PEX piping and rodents in the detached garage?
 

Hi everyone,

Looking for any experiences anyone has running PEX piping in a detached garage around the lake. Had mice in my old house garage that was attached, could never get read of them. This is a new garage, so no mice for now.
Am I overthinking this!

Yes. What are your concerns?


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Not sure how the PEX comes into this, but...

I used to have mice in my attached garage and would have to trap them throughout the colder months.

Two years ago I set traps early, (the old wooden snap kind w/pb) before the colder weather started settling in. Haven't had any since!

Just lucky?

Help is on the Way...
 

New anti-pest product from "Great Stuff":

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GREAT-ST...3993/207077796

I have a feeling it is more that the mouse population decreased. Nobody had them like we had previously. They were awful for a year or two.

Remember the Summer of Squished Squirrels?! We counted over a hundred coming off exit 13 in Merrimack—it was a bloodbath!

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I have heard of mice chewing through Pex. I just installed a heater in my garage and the plumber suggested Pex but I went with copper just for this reason.

Yes, That was vile [emoji2961]


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There’s a lot of PEX in my life. No problem with rodents eating through it yet. One thing we do is spread peppermint around the corners and baseboards of spaces that could be exposed to those little critters. They don’t like peppermint.

Sweet and Sour
 

We put peppermint oil on cotton balls in kitchen drawers at our place on East Bear Island. Visiting mice showed their thanks by leaving small tokens in these drawers. 🐭

Our old interior plumbing lines have been replaced with PEX piping. To date, no evidence of damage by mice.

Do you still have the oil? Check to see if it was “pure essential” or “scented“ oil. Our success has been associated with pure essential.

I also think if you are not there all winter the peppermint oil dries out so stops working.

Good choice/thief?
 

About six years ago we had our kitchen COMPLETELY redone- floor to ceiling.
The final installation was the new dishwasher.

I tend to not bother service people when they work- just let them know I'm available for any kind of help- lifting/moving things- coffee- snack/sandwich.

Anyway, the plumber doing the install called up from the basement to let me know he was just about done.

I looked outside as he was packing his gear back into his truck, and I see about a half dozen, six foot lengths of copper pipe. I'm, like, WHAT?

I didn't even know what PEX was, and hadn't discussed replacing any of my then current plumbing with it- but that's what he did.

The damage (?) was done so I saw no value in getting into an argument with the guy- However, I still think he ripped me off for the salvage price of the copper piping.

Live and learn.

This is the reason many are going with PEX because the cost of copper and the ease of PEX installation.
I would think under normal circumstances PEX would be fine but if it's a vacation home and only used on weekends I prefer copper, esp if you close it down for winter.
A friend of mine told me about one of his neighbors that closes their place for the winter. When he turned the water on in the spring water was shooting out of the walls. Mice had chewed through the PEX over the winter.
If it wasn't for hearing that story I probably would have just let the plumber use the PEX.
A couple years ago during the rodent infestation I had mice chewing through things I never thought they would chew through over the winter months.

I've had to repair pex many times over my career due to rodents chewing holes through it... if you have rodents you WILL end up with holes!

A bit off topic but still relevant, some family in Canada with a sizable maple sugaring operation had to walk the lines every day all season with a repair kit because squirrels (rodents) would chew their plastic tap lines...they hated squirrels and killed each one they saw!