Old brick building plumbing

Hi guys, long time no talk. So in an effort to get out of construction I bought a historic downtown brick building in the town next to us. I have gutted the 80 years of horrible buildouts. Put a new roof on it and now am doing a buildout for a business that we are opening. I need to install all new plumbing. It currently has one bathroom with cast iron drains and galvanized water supply. I'm tearing it all out and starting fresh. I will get a drawing up later but I need to add one ada bathroom and several floor drains. I will need some help to make sure I install everything to code to pass my inspection but also am stuck on the supply line and water heater. Should I do pex or copper? I'm great at soldering and have never touched pex. Both are allowed here. The main service was replaced a few years ago and the city brought poly into the building.

If i was ever going to go away from copper it would be with Upnor pex. Myself i would do Propress copper, it is a bit expensive. As the layout changes i would rather press in a new fitting than try and solder with water in the system.

Pex is steadily winning over plumbers over here in Silicon Valley

Depends
are you going to have flush valves in the bathrooms?
or tank type terlets?
urinal?

if no flush valves, use pex.
post when you get your plan

Probably just tank terlets. Then a few floor sinks for equipment and a 3 basin sink. Attached is my floor plan. Sewer comes in under the existing restroom. I tore out the restroom and floor.

This is kinda what I'm thinking for sewer but if you have input that would be great. Where the mainline will be is dug out a little deeper than the rest of the crawl space.

I like copper myself but that's probably because that's what I have the most experience in. I worked with propress once and liked it but dont think I can justify the cost for this little job. This building is super easy to shut down and I will also put a drain valve in because why not. I've heard alot of people going to pex but my concern is that it hasn't been widely enough used long term to know how it holds up after 30-40 years. I've worked on places with really old copper that still looks new. Heck most places here are galvanized and still somehow working.

Uponor/ wirsbo is super common for high& low rise residential re-pipes and new construction in bc right now

aas06 said:

Uponor/ wirsbo is super common for high& low rise residential re-pipes and new construction in bc right now

Click to expand...

Never heard of it. Is that just a brand or type of pipe?

Chris said:

Never heard of it. Is that just a brand or type of pipe?

Click to expand...

different type of pipe.

CT18 Mentioned it as well. its pretty similar to pex, but instead of crimp joints, its expanded joints. bit more expensive in material, but superfast to install(in the smaller sizes). cant remember exact warranty time on it but I think its rated for quite a while. https://www.uponor-usa.com/commercial-plumbing/contractor-installer/faqs.aspx

I agree.i like copper much more than pex. it is time proven to work

do you have the ceiling space to put 20 gallon w/h above celing in bathrooms

I drew in some floor drains and vents
where is the hvac unit? it is going to need a floor drain for condensation
is the building fire sprinkled?

the floor drains will require a trap primer
under the sink. I prefer the type that comes off the drain not the water service
it uses an inverted wye branch tail piece

Plenty of room, ceilings are 16 feet high and I can hide anything. Forced air unit is by the existing restroom.

On the venting I will have to do a studor vent by the handwashing sink. I want to keep it all exposed brick and avoid running pipes up there

Good...you can put a 20 gallon electric above each bathroom

Cant go overhead above the event room. Its ceiling goes all the way to the rafters. And so does the rest except the restrooms. I would have to bring everything under the floor then up through the wall to get above. I need hot water to the sink in the kitchen and the hand sink by the bar. I thought about an instant hot water heater under the ada bathroom sink just to not run a hot there but a 20 gallon would work the same. I can easily run hot water lines under to all sinks along the other wall.

i suggest you contact your local plumbing inspector and inquire when the city requires a grease trap
IF, all you are required is the 3 compartment sink, a small grease separator

can be installed under the sink and drain into the sewer

If you are going to run the water piping exposed on the brick, then I would use copper, no question. If it is going to be concealed in a wall, then I would probably use PEX.

I see a lot of failed copper around here. But that probably has a lot to do with water quality. I have yet to see any failed PEX, but the very earliest installations around here are probably not much more than 20 years old, and there aren't all that many.

the problem we run into is mice and squirrels
biting the pipe to get a drink...or just being little AH's
The BIGGEST problem is under sizing line size
I have seen a 2 bath house piped in ALL 1/2'' pex

If copper is not allowed to touch concrete/brick or metal is will last
the lime eats it up and dissimilar metal also