We're in a 70 year old house plumbed entirely with galvanized that I'm guessing is original. We're hoping to move within a year, although it's been "within a year" for the past year hoping that pricing will cool off(and also being picky to get as close as possible to what we want and not just anything).
In any case, I'm tired of super low water pressure, including a bathroom faucet that can slow to a drip if you happen to have the washer running just after flushing the toilet. I'm also getting tired of cleaning rust flakes out of the faucet strainers sometimes a couple times a week, and am afraid we're on borrowed time on those.
This is a 2 story house, but all the plumbing is on the first floor and it's not a particularly large house. As best as I can tell it's all in the crawl space. It seems to come in from the street where it breaks off to the water heater and washer in the laundry room, then head under the house where it Ts off to the kitchen sink, continues on to the bathroom sink, shower, and toilet. These are the plumbing fixtures in the house. There are no outside spigots(a sore point for me-on a few occasions I've connected a hose in the laundry room...).
Looking at this, I keep going through phases of thinking I could tackle replacing it all myself if I did it with PEX, and part of me thinks just get an estimate from a plumber. PEX does appeal to me since we did have a pretty bad freeze last winter and I was really glad nothing burst. There's also a bit of PEX already running to the washing machine.
Ideally also I'd like to start at the meter, add a customer-side shut off valve, and then just bring it in and replace everything from there. Slightly more ambitious might be also running a spigot to the garage.
Has anyone done a project like this themselves with little prior plumbing experience outside basic things like toilet repair and fixture replacement? I'm torn on it, and I wouldn't tackle it without getting under the house and actually mapping everything out....
In any case, I'm tired of super low water pressure, including a bathroom faucet that can slow to a drip if you happen to have the washer running just after flushing the toilet. I'm also getting tired of cleaning rust flakes out of the faucet strainers sometimes a couple times a week, and am afraid we're on borrowed time on those.
This is a 2 story house, but all the plumbing is on the first floor and it's not a particularly large house. As best as I can tell it's all in the crawl space. It seems to come in from the street where it breaks off to the water heater and washer in the laundry room, then head under the house where it Ts off to the kitchen sink, continues on to the bathroom sink, shower, and toilet. These are the plumbing fixtures in the house. There are no outside spigots(a sore point for me-on a few occasions I've connected a hose in the laundry room...).
Looking at this, I keep going through phases of thinking I could tackle replacing it all myself if I did it with PEX, and part of me thinks just get an estimate from a plumber. PEX does appeal to me since we did have a pretty bad freeze last winter and I was really glad nothing burst. There's also a bit of PEX already running to the washing machine.
Ideally also I'd like to start at the meter, add a customer-side shut off valve, and then just bring it in and replace everything from there. Slightly more ambitious might be also running a spigot to the garage.
Has anyone done a project like this themselves with little prior plumbing experience outside basic things like toilet repair and fixture replacement? I'm torn on it, and I wouldn't tackle it without getting under the house and actually mapping everything out....