Hello Plumbers,

Here is a picture of the situation: [imgur.com]

Last winter the pipes supplying water to my basement bathroom toilet and sink were freezing up (both hot and cold). We had to let both taps drip for the whole winter to avoid burst pipes. The shower, strange enough, was fine.

The previous house owner had been living with this for at least six years so I decided to open up the walls. What I found is that the hot and cold supplying the sink/toilet do not run the shortest possible distance, but actually wrap around the tiled shower. This is against the outside foundation wall and involves about 12 feet of copper pipe. I'm confident that the freeze is happening somewhere in these 12 feet.

Originally I thought I would just open up the wall and wrap the pipes in heat tape, but now I realize this would mean carefully pulling out and then replacing about 30 shower tiles. Heck no.

What I propose instead is to cut into the wall at the location marked in the picture and to cap the copper piping running behind the shower (without doing this the pipes will still freeze, and may burst.) Then I would run NEW hot and cold lines with PEX from the sink toward the furnace room (toward the right in the picture) and cut into the lines in the furnace room.

I would use the shark-bite type copper-to-pex connectors they have at Home Depot.

Can anyone comment on the plan and flag any concerns I haven't thought of? Thank you.

Mike

Heat Tape, is not approved for concealed installations. Frostex-Heat Cord is. You can also wrap the heat cord with foam/fiber insulation. Heat Tape, you can not.

Have you considered PEX?

Best Wishes

Hi, yes, as I said I was originally thinking about using heat tape but now I have another solution involving PEX. I have only heard one word of caution so far: shark bite caps are not a good idea in a concealed space, and I would think this is especially true in an area that might be freezing.

Would copper caps be a better idea? How hard is it to learn to solder?
How hard is it to do in a very confined space?
Instead of caps Can I rip out the t-junction and turn it into a 90 degree bend? I assume I would have to ensure the pipe ends are smooth.

Thanks

If you are using any ball valves that may be closed from time to time, and freeze, there is a handy new ball valve made with a freeze plug that wiLL rupture and cause no damage to the valve, so its a snap to repair, just unscrew the plug and replace... www.freezeproofvalve.com