Outside wall?

[OneStaple]

Hey all,

I'm remodeling my master bathroom and am trying to figure out good plumbing locations. In my research, I haven't been able to find a good answer to this question...

I know people really try to avoid putting plumbing in an outside wall, understandably. One of the walls in the bathroom has an unfinished attic on the other side of the wall, and I'm not sure if I should avoid plumbing in that wall. There is blown in insulation on the floor of the attic, and there is rigid foam insulation along the wall in question. I could potentially also add additional insulation between any plumbing and the rigid foam, although I might only have an inch or two of space once plumbing is in.

So, should I be worried about plumbing in this wall? I live in Virginia, just outside DC. We get snow and freezing temperatures in the winter, occasionally with temperatures in the teens or single digits. I know this wall isn't exactly external with the attic on the other side. And even though the attic can get cold, it still is getting some residual heat from the house.

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[OneStaple]

Anyone? I need to figure out if I can put a shower head/plumbing in this wall safely. If it helps, I'm attaching a picture of approximately where I want the shower head to go. The unfinished attic is on the other side of the foam board that is seen.

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

Insulation only slows the movement of heat...having your pipes separated from the warm wall by foam insulation means that very little heat will get to them from the room. More on the cold side probably doesn't help much. If anything, you might want to remove some foam if you put pipes there, then replace it on the cold side so that the room heat is able to get to the pipes. There are reasons why water pipes in outside (or unheated attic) walls is avoided.

 

[OneStaple]

Jim, I think you misunderstand a little. That foam is already on the cold side. The wall has the foam facing on the attic side and will have drywall or CBU on the bathroom side, with the pipes in between. Once the pipes are in, I could potentially add extra insulation on the cold side of the pipes as space allows (so, it'd be minimal), but I'd want the warm side to have "access".

Make sense? With that explanation, does it seem reasonable to do? Or is this still too much of an "outside wall"?

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[FullySprinklered]

Attic space is ventilated space in my area. After the Big Nasty Freeze back in January I fixed a lot of burst pipes, three of which were in attic areas, two were close to the outdoors with some shoddy flashing work adjacent to it ( read: might as well be outside), though not actually in an outside wall. Just be very thoughtful about it whatever you do.

 

[Jadnashua]

No, I think I understand...to get the pipes towards the warm side of that insulation, you'd need to remove some where the pipes will run, then put some over it, again, leaving the pipes with a source of heat and some insulation to help keep that heat in. Sandwiching pipes between insulation means they won't get as much heat.