Replacing shower valve: replace copper water piping?

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Dan

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hi all i'm wondering if i can get some feed back: i am remodeling my bathroom and will be adding a new shower valve, a new connection to the shower head, and add inline 'shutoffs.'

shower valve
will be adding the Delta Multichoice rough in. the water piping are all copper. i will need to cut the copper to replace the valve. i'm not a great welder but understand enough (my welding experience comes from working on boards/electronics as a hobby). should i just cut back a bit more copper and use PEX for the rest of the way to the shower valve?

shower head
i will be lengthening a shower head distance up the wall and will need to have water pipe going up to where the shower head will be. do i do this new water piping with pex or copper? assuming welding and cost isn't an issue for this amount of material. is one material better than another in terms of longevity?

inline shutoff
currently there is no way to shut off the water only to the shower/bath. there is an access panel in the closet behind the shower wall. i want to add shut off valves for the hot and cold water. as i mentioned above, this would require my cutting back the copper. should i use PEX or copper for this section.

r10000-px-b1.jpg


delta shower rough: https://www.deltafaucet.com/bathroom/product/R10000-PX
water piping:

dan-shower-01.jpg
 

Plumber69

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hi all i'm wondering if i can get some feed back: i am remodeling my bathroom and will be adding a new shower valve, a new connection to the shower head, and add inline 'shutoffs.'

shower valve
will be adding the Delta Multichoice rough in. the water piping are all copper. i will need to cut the copper to replace the valve. i'm not a great welder but understand enough (my welding experience comes from working on boards/electronics as a hobby). should i just cut back a bit more copper and use pex for the rest of the way to the shower valve?

shower head
i will be lengthening a shower head distance up the wall and will need to have water pipe going up to where the shower head will be. do i do this new water piping with PEX or copper? assuming welding and cost isn't an issue for this amount of material. is one material better than another in terms of longevity?

inline shutoff
currently there is no way to shut off the water only to the shower/bath. there is an access panel in the closet behind the shower wall. i want to add shut off valves for the hot and cold water. as i mentioned above, this would require my cutting back the copper. should i use pex or copper for this section.

delta shower rough: https://www.deltafaucet.com/bathroom/product/R10000-PX
water piping: https://i.imgur.com/Or2lgRY.jpg
Just run PEX to everything, get the delta valve with the shutoffs built in. Rarely you will need to isolate shower so even that is pointless
 

Jadnashua

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Well, a terminology thing...one doesn't weld copper connections for plumbing...one solders them. Now, you might braze some connections under some circumstances (soldered connections aren't allow underground), but never weld them.

If this is a tub/shower, you could use pex, but your fill rate on the tub will be slower, and, you CANNOT use pex to the tub spout...that section from the valve to the spout must be full diameter copper piping or you'll have issues. If it's a shower only, then pex will work because the smaller ID of pex can support all of the volume a single shower head needs without restrictions.

The critical things on soldering are:
- clean the pieces well
- flux them
- heat the fitting without overheating and burning the flux, and apply solder once it's hot enough

To help decide when the pieces are hot enough, I prefer to use a tinning flux...that has powdered solder in it, so when that starts to melt, you know the joint is hot enough to then add the solder to make it complete. A few practice ones, and you should be good to go if you have any mechanical ability.
 

Dan

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Just run pex to everything, get the delta valve with the shutoffs built in. Rarely you will need to isolate shower so even that is pointless

ok got it. i'm not adverse to replacing copper with pex. but i do want to be sure there isn't a drawback to doing it. it gives me an opportunity to learn since i haven't ever done this before.


Well, a terminology thing...one doesn't weld copper connections for plumbing...one solders them.

ha, yup, meant solder. i don't 'weld' things onto my boards. i dont have a reflow station or any fancy soldering iron but do use flux. good advice. if i go the route of copper i would definitely practice beforehand.




if i cut 'back' the copper piping i can use push-connection joints (i.e. 'sharkbite') to join the copper with the pex?
 
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