I am renovating a very old house that I live in. Plumbing is in the CRAWL space under the house, a very small tight crawl space. Drain lines were broken when I moved in and new leaks and breaks every couple months or so. House was built in the 40's, plumbing and electrical look way older than that if you ask me. Most of the drain lines are lead and the P traps are old school, look kinda like large coffee cans. Since I'm under the house already replacing drain lines, I would like to go ahead and replace supply lines. I know the house has a .75" or =BE" PEX supply line from the meter to where the break was just inside the crawl space. At that point it connects back to the origional steel suppley line. The supply line has branch lines running to the cold water faucets (toilets, showers, and washer) before ending up at the water heater. Same for the hot water side leaving the water heater. It branches off to the needed hot water faucets.
My question is if this is the best way to run the lines when I replace then. I've seen instalations where they use a manifold type connection with multiple ports that feed everything from that central location. Or is the branching off the supply line a better way. Or is there an even better way of doing this that I might not be aware of?