Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleF
Has anyone ever had grey pipe remediation done before? Do you have to leave the house due to mess and/or be without water for a few days?
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Also, I was thinking about getting thermostatic valves installed, but if I do the poly B removal as well as a bathroom reno, who should I be talking to to have the thermostatic valve installed for most effectiveness and/or lower cost? (ie: if they have to poly B remediate and connect to shower/bath, then disconnect to install thermostatic value... or if it's no big deal to access shower/bath later on to do thermostatic value (since it'll be exposed anyways) when swapping in a bath/shower insert.
I'm leaning towards seeing if it can be done during poly B removal. That way any normal contractor or average plumber can basically just reconnect the stuff to a new bath/shower (it's been surprisingly hard to find someone willing to do thermostatic valves).
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Poly B is garbage and you will eventually end up having to replace it all anyway, so if you have the scratch to do it all in one go so much the better to get it all done and over with. Will you need to move out of the house? Probably not, but you'll likely have to stay out of certain rooms in your house as the work gets done and may need to do a bunch of remedial wall and ceiling repairs depends on how your house was built.
If you're already going to the trouble of replacing absolutely all of the Poly B, right up to the mixing valve(s), it's pretty trivial to replace the valve(s) at the same time.
Thermostatic valves are more expensive and a lot less common in homes than pressure-balancing; could be that the contractors you've talked to don't typically procure them and are having a tough time finding available product right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
Why get a separate thermostatic valve? When you have your bathroom reno done, have a new fixture put in that has it built in. I have an American Standard, and the valve works great on it. Depending on access, it's probably easiest to leave that poly B until reno time.
EDIT: Jut realized that is different than a pressure balance, which I have. But it also keeps the temperature steady, if that is what you are going for.
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FYI pressure-balancing valves do
not keep temperature steady; that's what thermostatic valves do. Pressure-balancing ones will keep the differential pressure between hot and cold constant, so that e.g. when you flush a toilet and the cold water pressure at your mixing valve drops, the hot water flow through the valve will also correspondingly drop. That way you don't get scalded while you're in the shower.
But that's all pressure-balancing valves do: keep the differential between the hot and cold water pressures constant. If your hot water temperature stays constant it will keep the supplied temperature at your tub/shower constant, but that's just a side effect of the hot supply being steady. The valve doesn't otherwise control temperature, just pressure. If the capacity of your water heater can't keep up with the rate you're using it the supply temperature from the tank will drop, and the water you get at your tub/shower will get cooler and cooler. The pressure of water supplied from the hot side and the cold sides will be kept the same, so to keep the temperature the same you need to keep twisting the mixer knob to give you more and more hot water.
By contrast a thermostatic valve
will keep the temperature supplied from the valve constant, by automatically adjusting the flows of hot & cold water as required. E.g. as your hot water temperature begins to cool as described above it'll open the hot side and close the cold side for you.