plumbing modification vs. underbelly

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its a ritz-craft
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Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:09 am

plumbing modification vs. underbelly

Post by its a ritz-craft » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:52 am

I own a Ritz-Craft modular. Apparently the hot water plumbing was routed in one long string. It takes forever to get hot water to the kitchen sink and the water heater is only twenty pipe-feet or so away. I believe it's the next to last device on the line before the dishwasher. In addition to the annoyance of waiting, it's very wasteful.

I want to make some changes to the plumbing to the effect that the various fixtures will be grouped together on their own lines. For instance, the kitchen sink and the dishwasher fed direct from the water heater. Likewise for the shower and sink in the second bath.

The home is plumbed with PEX. I haven't worked with this but I have worked with Qest. For that I had to buy expensive fittings to make changes. I've also worked with copper and am a decent solderer. I am assuming that Shark Bite fittings would be the way to go for this but I'm open to alternatives.

All that said, the most daunting thing about doing this work is the underbelly. All the pipe is routed behind the underbelly sheet and underfloor insulation. Since I can't know exactly where the piping is without exposing what may be a sizeable amount of the undercarriage, I'm wondering how I might handle taking down, potentially, a lot of the underbelly and successfully, correctly, and neatly replacing it. I watched the YT video by the guy who patched a hole in the underbelly plastic but I think I'm looking at a much bigger project here.

I also have some concern about taking down a rather large piece of sheeting and replacing it alone. Do I need help? Special tools?

I've attached my guess at the current plumbing layout.

Thanks for any advice/assistance offered.
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