There are several reasons Shamrock Plumbing in North Salt Lake, Utah, uses Viega PureFlow PEX and press fittings in its multifamily new builds.
“It’s the flexibility. It’s the cost. It’s a 25-year warranty as opposed to zero warranty when you sweat copper. It’s the ease of installation,” said Bob Sanders, manager and partial owner of Shamrock. “You can also train a guy to install it fairly quickly, as opposed to the skillsets needed with copper pipe and all of that.”
Shamrock is currently finishing up a large apartment complex, Soleil apartments, in Bluffdale. It’s a 100 percent solar complex with no gas. There are about 600 units in the entire complex, broken into buildings of 24 to 48 apartments.
Sanders said there is a 2″ PEX line into each building to feed the water supply, and from there the lines drop down to 1″ from the water supply to the fixtures.
Thanks to the flexibility of PEX, fewer fittings are needed throughout the buildings to plumb the waterlines to each fixture, which in turn makes the installation quicker. Sanders estimated that one installer can get about four units done per day using PureFlow.
Widely used in Utah and in newer builds overall, Sanders said PEX is always specified when Shamrock takes on a new project like this, because of all of its pluses. He said most contractors they work with rely on Shamrock to pick the best products, and PEX is “far superior as far as a cost breakout compared to copper – plus the longevity and ease of use.”
Shamrock uses Viega PureFlow products exclusively. The company used them in the past and was impressed, then they tried another company but eventually came back to Viega for its superiority.
“We weren’t satisfied with the other’s inconsistencies in the product, problems with leaks, etc., so we came back to Viega,” Sanders said. “It’s good, with good name recognition, and the reps and everyone we work with are a great support. You just can’t beat it.”
