is it "to code" in harris co., houston, tx to have pipes for a shower in an outside wall (inside the house)?

Question

i'm remodeling my bathroom and would like to change where the shower head is but it is in an outside corner of the house. the way it is now, the previous owners built an awful wall and ran the pipes up thru that but this makes the bath seem really cramped. we'd like to remove the wall and put in a glass corner shower but it means the pipes would move to the outside wall. would this be up to code? is there a reason not to do this? it doesn't really ever freeze where we are. thanks for the help...

Answer 1

Not for sure about Texas, but national code says its OK, with some limitations. really, you want spacers so it isn't right on the wall anyway, and as i understand it, they are required. as the home owner, you can do about what you want, the only question comes when it is time to sell. then things have to be up to code and all. I would put insulation around them any way, to minimize sweating, and keep the heat in the hot side and cold in the cold side, or rather heat out of the cold side. the foam with the slit in the side will work, in the appropriate size. you could go with making a Styrofoam (the real stuff, the blue not the cheap white stuff) box around them and making them look like a wooden beam by applying paint effects or contact paper. i do recommend you use copper pipe if you can work with it, though cpvc will do for the ease of use, NOT regular cheap white pvc. Cpvc is light gray.

Answer 2

The best move is to open the wall an insulate the pipes. If you don't want to do this, go to the plumbing supply and have a mixer installed in your laundry room or anywhere else in the line. This unit will circulate hot water through the cold water pipe keeping it from freezing. When you turn on the cold water the mixer closes and you have cold water.