At first glance I thought many of these are just using copper pipe for "wall art", or similar to what some use PVC pipes and fittings to make outdoor furniture. But upon closer inspection, many of these items are actually connected to the supply lines...











Not sure what this is supposed to do.



What do you think of these?

Do architects hire licensed plumbers to do these? Do they need to meet code? Does code worry about copper pipes turning like 36 times to get from point A to point B?

Any of you master plumbers get hired to do these master pieces?



Edited 1 times.

clever...

They cheated in some of those photos by using gatorbites and press fittings. Copper tubing is not an approved conduit for electrical wiring on that light fixture. Some of those took quite a bit of time to assemble.

OMG I love it.

Cha- Ching !



Best Wishes

There is no way anyone would pay our prices to do them. Probably artists working in their lofts being creative.

Those pro-press fittings aren't cheap.

The serpentine contraption next to the shower is a towel warmer. Pretty cool.

m&m yes I also believe it to be a towel hanger/warmer.

But this is a plumbing installation, so unless like hj said it is an artist or DIYer doing this under the radar, if a permit is pulled would this be "to code"? To interrupt the hot water line and put in two additional valves, then to pipe in this contraption?

Looking at the two sinks, the cold and hot lines just merge together - no mixing valve, then a ball valve to open. So the user cannot control the temperature at all. Wouldn't this be a potential scald hazard? Hot and cold cross over too.

And the shower. That ball valve is higher than the shower head. Someone would need to turn on and off that shower by reaching way up.

I don't get it.

Sum, I think the first picture is a radiator that could double as a towel warmer. There's a thermostatic valve at the base of the right hand pipe. With the ball valve/"shower head" picture, look at the position of the person operating it. It looks like the valve is waist high.

steve: I do not see a thermostatic valve on these two installations.



I see a hot line a cold line and they are TEEd together and a single open/close.

The 'towel warmer'/radiator is the piping to the left of the black sink.

On the top / left of said piping you will see an (automatic/internal float) air vent fitting.

On the bottom right you will see a 'self contained' thermostatic (air temperature) control valve.

This piping will be using hydronic heating water.


The lower sink with no valves may be controlled with a hidden thermostatic temperature valve including integral checks.

The last pic you show with the one valve is cut off, we don't know if there is a valve on the CW side.


While the 'loops and twirls' may or may not be an aesthetic issue, the principle of well done exposed piping is nothing new.

Hidden from sight but accessible under the fixture control and mixing valves are not a new concept.


This may all be new to you youngsters, many of whom have never seen actually piping installed by tradesmen.

Back circa 1900 most plumbing was actually retrofitted and exposed in pre-existing homes.

? Where was the newfangled 'Crapper' put ? In a handy closet, hence the term water closet.

'google' Thomas Crapper for a good chuckle

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

"...Looking at the two sinks, the cold and hot lines just merge together - no mixing valve, then a ball valve to open. So the user cannot control the temperature at all. Wouldn't this be a potential scald hazard? Hot and cold cross over too."

Sum, that is all any faucet does, just in a less obvious way. A valve is opened to allow water to flow to an open ended terminal. On a mixing faucet, two valves are operated to allow hot, cold, or both to flow. As long as the terminal is open ended, unsubmerged, and non-valved itself, there are no issues.

.... plumbing fixture theory 101 ....



==============================================

"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

m & m, I understand, but I am still puzzled because these are so different from what I am used to seeing on the hot and cold controls for a sink faucet.

I have only seen two kinds. Either you have two controls, one for hot, one for cold, and the users can turn on/off each control to adjust the final temperature or volume of the water coming out of the spout. Or, you have a single mixer where the hot, cold, and an outlet, either pressure balanced or thermostatic, to give control of the water.

In the pictures I posted above, I see neither.

First picture to the right, I assume the two lines running along the back wall are hot and one cold supply lines. Then they made a turn and runs to the left side of the sink. I circled and enlarged the spot where they appear to merge. The ball valve is downstream of that merged point.





We couldn't see the entirety of the pipes. Some of it were obscured by the sink itself, but I think it goes like this.



So as a user if I turn on the ball valve, first I have no way to control the temperature right? If I wanted only cold water I can't, unless somewhere unseen there is another valve I can turn the hot water off individually. Furthermore, if there is a kitchen, or another bath, or a hosebib on the other side of that wall, with cold turned on, wouldn't that drop the pressure of the cold line and possibly cause a cross over from hot to cold?

The other picture to the left is essentially the same.





I do not see any individual valve on the hot and cold lines. Although the zoomed in view is blurry, it looks to me like they just merged the two lines into a tee, or possibly a dropped ear tee, then a line straight out terminated with a hose bib.

Doesn't make sense to me, unless there are controls outside of the camera frame, or they are cleverly concealed. Or am I missing something fundamental?

[www.bing.com]

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638