Staple up?

Bill Clinton

Just read an article by John Siegenthaler on the subject and that, coupled with the discussion on Kitec staple up below leads me to pose the following question:

Is it ever a good idea to use staples to attach to the underside of the floor or to joists?

While I think its fine to staple onto the top of the floor and immobilise the tube with a gyp/concrete pour, stapling tube to the underside of the floor leaves the weight of that tube hanging on a very small bearing area, and temperature changes make that tube expand, contract,wiggle, migrate, and scrape: Thats in the nature of the stuff, particularly regular old non Kitec pex.

To me, use of actual staples in a "staple up" system looks like a very bad idea. Loose fitting full circle clamps, yes. Staples no.

Seems to me this is worth a discussion.

Bill

Dan Foley1

Staple up

On my "staple up" jobs, I use galvanized emt straps and 3/4" zip screws. This holds the tubing tight to the subfloor and has a fairly wide contact area to avoid rubbing through the pipe. I have used this mainly with rubber tube although I also use the straps on pex/extruded plate jobs between the plates and at the return bends. I agree that staples are probably not the best way to attach pex to the bottom of the subfloor. -DF