[hahamrfunnyguy]

I do a lot of my own plumbing but I had a larger job I didn't want to do. I had assumed the plumber was going to use copper and sweat connections. He basically told me that copper was way up and the labor costs of the sweat connections would make it more expensive. I had him go with PEX and sharkbite connectors.

In retrospect, doing the job myself that way wouldn't have been too bad. The sharkbite connectors seem pretty reliable. I used some when I first bought this place and they've been installed for about 20 years now. I still prefer the traditional sweat joints, but maybe it's just not worth the investment of time?

[kokanee]

I had a similar situation, but I had him go with PEX and sweat connections. I suppose I would have considered it for a connection in my garage, but this was deep in my crawl space in an area where you only visit if you absolutely have to. Not a place to mess around with products that have half the life expectancy of the tried-and-true methods.

I wonder if any builders are using this approach - solder in the crawl space and behind drywall, but shark bite in accessible areas.