Hello,

I am hoping you folks can give a couple old people a little piece of mind.

We volunteered to help an elderly gent by remodeling his 1950's tiled bathroom. Things progressed as one might expect in a bathroom renovation, but we hit a snag on replacing the shutoff valve for the toilet. It needs to be replaced. Yet, it seems that although the house is fitted with 1/2" copper piping alright, the threads on nipples, tee's, and adapters are a thread I cannot seem to locate in our area. They look like a fine thread and not the "piping" thread we are used to seeing at our local DIY stores.

Have any of you professionals encountered this type of copper piping in older homes? Or do you think our eyes deceive us? We don't want to disturb the fitting until we know we can properly replace it.

Thanks for your time and effort.

Michael

Without being there to see, it's impossible to say. Are you close to the Canadian border, and was the piping and fittings brought across. In other words, is it metric? Get an exact measurement of the OD of the pipe.

fine thread brass pipe is fairly common in older homes around the boston area.
male, female and reamed adapters are available at some plumbing supply houses.

I will defer to Packy, but I have NEVER seen brass nipples and fitting with other than standard ips threads.

hj...we miss a lot being west of the Mississippi! Here in San Diego, any building over 45 years old comes under the jurisdiction of the historical commission! In Boston, your plumber may have underwear on that old, but buildings buile afer 1800 are considered 'young'. And they did use weird stuff we will never come across out here!

That is why I said I would defer to Packy, since if he says they have it there, then that is a possiblity for the person asking. I am just saying I have NEVER seen it, and a building in the 70's should be too new for some esoteric material.

i don't know when they actually stopped using fine thread brass. i have never installed it but have repaired/replaced it many, many times.
i will post some pictures.
i have a brass close nipple that is ips on one side and fine thread on the other.
i also have a drop eared brass tee that is 3/4" fine thread on the run and 1/2" ips on the branch. it would have been used for running hot water on one side of a double bowl laundry sink. hot water straight thru the tee with a hose faucet screwed into the branch.
we used to cut out a bad piece of 3/4 fine thread and slip a 3/4 x 1/2 copper fitting bushing (looks like a coupling but one end is smaller to fit inside a fitting) over the bare pipe and solder it to 1/2 copper.
pics to follow..

You may have some area exclusive tubing or more likely run of the mill 3/8 ip to your stops.Is the stub at the wall copper ?is it reduced or is the stub smaller and if so.can you see where the reduction point may be?

Packy is correct, there is a lot of fine thread still in use in the Boston area. fittings usually break off in your hand, supply houses in this area carry m&f adapters, or you can use reamed adapters, and solder them over the brass pipe.