Sure, things slowed down as we approached Christmas, but with New Years behind us, there’s definitely been some action at the house and it appears we’ve fully awoken from the holiday-induced coma.

The plumbing is well underway, with most of the drains and vents already in place. As I mentioned back in May (I can’t believe it was that long ago), we’ll be running PEX throughout the house as well. As I suspected, we’ll be running a hybrid-manifold setup, with dedicated lines running to some fixtures and branch runs connecting the rest. If all goes according to plan, everything should be completed in the next few weeks.

The last of the windows arrived on Friday, which means we’ll finally be able to get the house entirely closed in. With the amount of snow and rain we’ve had this season, I really wish we had installed those windows before the holidays, but we decided to hold off and wait until everything was fully framed before we placed the final order. It’s a good thing too, because the dimensions of the large clerestory window changed once the framing was complete… and you can’t exactly return a custom-ordered window of that size.

The ductwork has been installed on the first and second floor, but there’s still plenty of work to be done in the basement. All of the components have been measured and ordered, so it’s just a matter of installation at this point. Oh, and I suppose we’ll actually have to install the various pieces of equipment as well… not that it actually matters at the moment. We can’t fire everything up until we have the gas connected and at the moment, we have to wait something like 40 days until Enbridge will come and hook us up. We anticipated a delay, but I’m shocked it’s going to take this long as we applied for our hookup weeks ago (well before the holiday if I’m not mistaken).

I’ve been doing as much reasearch as possible, and it’s looking like we’ll be going with PEX (“cross-linked polyethylene”, err.. “strong plastic”) tubing for our plumbing. PEX has started to become popular with residential plumbing as it’s flexible, cheaper and easier to install than traditional copper.

The tubing itself is a fraction of the cost when compared to copper pipe, however the fittings are incredibly expensive. Luckily you don’t need many of them as you can bend the tubing around corners and run direct lines to each of your fixtures. Installation is apparently quite easy and can be completed in a single day, which is another great benefit as you’ll save on labour costs as well.

There are 3 different methods of installation:

1. A manifold system (pictured above), where you run a direct line to each fixture in the house. This approach obviously requires more tubing, but results in constant pressure throughout the entire system (i.e., the shower will stay strong when you flush the toilet).
2. A hybrid system utilizes smaller manifolds in a variety of places (e.g. between a toilet and a sink), plus direct lines to bigger fixtures (such as shower). This way you still get constant pressure where you’ll need it, but you save on tubing.

1. A tree & branch system is identical to a traditional copper setup wherein smaller tubes branch off of a larger trunk. This will result in less tubing, but more fittings, unbalanced pressure and increased price… If you’re running PEX, this should obviously be avoided.

   I haven’t priced it out yet, but my assumption is that we’ll end up going with a hybrid setup as I expect it’ll be somewhat cheaper.

   Photo courtesy of finehomebuilding.com

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