Copper without a torch. A press fitting is squeezed onto the pipe with a tool — no open flame in the building, and no hot metal to cool before the line is tested.
Updated October 2026 · Licensed CFC1432506
Soldering copper needs a flame, a clear space around the joint and dry pipe. In a finished house, a restaurant with a ceiling full of equipment, or a trench with water seeping in, all three are hard to get. A press fitting needs none of them: the pipe is cut square, deburred, marked to depth, pushed home and pressed.
The pipe is still copper tube; what changes is how the joint is made — and therefore where it can be made, including places where an open flame is a problem.
Each step matters and each one is visible on a finished job. The cut has to be square or the fitting sits crooked. The burr inside the pipe has to come off or it tears the sealing ring. The pipe is marked so you can see it is fully inserted, and the tool is held until the cycle completes.
That is the whole discipline: no flame, no flux to clean, and a joint you can pressure-test straight away.
Copper water lines with press fittings laid in an open trench, branches routed to each side of the house, and stub-ups brought through a trench cut in the slab — all pressed, all before backfill.
A new copper water service riser on an exterior wall: ball valve, hose bibb, pressed joints. The second photo is the same riser finished.
In a restaurant tenant improvement the copper supply runs overhead through the framing and drops into metal-stud walls, with brass ball valves at the branches and PVC drain stacks alongside. Everything we assembled on this job was pressed copper — not one soldered joint of ours in the building. Where you can see older soldered pipe in a photograph, that is the existing water service into the building, which was there before us.
A pressed copper riser with a ¾-inch ball valve at the exterior wall, and a new hose bibb with a quarter-turn valve brought through a stone veneer wall without breaking up the stone.
Where the line goes, what it feeds, and which joints have to be reachable later.
Square cut, deburred inside and out, depth marked on the pipe.
Fitting pushed to the mark, tool cycled fully, mark checked afterwards.
The line is tested before anything is covered, backfilled or closed in.
A press fitting is a manufactured fitting with a sealing ring, rated for the same copper systems as soldered fittings and installed to the manufacturer's instructions. The failure modes are different: a bad solder joint leaks from a cold spot, a bad pressed joint comes from a pipe that was not inserted to the mark or a press cycle that was not completed. Both are checked by pressure-testing the line.
No open flame. In an occupied house, a finished ceiling or a restaurant full of equipment, that removes the fire risk and the fire watch. It also works on pipe that cannot be got perfectly dry — in a trench, for instance.
Yes. Same copper tube; only the joining method changes. If you want copper for the pipe and no torch on the job, this is how you get both.
Usually, yes — that is one of the common uses: cut into the existing line, press a valve or a tee in, and carry on. We check the pipe's condition and size first.
Both are used in Florida homes. Our article on PEX versus copper sets out the trade-offs; we also run PEX-A rough-ins, so we are not selling you one because it is the only thing we do.
Yes — we have done one. On a West Palm Beach restaurant build-out every joint we made was a press fitting: overhead supply runs, drops into metal-stud walls, brass ball valves at the branches. No torch in the building at any point. The only soldered copper on that site is the existing water service that was there before us.
Workmanship warranty: 5 years on new construction, 1 year on repairs. Equipment carries the manufacturer's warranty.
Pro Plumbers FL is partner-owned — specialists who came together in one licensed company (CFC1432506). Viktor Zarubitskii — in the plumbing trade since 1998 — plans the job, makes the technical decisions and works on site. Our own plumbers do the plumbing. Work outside plumbing, such as concrete cutting, we either do ourselves or bring in a contractor — either way it is written into your quote.
Source: Google
Send a photo of your main and the area to be re-run — we will tell you what the job takes.
Licensed CFC1432506 · Insured · Clearwater, FL + 50 miles
