Has anyone upgraded/changed out their old copper plumbing to PEX?

[JDMMAN]

Just wondering if anyone has changed out/upgraded their water supply piping from Copper to PEX?

I'm looking at starting rennos soon, and I think it would make sense to try upgrading the line-size to provide more volume and consistent flow when there's more than one demand instance (i.e. two showers, shower + facet, kitchen facet + shower etc).

My copper pipes are 3/4" OD feed to 1/2" OD branches. Looking to go 1" Feed and 3/4" OD branches.

Anyone know the cost on this? I'd like to go with a centralized water distribution manifold to the individual parts of the house.

[Cheeba]

You're going to need a quote to get any kind of remotely accurate pricing.

I just redid my house's entire plumbing with PEX, and used Wirsbo expanders instead of sharkbites or crimp rings. I know a bunch of plumbers and they all say the Wirsbo expanders are less prone to failure. Definitely go with the manifold type setup - it's so nice that all of my connectors, i.e. failure points, are all in the utility room, right over a drain!

[blitz]

Remember that the larger the diameter lines, the longer it takes for hot water to get there. A long 1" line could be quite a noticable wait.

[JDMMAN]

Any recommendation for plumbers that can do this in Calgary?

[lauphman]

What type of house? 2 story or bungalow? This is a big Reno, there has to be access to wherever you have water going to now, and dropping the ceiling drywall in some places. We usually do this on full guts. We get people asking to change out there poly b when they are doing a bathroom or kitchen Reno but then they back out when they realize how much needs to be opened.

[JDMMAN]

lauphman - Its a bunglow with partially finished basement. (60% unfinished). Does that make it any easier? I'm also doing complete rennos for the kitchen and bathrooms. So most of the areas that need to be opened up I believe will be easily accessible to run lines.

[Maxt]

I wouldn't mess with plastics anymore, I did a job the other day with a Rigid Propress system, and it was unbelievably fast.
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/ProPress-Rings/EN/index.htm
I did a bunch of 2" refitting, probably about 3 hours worth of work if soldered, had it done in 40 minutes and easy as pie. No worrying about split pipes either. Probably a lot more expensive, by it will last a life time.

[lauphman]

Bungalow does make it easier. Like others have mentioned and the only way I do it is a home run system with manifolds. More expensive then the traditional way but a lot safer because there's no joints in the walls and cielings. Pex pipe won't split on you even if frozen its always the joints that fail.

[JDMMAN]

lauphman - the plan was to run a hybrid of the "home-run" system with manifolds.