Factors to Consider Before Upsizing Pipe

Contractors sometimes overdesign or overbuild things just to make sure there won’t be any problems with performance. That approach is not necessarily bad — and is certainly better than doing the opposite — but sometimes it’s unnecessary and can waste money. For example, take the rule of thumb that when swapping out copper for PEX the safest thing to do is to upsize the PEX tubing. The thinking is that replacing 3/4-inch copper with 1-inchPEX is a simple way to ensure adequate water pressure and performance. And it works. But it’s also often unnecessary, wastes water and, on larger jobs, adds to