MiamiCanes
New Member
I was originally planning to re-do my old PB plumbing with PEX, following more or less the same topology (3/4" supply, with 1/2" teed off for toilet, sink, and final run to the shower). Part of the reason was because they don't sell PEX manifolds at Lowe's & Home Depot, and part of the reason was because I don't actually have anywhere convenient and concealed to hide it. However, I have to admit there's a major appeal to being able to shut off the toilet's water when it's about to overflow without having to reach down and touch a valve that's unspeakably vile and gross (the way toilet valves usually end up being).
Is there any plumbing equivalent to media wiring access panels that could be put somewhere easily-accessible and visible, but not necessarily the focal point of the room, and make them look halfway decent? Maybe it's just me, but for the past week or so, I've really started to look at people's bathroom plumbing, and it's blown me away how totally third-world most people's bathroom plumbing really appears to be insofar as "finish and decor" are concerned... basically, holes cut in drywall, possibly half-@$$edly covered with a metallicized plastic ring that barely fits and doesn't fool anyone. Commercial establishments are even worse... they just have outright holes cut in the drywall, with pipes sticking out.
If anything, it almost seems weird that nobody seems to have ever thought of combining a Decora-sized powder-coated steel plate with a 3/8" double male fitting (kind of like the way 75-ohm coax cable gets terminated, just bigger and hollow), so you'd connect the pex inside the wall to one side, connect the flexible hose leading to the lavatory or toilet on the other, screw it to the drywall like an old-work media-wiring plate, and finish it off with a single (toilet) or double (sink) gang Decora-type wallplate when you're done. Maybe put the fitting 1/3 of the way from the bottom to top, and put the valve 1/3 of the way from the top to the bottom. Net result: a nice, neat-looking termination point for sink & toilet plumbing that would be compatible with the same trim wallplates used for switches and outlets.
Note that I'm not talking about something insane, like combining plumbing with power outlets... just leveraging the idea of terminating flexible plumbing the same way you'd terminate something like fiber optic cables (IMHO, a very good analogy), and taking advantage of the fact that there are already thousands of wallplates made in the usual colors (white, ivory, almond, light almond, brown, black, gray), so you could just buy plumbing plates of the correct insert color, and use the same wallplate surrounds for the plumbing as you used for the power outlets and light switches.
Here's a quick photoshopped example of a possible Decora-style termination plate for a toilet's cold-water line. Pex terminates from above, water passes through ball valve, then makes right-angle turn to 1/2" or 3/8" male fitting on outside (where the toilet's supply tube would screw on).
Is there any plumbing equivalent to media wiring access panels that could be put somewhere easily-accessible and visible, but not necessarily the focal point of the room, and make them look halfway decent? Maybe it's just me, but for the past week or so, I've really started to look at people's bathroom plumbing, and it's blown me away how totally third-world most people's bathroom plumbing really appears to be insofar as "finish and decor" are concerned... basically, holes cut in drywall, possibly half-@$$edly covered with a metallicized plastic ring that barely fits and doesn't fool anyone. Commercial establishments are even worse... they just have outright holes cut in the drywall, with pipes sticking out.
If anything, it almost seems weird that nobody seems to have ever thought of combining a Decora-sized powder-coated steel plate with a 3/8" double male fitting (kind of like the way 75-ohm coax cable gets terminated, just bigger and hollow), so you'd connect the pex inside the wall to one side, connect the flexible hose leading to the lavatory or toilet on the other, screw it to the drywall like an old-work media-wiring plate, and finish it off with a single (toilet) or double (sink) gang Decora-type wallplate when you're done. Maybe put the fitting 1/3 of the way from the bottom to top, and put the valve 1/3 of the way from the top to the bottom. Net result: a nice, neat-looking termination point for sink & toilet plumbing that would be compatible with the same trim wallplates used for switches and outlets.
Note that I'm not talking about something insane, like combining plumbing with power outlets... just leveraging the idea of terminating flexible plumbing the same way you'd terminate something like fiber optic cables (IMHO, a very good analogy), and taking advantage of the fact that there are already thousands of wallplates made in the usual colors (white, ivory, almond, light almond, brown, black, gray), so you could just buy plumbing plates of the correct insert color, and use the same wallplate surrounds for the plumbing as you used for the power outlets and light switches.
Here's a quick photoshopped example of a possible Decora-style termination plate for a toilet's cold-water line. Pex terminates from above, water passes through ball valve, then makes right-angle turn to 1/2" or 3/8" male fitting on outside (where the toilet's supply tube would screw on).
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