I just found a product called "Plumber's Bread" at Lowe's last weekend and tried it today. It's white, kind of styrofoam-ish stuff you push into a pipe before sweating a joint to keep water out. It then dissolves.
Seemed to work very well, and no clogged aerators.
For what it's worth, while I had the water off and pipes drained, I sweated a full port ball valve into both the hot and cold 3/4 pipes leading from the basement to the 2 floors above, figuring that for future repairs in the basement (e.g., water heaters, water softener), I could isolate the upper 2 stories' worth of pipes and not have to contend with water coming from above.
Seemed to work very well, and no clogged aerators.
For what it's worth, while I had the water off and pipes drained, I sweated a full port ball valve into both the hot and cold 3/4 pipes leading from the basement to the 2 floors above, figuring that for future repairs in the basement (e.g., water heaters, water softener), I could isolate the upper 2 stories' worth of pipes and not have to contend with water coming from above.