I am installing pex tubing for radiant heat under my floor joists to heat the second floor above. I already have the tube in my slab for the first floor. My problem is that I have a Senco stapler on loan made for this job but a friend of mine in the heating business says that the tubing will be noisy, creaking on the staples. I am not sure if I should use it or not as my heating supplier recommended the stapler. Which is the right way to fasten pex tube overhead? Thank You.
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Use the staple up foil reflectors..the tube snaps in a channel formed in the aluminum and the reflector is stapled to the subfloor, not the pex.
Last time I installed PEX tubing underfloor it was in a jurisdiction where they definitely did not permit ANY metal straps or hangers on plastic pipe of any kind. You might want to check with your inspector first. I used something like this:
http://plumbing.aubuchonhardware.com/plumbing_tools_and_accessories/pipe_straps_and_hangers/plastic_pipe_straps-434471.asp
I was called out several times on a job with just such a problem. The tubes had been stapled to the underside of the floor with metal staples. And when the HO walked across the floor it made a popping sound.
The HO and GC were convinced that the I-joists were delaminating. They hounded us for weeks about it. We even had a rep fly down from the I-joist and subfloor manufacturer (Which hapened to be the same company) to look at them. They shipped samples back to a testing lab to check for problems. None were found.
I tried to tell them over and over that it was the plastic rubbing on metal. Eventually convinced them to pull the staples lose in one room to see what happened. Never heard from them again after that, so I assume that was the problem.
I did a thread on this when it happened but can't find it using advanced search.
Like so many tyrants before him, Clinton smells the surrender of a people tired of defending its liberty. [Alan Keyes]
I used a clip that held the pex 8" apart, for a down and back loop in each bay. It held the pex against the sub floor, and attached to both joist. No tube rubbing so far.