keep it at 50PSI. If you need a pressure regulator, install one. Also helps with water hammer.
6.Most important thing. INSULATE every pipe and joint. This means cold and hot lines. Keeps the UV off, helps from freezing and saves thermal energy.

I am NOT a real licensed plumber. If it was my house and accessible as you say, that is what I would do.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

5.Get a pressure gauge. Keep it at 50PSI. If you need a pressure regulator, install one. Also helps with water hammer.

That step does not make sense to me. Are you saying you are suggesting to limit your inside water pressure to 50 PSI, with a PRV if necessary? Or something else?

 

[Slomoola]

That step does not make sense to me. Are you saying you are suggesting to limit your inside water pressure to 50 PSI, with a PRV if necessary? Or something else?

Yes sir, internal or inside the dwelling pressure.

 

[Eman85]

I'm not a plumber. I replaced all of the plumbing in my house with PEX using cinch type rings and brass fittings. I have a crawl space and my main line is 3/4" and came into the home at the water heater. I put a whole house shutoff at the water heater and went back down from there with the hot and cold running 3/4" and branching off from there with 1/2". I insulated every pipe and have self regulating heat cable on the main line as it does get cold here. I purchased a cordless PEX ring cincher by Ryobi from Home Depot. Worth every penny I paid for it as I've repiped without it using the manual tools.

 

[m.gonzalez102]

Install a bypass valve for the water softener. This allows you to bypass the softener if needed for maintenance or in case you want to water the garden without using softened water.

That'sy plan, the softener came with a free whole house filter so that will go in as well. My plan is to branch off of the main line in for all the garden lines. As the main line will have to cross the entire house before doubling back due to where the city connection is and where the softener and heater are, this seemed like the best approach to ensure I wasn't needlessly wasting softened water to the garden.

Thanks!