Bathroom remodel: completely replace CPVC or Tee off of it

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grigs

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Hello, this is a great resource and I appreciate the knowledge on these boards.
Haven't explicitly seen what I'm looking for - my guess is either approach will work, but here's where I'm at:
Complete master bathroom remodel that I'm doing myself - down to the studs, new subfloor in places with full access to the plumbing, tub turning into shower, replace original pipe with PEX, etc. etc.
The townhouse is about 27 years old and plumbed with CPVC (hooray...). The bathroom is on the third, top floor and the 3rd floor CPVC supply lines are right outside the bathroom (see dashed lines in my drawing). I will be replacing the toilet and toilet stub out. The bathroom sits between the supply from the lower floors and the washing machine/guest bathroom.
My question is should I:
1) Replace all of the CPVC that I can reach, about a 10ft section, with PEX - this would require a CPVC-PEX adapter on both sides of the hot and cold lines, and then Tee off from the new PEX for the bathroom supply
-or-
2) keep existing CPVC and add some new Tees and then run PEX from there.
Currently the bathroom is supplied by 1/2" CPVC Tees but I'd like a bit more volume for 2x shower heads

In my mind, 1 is easier since it'll be easier to work with a 10ft PEX run and not have to splice any Tees into existing CPVC. However option 2 *might* be better since keeping the CPVC could make for better water flow to the washer and guest bathroom.

Are there any issues from a code or performance standpoint with removing/replacing middle sections of pipe like this with PEX? (essentially CPVC -> PEX -> CPVC)

Thank you!
 

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WorthFlorida

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PEX will leak before CPVC ever does. Stay with CPVC. My home is 15 years old, all CPVC and no issues. You home with 27 year old CPVC and did you ever have any leaks?
 

Jeff H Young

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There is one opinion I dont have much expeiance with pex mostly bad not bashing it its cheap and if you belive 27 years old and it might go 30 more years dont enven concider it but I have some doubts your money your house not many new homes built with cpvc on the water nowadays I think its not trusted right or wrong
 

WorthFlorida

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There is one opinion I dont have much expeiance with pex mostly bad not bashing it its cheap and if you belive 27 years old and it might go 30 more years dont enven concider it but I have some doubts your money your house not many new homes built with cpvc on the water nowadays I think its not trusted right or wrong
What pushes PEX is it's cheap, easy to install, fast installation time, easily coils up in the work truck. I'm sure there are a million homes with PEX without issues, so what recently changed?
 

Jeff H Young

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true they are both cheap both material and labor. I think Cpvc has more concerns mostly with it getting brittle. personally I trust pex a bit more
 

nnis69

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I almost went down the "cpvc hell" replacement task a bit ago. This is our first house, 13 years old and is all cpvc. As in most of the neighborhood and many new homes too. (I'm in Maryland)

The only people that threw scare tactics about cpvc and were happy to give multi thousand quotes just to repipe 2 bathrooms(2nd floor bathrooms)...not even the whole house, were the large companies. Reasons for only doing some was because they said leave the 1st floor for when we finish the basement since everything is exposed and simple.

I called around to a handful of small family owned plumbing businesses and they basically laughed and said not to worry, just don't wrenched on it....which I admittedly did before knowing this when changing a hose bib. No issues but now I know. They also asked if neighbors had leaks. I said no and if other did; they'd be blowing up the community Facebook. Should also note, one of these small guys said they get more leak calls for PEX, not from bad material but from rodents chewing through them.They love PEX apparently but thats a rodent issue, but something to keep in mind

The only recommendation I got was to replace the stub outs with copper and make sure to secure it to a stud. They told me they make copper stub outs that have a mounting flange.

One of my coworkers is the only one I know personally that flooded his 1st floor ceiling with breaking a cpvc pipe. How old the house was, Im not sure, but knowing the neighborhood he said, it's probably from the 70s?
 
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