Plumbing help?

[bolts]

Any plumbers around here that can provide some guidance?

I'm looking to (#1) add a sink to my garage and (#2) re-plumb an existing line.

For #1 - I have a big stainless sink that will be going on a wall that backs to the crawlspace. The crawlspace has the sewer black pipe about a foot below, and 6' distant, where the trap outlet would enter the crawl space. It's coming down the same wall the sink backs from the upstairs bath/shower/sinks/toilet.

For #2 - Some slacker ran the plumbing off an upstairs bathroom and back down to the kitchen through an attic space. It freezes in the winter and gets crazy hot in the summer. Quite annoying, so I'm going to re-plumb these lines through the crawlspace (Oregon doesn't get that cold -- and I can easily insulate them).

In both cases, I'm looking at tapping the cold water line that feeds the hot water heater (on the off side of the shutoff) and the hot coming out. It's trivially easy to get at these two lines at a threaded junction and run them 6 feet down to the crawl space. The gas hot water heater is in the garage. From the crawlspace I'll T it into a line to re-plumb the sink and another line to the new sink.

The house is pex(?) line -- flexible plastic. Seems to be 1/2" branch lines running throughout the house that I can see.

Questions --

Anything magical about working with pex? I need to cut/cap existing lines, run new lines w/ a T -- nothing too difficult it seems.

Anything I should know about putting a new inlet wye into a sewer pipe? I'm not a big fan of opening a direct line to the sewer in the crawl space. Seems like a good way to suffocate... That said, any issues with 'trap suck' or vaccuums I would create with the new line?

Is it ok to just hang/tack water line to the bottom of the rafters in the crawlspace? I don't see the point in drilling them out...

I can grab pictures if anythings unclear.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

The only thing about PEX is that you have to use the right size clamp for each connection, and it has to be crimped properly.

There seem to be both pretty normal looking steel rings that are crimped on with a special tool, and ear clamps that you can probably crimp just fine with a large pair of end nippers.

There are tools that you slip over the clamps to assure that they are properly and fully clamped. I'm not sure if these are available for both the ring clamps and the ear clamps, but they are certainly available for the ring style.

 

[BigRob]

PEX is pretty simple, it's easier to cut if you get a PEX cutting tool. I'd go for the steel ring clamps, and see if you could rent/borrow the crimper, or use sharkbites.

 

[Chrisl77]

I would say if your only doing a few connections and not planning on doing much pex work in the future just get sharkbite fittings. You dont need any tools other then a sharp cutter to install them they just press on. They are more expensive then regular pex fittings that require a crimping tool but if you only need a hand full of fittings its defiantly cheaper then buying a crimping tool.

 

[lschiavo]

The sharkbite fittings are pricey but work well. I plumbed my garage brewery with pex. Stay away from the cheap knockoffs though. I get some hammer with my solenoid valves and the one cheap one I used sprays all over once in a while...I really should fix that someday.