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I have PEX throughout my home, all fixtures with homeruns. Most are 3/8", bathtubs and outside spigots are 1/2". Pressure has always been fine. I had a recirculating pump installed and want to use it for my kitchen sink and powder room sink (about 20 feet away from kitchen). All PEX is...

Hello all, This site is the best, so I'm hoping someone can help me out with a major problem I just discovered with my forced air HVAC system. We've done major reconstruction over the years to our home which involved rerouting of supply and return lines. This rerouting was often not done in...

I have a two story house in PA, forced hot air and A/C supplied by gas. Due to numerous renovations and rerouting of supply ducts and returns, I have a lot of inefficiencies in the system. The 1st floor is fine but the ducts to the 2nd floor now go through a a myriad of twists, turns, then up...

I'm wondering if there are any calculations one can use to figure out how long it would take a run of 1/2" copper pipe to freeze at a given temperature? Assume each end of that exposed run is in an insulated area. e.g. assume you have a 8 foot section of 1/2" pipe exposed to the weather at...

Let's assume you have a 10 foot piece of copper that is in an outside wall and non-accessible. The pipe is prone to freezing a couple times a year (basically when it is down around 15 degrees or so). The pipe before that 10 foot piece is in a heated area (basement) and IS accessible. Is...

How to keep pipes from freezing again? Drain or drip? As a result of a kitchen remodel last month, I have a small unaccessible unheated section (between the outside and the heated kitchen) on my 1st floor where my hot and cold pipes run upstairs from the basement to a spare bathroom...

I have gutted my kitchen area downstairs and plan to expand it 10 feet over into what used to be closets, bathroom etc. In doing so, we needed to move the 3" main soil pipe coming from the 2nd floor. In doing so, I had asked the contractor to use cast iron instead of PVC for NOISE REASONS...

I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading all the old posts that are similar to my problem but still am not sure of the best answer. Thus.... I recently installed a compression shutoff valve for my toilet. It seemed to be drip free for days until I bumped it a bit when I installed my...

I am replacing my gas hot water heater. There does not seem to be a gas shut off valve between the gas line coming into the house and the actual water heater itself. I am attaching a picture of what appears to be some sort of shut off valve. Is it? If not, how would one replace the...

We are renovating our downstairs area which involves moving our half bath. I am pretty comfortable with most of the plumbing that needs to be done (teeing off and running the supply pipes and installing the waste and vent) as I have done these before and have learned a lot from you all on this...

I just soldered in a new ball valve for my cold water supply to my upstairs bathroom. All the solder joints are great, but I have a slight leak where the screw tightens the actual handle onto the valve. I had removed the screw, handle and washer before soldering. I soldered in the open...

Hi all, I just got done installing my new bathtub. I used a “Watts EZY Touch Bath Drain.†Everything looks good except when I tested the supply and waste lines, I have a small leak between the shoe strainer and shoe elbow. The directions stated “apply a bead of putty around the...

Next step in my bath remodel... ready to install the new shower diverter. The diverter ends are female, so I have male adapters that I am going to screw in and then solder copper to the other end of the male adapters. Then solder 90s to the incoming supply pipes. See picture of the dry fit...

I just soldered a 1 1/2" copper pipe to a brass fitting. I heated the fitting for a good while (longer than my typical 1/2" copper sweats) then soldered and the solder took pretty nicely all the way around. My only issue is that I was soldering from an angle where I couldn't see the bottom...

I know by reading and by experience that there can be NO water near the join when trying to solder. But that leads me to wonder how close water CAN be to the join? e.g. if I have 1/2" copper running horizontally and there is a T installed which copper piece running up vertically from the...

I have my bath gutted. I need to replace the old shower faucet diverter with our new one. While I'm doing this, should I replace the copper line running from the diverter up to the shower head? Or is this unnecessary? The lines look to be in OK shape so should I just leave it all alone...

Yesterday I replaced a couple of the cold water shut off valves (1/2" copper)that are in my unfinished basement. Cutting and fitting and soldering went great. At one point, I also replaced a T fitting. This T allows the cold water to branch off for my 1st floor bath. The water line continues...

I have researched this one here on the forum but can't find an answer.. I want to replace a couple of old shut off valves with new ball valves (most seem to be made of brass) in my accessible basement. I want to sweat them. I believe I can do this 1 of 2 ways.. 1) Buy a threaded...

I have gutted my bathroom and am installing R-13 kraft faced insulation between the exterior wall 2x4s. Question… do I need to staple a vapor barrier (4- or 6-mil polyethylene) over the insulation or not? I have heard conflicting answers online and looked for this question here on this...

We have 6 month old toilet. It uses the newer type of floating mechanism.. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's not the old type that uses a float ball. This is a plastic piece attached to a vertical piece on the left side of the toilet and it moves up as the water rises, and drops down...