The Water System in Your Bathroom
A retired client of mine named Marvin always managed to see the beauty in things that other homeowners wanted to cover up, right down to the plumbing.
A case in point was his reaction to a visit from the plumber during a massive bathroom renovation. This involved all new plumbing to the room, and an upgrade of every system. That was the easy part. In addition, Marvin wanted a steam shower, which involved a few days' work by Donny the plumber. Instead of using plastic supply lines, which are commonly allowed in many areas today, Donny preferred to work with copper tubing. He attached it to the half-dozen or so nozzles that connected to the steam shower. Now, I've always considered Donny something of an artist; he is to plumbing what, say, Kenneth Cole is to shoes. Sure, his piping gets the job done but it also looks so much better than anyone else's. When he was finished, the plumbing wall glimmered with beautifully symmetrical copper coils, which almost looked like sculpture.
Marvin noticed this immediately, even before he noticed the steam shower itself. "This is beautiful, just beautiful!" he exclaimed, and at first didn't want me to cover anything up with drywall so we could get on with the project. "No, we have to have this on display," he said, and he meant it. He wondered if we could cover it with Plexiglas for everyone to see, as a sort of monument to fine plumbing. Everyone, including Donny, talked him out of this. As a compromise, we took some photos. I'm not sure if he ever enlarged one and framed it, but he did speak of doing that. Not all of us may be able to appreciate the beauty of a plumbing system with this same degree of fanaticism, but we all can certainly appreciate its mechanical perfection.
How a system works forms the core of a well-done bathroom. The key to a plumbing system lies in maintaining water pressure so that water rushes out with vigor, rather than trickling on top of you as you stand in the shower. Fuelling all this is the plumbing system's main supply pipe, or riser, which runs to the bathroom. This pipe, which usually measures 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter, brings the water directly to the bathroom. It's like the trunk of some watery tree, and from here it branches off. Smaller supply pipes with diameters as small as an 1/2 inch lead to the toilet, the vanity, the shower, and the tub. Each of these carries water to a different fixture and, as it does, the pressure of the water within the pipe drops.
For these pipes, there's a great deal of debate about what the proper choice of materials is from CPVC plastic pipes to copper. Much of these debates centers on the issue of cost, not performance. For me, there is only one choice, and that's copper piping. I think copper pipes are the best choice because they are easy to work with and are one of the longest-lasting materials. In addition, they tend to stay clearer and open longer than any other pipes, such as the old-fashioned galvanized iron or even plastic pipes. Additionally, plastic pipes can leave a plastic taste in your drinking water, and who wants that? By contrast, copper pipes survive for decades without the slightest wear, and without leaving any taste in the water itself. Just take a look at an old penny it holds up, no matter what. Many municipalities and cities require copper piping, so you really have no choice. But others allow plastic piping, and this is where you have to make sure that a contractor will upgrade to copper. In all cases, I believe, you should go with copper piping for the supply system because ifs just the best way to add value to your home. Plastic water pipes, to me, just don't exude quality.
The volume of water is the most important thing in a supply system. Water volume determines the amount of water pressure you have in your shower and throughout your entire home. Pressure is a strange thing, because you can't really add to it. Water comes into your home at a certain pressure, or is pumped from the well at a certain pressure, and that's that. Older homes typically have a 3/4-inch main feed water into the home, and chances are they don't have the greatest water pressure. If you connect this 3/4-inch line to a 1-inch pipe common in newer houses to supply the rest of the house, you're not going to get any more pressure. In fact, you're going to decrease the pressure drastically because suddenly the water has a larger diameter pipe to flow through. It's a little like the difference between a river rushing through a narrow gorge, and then gliding serenely through a pool.
To conserve water pressure in these systems, you want to make sure the water flows up to the bathroom in as straight a route as possible. Any elbows and turns will reduce the pressure, as well as the flow. Once this pipe reaches the bathroom, the water pressure is reduced because of the gravity acting against it. To keep the flow constant, the pipes leading into the valves and faucets are restricted farther from % of an inch to % an inch, depending on the system. Don't expect water to jet out, however. No matter what, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that faucets can produce a maximum of only 2.2 gallons per minute. If sorting out these pipes sounds confusing, it is; this is a job for a plumber, and perhaps even an engineer, hi addition, plumbing systems have something called compression chambers hidden in the wall near each faucet. They're filled with air, not water, and they provide a cushion to soften the abrupt halt to the flow of water when the faucet is turned off. Think of them as bumpers for the water supply. A compression chamber in the water pipe absorbs the impact, and eliminates any vibration and noise.
Over time, however, the air in these compression chambers may become displaced by water. This becomes obvious if you turn off a faucet and hear a bone-rattling knocking sound, which ranks as one of the most irritating problems in home plumbing systems. The cure is an easy one, however. The trick is to turn off the main water supply valve right where water enters the house, and then to turn on every faucet to drain the system entirely. Once the faucets stop dripping, turn them off and turn the main valve back on to slowly refill the supply system. Once the system sputters and spits its way back to normal, the air in the compression chambers will have been restored and you should have knock-free plumbing once again.