The best way of avoiding pipes freezing is to not place pipes in exterior walls. However, it is not always possible to do that.It the basement bathroom, I was able to design the layout so that the shower and vanity plumbing would be in interior walls. Only the cold water supply tot he toilet need to be installed in the wall.
While the pipe needs to be installed in the center of the stud wall you need to place All of the insulation BEHIND the pipe. It the picture to the right you can see that this rule was followed in only two of the three stud openings. This was an error that was quickly fixed before the vapour barrier was stapled on.
Other things to Note in the Picture:
- We used white/grey PEX for all the cold water supply
- The drain for the toilet is in the bottom right corner of the picture
- We created our own stub-outs using 1/2-inch coper pipe
Tomorrow I will discuss the second option for insulating pipes in exterior walls - creating a wall inside a wall...