Link: https://imgur.com/a/qheAJp6

Hey all! This is a bit of a follow-up to a post I made a couple months ago regarding our bathroom reno: https://sh.itjust.works/post/56769265

Long story short, the mortar bed subfloor was crumbling away, and I could literally tear up chunks with my bear hands, so we decided to take it all out. I'm going to sister all the joists to re-level the floor, put in blocking for under the clawfoot tub, then 3/4" plywood subfloor, Ditra, and tile. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about all that copper plumbing. I think the stuff above the tub spout is relatively new, but I think everything below that (tub supplies, toilet supply, sink supplies) is a lot older, maybe original, which would make that close to 70 years old. Some of it looks pretty crusty and corroded to my untrained eye, so my question is, should I redo any of that copper while I've got the wall open? If so, to what extent, and with copper or PEX? I mentioned earlier that we're putting in a clawfoot tub, so we won't need basically anything above the tub spout. I know clawfoots traditionally have supplies coming up through the floor, so I may end up reconfiguring to accommodate that, but I'm also considering taking the easy way out there and using some flex hose coming out of the wall.

I don't have a torch or a PEX crimping tool, so either way I go I'm gonna have to buy a new toy. But which one? How would y'all go about this? Thanks in advance for the input!

Definitely

your already there, and have everything accessable. it makes sense to do it new and fresh instead of chancing it and having something fail in a few months/years and having to teardown again.

personally, I love torch and soldering. but pex is just as good. and sharkbites.. I recommend never using those in areas that get sealed up. while they are great devices, especially for quick repairs. I consider them temporary. I've seen more failures with shark bite then I have from a solder joint, or PEX crimping.

Firstly, yes.

But your username and question have created the mental image in my head of 'zalgoplumbing.' I'm imagining twisted runs of sort-of-still-functional pipes with dendritic arrays of smaller piping reaching through the floors, walls, and ceilings, wrapping around the joists and cabling, trailing off with drains from no source to no outlet.