replacing kitchen water pipes

J

Jordanb1999

New Member
hey all,

recently started refitting my kitchen and after my plumber flaked out and just didn't turn up I had to do the plumbing work myself. so I replaced the piping and solder joints with brass and steel compression fittings. along with adding two isolator valve on each pipe. probably not the best in hindsight as adds more points of failure but thought it would be good so I can test the majority of system and also work with the water if needed as we're doing it where we live. my question is how can I adequately test the system? if you see the attached pics the entire run is finished and ive most paper under each PoF to check for drip leaks is there anything else I can do. also had I made any glaring mistakes that are going to bite me on the *** five years down the line?

cheers Jordan
 

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That looks like a perfectly competent installation. The only heads-up I’d give you is that your tap tails screw into the bottom of your taps and seal with a rubber O-ring. You won’t be able to do that since you’ve already fitted the compression ends to your pipework and you won’t be able to give your flexi’s the 7-8 turns normally needed to seat them in the tap. Tails in first, then hook up to the pipework. It’s also awkward trying to reach up behind an already-installed sink to fit them. Apart from that - not much. Experience also shows that if plumbing’s going to leak - it will usually leak immediately, as soon as you pressure it up. If all is good, it’s likely to stay that way.

If any of your compression fittings do leak - knock the supply off at the isolating valves which join your old pipework, loosen the offending compression nut, wrap 5-6 turns of PTFE tape around the olive, reinstall the nut and tighten. That usually does the trick. I’d also recommend that you do this on your tap-tail compression fittings anyway, as they’re going have to come off. For belt & braces, get some Fernox LSX from our hosts and smear a gentle dollop of that on the olive, before you reinstall the fittings onto your pipe.

You won’t be able to fully test every single joint until the tails are hooked up the taps, putting every joint at mains or tank pressure.

The other thing I’d mention is that your waste pipes are solvent-welded and will therefore be completely rigid and immovable. I’d replace the whole lot with 40mm pushfit which is cheap and easy to do.
 
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Every time you use a inline valve it slightly reduces the water pressure its better to use full bore lever valves and and with the inline valve their is a arrow on the side they must point in the direction of water flow other wise you will end up with problems with the ball bearing inside coming loose and blocking the pipe..
 
woodbutcherbower said:
That looks like a perfectly competent installation. The only heads-up I’d give you is that your tap tails screw into the bottom of your taps and seal with a rubber O-ring. You won’t be able to do that since you’ve already fitted the compression ends to your pipework and you won’t be able to give your flexi’s the 7-8 turns normally needed to seat them in the tap. Tails in first, then hook up to the pipework. It’s also awkward trying to reach up behind an already-installed sink to fit them. Apart from that - not much.

If any of your compression fittings do leak - knock the supply off at the isolating valves which join your old pipework, loosen the offending compression nut, wrap 5-6 turns of PTFE tape around the olive, reinstall the nut and tighten. That usually does the trick.

You won’t be able to fully test every single joint until the tails are hooked up the taps, putting every joint at mains or tank pressure.
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thank you I got a bit ahead of myself without really thinking of how I would do the next steps (first time doing plumbing of any sort so that my excuse haha). thank you for the tips hopefully there's no leaks ill rectify the Flexi pipes in the morning
 
Also noticed you have both hot and cold with isolation valves on them.
Is this for an appliance. Most appliances are cold fill only.
If the hot isn’t needed just remove it now and swap the tee for a bend.
 
Looks neat and tidy but unless they’re hiding under the sheets of paper ? - I would add some more pipe clips

Alwsys best to keep pipework rigid and rule out any chance of movement / especially near to joints and fittings

As pipes are in place now, use a dbl clip on single pipe so you can drill and plug wall with pipe in place

Look good though, nice job :)
 
Nice job and one to be proud of. Always slightly different ways of doing things as have been mentioned above but a lot of the time it is personal preference. It’s nice neat and provided the compression joints are tight will last the kitchen and probably more!
 
Good advice about clips, at least a couple more needed by the corner.

keep the waste pipework solvent weld, it’s easy to do and infinitely better than pushfit. U can cut and put it together dry on the first attempt before gluing.

wouldn’t worry too much about the valves not being full flow unless u have particularly poor pressure, the water is going to be travelling through small flexi hoses so it’s already reduced. I would say those valves are notorious for leaking from the centre though when turned after they have been fitted for a while.

All in all though a tidy little job well done.
 
spirits are real 2016 said:
Every time you use a inline valve it slightly reduces the water pressure its better to use full bore lever valves and and with the inline valve their is a arrow on the side they must point in the direction of water flow other wise you will end up with problems with the ball bearing inside coming loose and blocking the pipe..
Click to expand...
thankfully these only
DIYDave. said:
Sorry Terry, think I was posting at the same time as yourself re lack of clips !
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thank yes I agree the I should have more pipe clips but the distance from the wall to the pips is for the most part is 2 inches are there any that can reach that far or will it be a case of screwing some off cut to the wall then the clips to that?
 
Where the pipes are to far off, cut a small piece of copper to bridge the gap between the vlback of wall and the clip and use a longer screw
 
pppmacca43 said:
Good advice about clips, at least a couple more needed by the corner.

keep the waste pipework solvent weld, it’s easy to do and infinitely better than pushfit. U can cut and put it together dry on the first attempt before gluing.

wouldn’t worry too much about the valves not being full flow unless u have particularly poor pressure, the water is going to be travelling through small flexi hoses so it’s already reduced. I would say those valves are notorious for leaking from the centre though when turned after they have been fitted for a while.

All in all though a tidy little job well done.
Click to expand...
thankfully we have quite good pressure around 15-17 litres per minute. reason I had to change everything was the pipes were fitted inside of the cabinets so impossible to change or get at without destroying everything. I'm hoping with the way ive done it you should be able to just pull disconnect the waste and sink and pull the cabinet out
 
Mike83 said:
Also noticed you have both hot and cold with isolation valves on them.
Is this for an appliance. Most appliances are cold fill only.
If the hot isn’t needed just remove it now and swap the tee for a bend.
Click to expand...
ill be honest I just replaced the pipes and fitting for what was already there but swapped the soldered joints for compression and ok seems reasonable thank you :)
 
DIYDave. said:
Looks neat and tidy but unless they’re hiding under the sheets of paper ? - I would add some more pipe clips

Alwsys best to keep pipework rigid and rule out any chance of movement / especially near to joints and fittings

As pipes are in place now, use a dbl clip on single pipe so you can drill and plug wall with pipe in place

Look good though, nice job :)
Click to expand...
thank you ill add the clips today :)
 
pppmacca43 said:
Good advice about clips, at least a couple more needed by the corner.

keep the waste pipework solvent weld, it’s easy to do and infinitely better than pushfit. U can cut and put it together dry on the first attempt before gluing.

wouldn’t worry too much about the valves not being full flow unless u have particularly poor pressure, the water is going to be travelling through small flexi hoses so it’s already reduced. I would say those valves are notorious for leaking from the centre though when turned after they have been fitted for a while.

All in all though a tidy little job well done.
Click to expand...

+1 for keeping to solvent weld, although push fit is easier for a novice. If you have to reposition the final connector, just use PF for the alteration.
And don't use PTFE tape, a small smear of jointing paste or LSX between the olive and socket will suffice. The olive is doing the work, not the threads.
 
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