I have been using a cabin near Big Sur, California that was built in the 60s. The cabin has a natural spring-fed tank as a water source, and the building is supplied by old 3/4" galvanized pipe running underground for a length of ~60 ft. The 3/4" pipe has become partially exposed and rusty and recently sprung a leak where it crosses the "driveway" into the cabin property. The water into the cabin also contains a lot of rust. I would like to replace the galv. pipe entirely with an underground run of PEX. I was planning to run the PEX through larger diameter PVC pipe to protect it, prevent potential damage from cars driving over the area, and make it easier to replace in the future. However, I'm not sure how to properly connect the PEX to the large diameter steel fittings at either end. I estimate that the pipe coming down from the hill is 3-5" OD, but I haven't dug up its junction with the 3/4" pipe yet. The large pipe also feeds a water tap for firefighters, so I don't want to mess with that. [b]If I connect to steel underground at either end using brass fittings, won't they corrode rapidly, especially when the ground gets wet with rain? Should I run the PVC conduit protecting the PEX up out of the ground to keep the steel-brass connections dry? What type of PEX is recommended? Do I need oxy barrier PEX or will A or B be fine in this application? [/b] This area gets really hot during the summer, but rarely drops below freezing. The pipe run is underground in an area that gets full sun most of the day.

Needed to lift up subfloor for unrelated project and found this situation (see photo). The copper for upstairs plumbing runs from those pipes shown (note that cold supply is not shown. They also squeezed in a 5" hvac supply duct, which I have removed, but you can see the 90* boot where it was attached. While I have the floor up I want to fix this situation as the copper that is there is obviously too rigid to allow me to finagle the supply duct back in (the original had some dents and other evidence that they really squeezed it in). I also need to put in some blocking to brace the old and new subfloor edges. I want to lower the copper to create more room for the duct which I will also need to lower. I went and bought some flexible ducting as a last resort but I was thinking about using those push-connect fittings (made by sharkbite, et al) to make the plumbing a bit more flexible. Even with the flexible duct, it is a tight fit and I am afraid of kinking the duct, etc. Thoughts? [attach]112503[/attach]