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I’m rehabing a basement bathroom that was origonally installed 20 years ago. The water supply lines were run to the sink by running a 4′ channel in the slab, putting in flexible 1/2″ copper and covering it back over with concrete. A plumber has told me that soft copper is not meant to be set in concrete because if the slab moves it can fracture easily. I could run new copper above the slab through the framing of the room, but I would have to run it against an outside wall. This is in northern Illinois, where water pipes in outside walls sometimes freeze, but in this case the lines would be on the foundation wall a couple of feet below the frost line with insulation. I think the chance of freezing is minimal, but it also occurs to me that if the soft lines have been performing fine for 20 years (the basement has been there for 50 years) then what’s the odds that something’s going to move and break them now? Which way should I go?
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I'm rehabing a basement bathroom that was origonally installed 20 years ago. The water supply lines were run to the sink by running a 4' channel in the slab, putting in flexible 1/2" copper and covering it back over with concrete. A plumber has told me that soft copper is not meant to be set in concrete because if the slab moves it can fracture easily. I could run new copper above the slab through the framing of the room, but I would have to run it against an outside wall. This is in northern Illinois, where water pipes in outside walls sometimes freeze, but in this case the lines would be on the foundation wall a couple of feet below the frost line with insulation. I think the chance of freezing is minimal, but it also occurs to me that if the soft lines have been performing fine for 20 years (the basement has been there for 50 years) then what's the odds that something's going to move and break them now? Which way should I go?