Hi Anne, I went to a site that sells galvanized pipe. Here is their reply: MSC Industrial Supply Company E-Commerce Customer Service www.MSCdirect.com 1-800-753-7970 Dear Sandra, The only way to get the underlying steel pipe to rust is to remove the galvanizing on the outside. Zinc (galvanizing) cannot rust, hence it's use, but you can sand off the zinc coating to expose the steel. Thank you for using mscdirect.com Larry Sisco Technical Support 717-865-5888 x5134

I'm doing the same at my home now. I am going pex all the way, except for the stub outs for the fixtures. Pex to copper is fine, but I would suggest that you eliminate the galvie entirely. You do not have to run the "home run manifold system". With my lay-out it is better. YMMV. You can pipe it conventionally. What I like about the manifold system for me is that I am running small diameter tubing to each faucet. That means I will not have to wait as long to get hot water to a faucet. If you look at the cross sectional area of 1/2, 3/4 and 1" tubing, they are .19, .44 and .77 sq in respectively. That all equates to volume that you have to move out before you get hot water. Just something to think about.

They were probably made by Keeler Brass Co. of Grand Rapids, MI. Keeler Brass was the leading supplier of furniture hardware for most of the past century. In 2006, Hickory Hardware brought together five of the finest hardware companies in the world  Belwith, Keeler Brass, Wright Products, Madico and Faultless Caster. It appears that myknobs.com is the exclusive vendor for Hickory Hardware. Chances are slim that you will be able to obtain an exact match. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.myknobs.com/hickoryhardware.html

Sooner or later this will be necessary. I owned a house for many years that was built in 1952. I remodeled and added to it in the 1980's and the new plumbing was copper. I wanted to replace the old galvanized, as well, I had a somewhat more difficult task than you, since my house was built on a slab and the galvanized was embedded in concrete, so I had to run lines through walls and ceilings where none existed before, which I did progressively over several years. I still remember when I ran new copper from the meter to the house. The galvanized I took out was about 40 years old, and when you looked down a 10' length of it you couldn't see daylight at the other end because there was so much corrosion. If it would have been a human, it would have been dead from arterial sclerosis! My advice is to go for it. You will save yourself a ton of money, compared to having a plumber do it. I don't know what your skills are, but this was the project where I first taught myself to sweat solder...and I still enjoy doing it. Your project sounds very doable, and you can do it over a period of time. You will probably need to cut into some walls to get at the various valves (toilet, shower, bath, etc.) that are plumbed to the galvanized, but it will be worth it. And when I sold the house, it made a difference to buyers that there was no galvanized left in the house. Regarding your waste lines, probably nothing is necessary.