Use PEX for new water supply lines
liable to splitting if the water in tubing freezes and expands.
Copper is easy to work with. Believe it or not, a homeowner with just a little practice and inexpensive tools can cut and solder copper, creating leakproof joints. It may seem intimidating, but I recorded a video years ago showing how to solder copper in just minutes. You can watch it on my AsktheBuilder.com website.
The issue with copper is that it takes quite a bit of time to install a water line from one part of a home to another. You might have five or more fittings to get from point A to point B. Each fitting requires you to cut and clean the pipe, clean the fitting, apply flux and solder.
Working with a hot propane torch around wood can be dangerous. Countless house fires have been started by plumbers and DIYers who underestimate how fast a torch can ignite nearby combustible materials.
There’s a newer system to attach fittings to copper tubing without solder. The fittings have a rubber Oring inside them and an expensive tool crimps the fitting onto the end of the tubing to make a leakproof connection. I doubt you can afford to purchase the required tool. The fittings are also expensive compared to those you solder.
PEX tubing is a magical material. For the most part, you install it like you’d run an electric cable from a circuit-breaker panel to a wall outlet. You snake the PEX tubing through floors and walls from a manifold or adapter in your basement or crawlspace and then end the tubing at the fixture. There are no joints at all that can leak between the two points.
I prefer the Uponor PEX system. You create a leakproof connection using a small PEX collar that slides over the end of the tubing. A tool is used to expand the PEX so it can slide onto the end of a fitting. It’s far easier to create a joint using PEX than it is using copper, and I created a “Connect PEX” video at my website to show you just how easy it is to do.
The PEX tubing has a memory and wants to go back to its original shape, so it starts to squeeze very hard onto the ridges on the fitting. After a short time, it’s impossible for me to try to pull the tubing off a fitting. I’ve never ever had a leak with PEX tubing.
Another benefit to PEX is its resistance to splitting when water freezes inside the tubing.
In my current home, which I did not build, a second-floor water line to a sink always freezes in bitterly cold weather because the builder and plumber goofed up installing the PEX. The tubing has never split and leaked.
You can purchase electric tools that expand the PEX, or you can use handpowered versions. Cutting the PEX accurately is important, and a simple hand tool cuts the tubing square and perfectly each time.
You can install PEX as you would a traditional copper system, where a larger-diameter pipe supplies water to all the fixtures as the large line snakes through the house.
Or you can install a separate water line from a manifold to each fixture. The manifold method ensures you have no hidden joints or fittings hidden in walls or ceilings, but you end up using much more tubing material.
I’m a big believer in PEX. And because it’s so easy to install, I’d use it in any new home I’d build.