Half bath remodeling plumbing advice

[Rodster]

So I'm remodeling a half bath including new toilet, sink, faucet,etc and figured I might was well replace the 24 yr old shut offs and some of the less than 'professional' plumbing on the way to the half bath that was done when the house was built.

I've mainly done copper my whole life but saw some PEX push on shut offs and thought maybe that is the latest standard in remodeling plumbing. After checking the big box stores I was surprised how little PEX supplies were available.

No problem using copper (except for one 90 that will be in a difficult location) but was wondering what is the latest standard in whole house plumbing and DIY remodeling? I'm pretty sure PEX has been used throughout houses for many years but don't know why supplies are difficult to find.

I hired a plumber to replace my well pump tank awhile back. His price was so close to my DIY price it was a no brainer and he used copper crimp fittings. Very nice but not a DIY investment for the tool and fittings.

So do I just re-plumb in copper or upgrade to something newer? We are considering selling in a few years so what would favorable in the eyes of an inspector or potential buyer?

Sorry for the long post but thanks for any advice.

 

[Jadnashua]

If you're comfortable with soldering copper, use that. Pex is fine for many applications, but because it is flexible, IMHO, best practice is to stub out the shutoff to a copper that has a bracket holding it in place behind the wall. If you were replacing a long run, then pex might make sense.

Some people install pex as if it was copper, with lots of fittings and try to make it look pretty behind the wall. One of the benefits of the stuff is that it is quite flexible (it does need to be properly supported, though), so that it can be bent to where you want it rather than inserting a fitting like with rigid copper tubing. The minimum fittings helps with the smaller ID to keep the flow volume up. So, ideally, just one fitting at the beginning, and another at the end with nothing in between.

 

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[Rodster]

Thanks! Good info and I always appreciate advice.