snrusnak's shower remodel

[journeyman]

Glacier bay products by experience are garbage. I always tell people dont short change your plumbing system because you will pay for it sooner or later. Spend the extra money for quality. And here is some advise that will save you alot of money and stress. Save some money and get rid of that plastic pipe and repipe home with copper. Plastic is plastic and the hot side usually gives out first due to expanding and contracting. Make sure your house pressure is set around 55psi to limit wear and tear. I have a good feeling most of the guys in this room will agree with plastic piping

 

[snrusnak]

Thanks for the advice. The install is done so I'm not redoing it unless an issue presents itself. I did some research(after buying) and found that most people say their newer products are not as bad as their reputation, so I decided to stick with it. If it becomes an issue, I'll cut out the drywall behind the shower and replace it from the back side.

I have some experience with pvc and while I agree copper is great, I believe plastics have their place as well. All systems have some issues, some pros and some cons. My father had a pool plumbing business and all we used was pvc and we were proud to say we had a "perfect record" (never been called back to fix a leak on one of our jobs). I've seen copper fail and pvc(along with pex, etc) but just about every newer house in florida uses cpvc. It's all run under the slab as well, which I like. I don't want to replumb my house when there's no issues, and have all the piping overhead where if there's a leak it causes a lot of damage to the house. Not to mention the expense for nothing(since I currently have no issues).

A friend of mine had a copper pipe leaking under his slab and they replumbed the entire house with I think pex, maybe it was pvc, but it was some plastic and that was the "updated" way of doing it.

 

[phishfood]

Glacier bay products by experience are garbage. I always tell people dont short change your plumbing system because you will pay for it sooner or later. Spend the extra money for quality. And here is some advise that will save you alot of money and stress. Save some money and get rid of that plastic pipe and repipe home with copper. Plastic is plastic and the hot side usually gives out first due to expanding and contracting. Make sure your house pressure is set around 55psi to limit wear and tear. I have a good feeling most of the guys in this room will agree with plastic piping

I will agree with part of that. I have not put my hands on a Glacier Bay fixture or faucet that I would install in my own home, therefore I won't install them in someone else's home.

Repipe with copper? Not so much.

With a good initial install, and good water, copper piping is a great choice for water pipe. Lacking either of those, it is a short term proposition, costs more, and is harder to install.

I can perform the proper install, if you care to spend the extra money, and I can give you the good water via softeners and filters, if you care to spend the money.

Last year, I did a repipe from polybutylene to PEX. The original pipe in the house was copper, installed in the very late 80's. It failed several times, and was repiped with PB in the early 90's. No problems, but the lady's insurance company was charging her high rates because she had the "devil pipe".

3 years ago, I repiped my supervisor's house, 15 years old, copper leaking everywhere.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. Copper isn't the holy grail, IMO.

I have several homes I do service on that have polybutylene piping that are not giving any trouble.