In the process of remodeling my basement I want to raise all my existing plumbing and heating piping up into the ceiling to give more head room and present a more finished look. I have decided to use a pex friendly manifold and have home run's to all the plumbing fixtures as well as my hot water based heating system pipes, ( which will all be pex as well ). In an effort to not make my joists look like Swiss cheese I have decided to run my 16 piping runs along the bearing wall ( about in the center of the basement ) in a soffit. To prevent condensation and improve hot water supply I would like to insulate those pipes. My question is how. I know I could use foam sleeving but how about using closed cell spray foam to fill the soffit? I would still use sleeves for the runs that parallel the joists. Thanks, Tom

Foam sleeving and a removable soffit face preserve access for future service/replacement. I would recommend that. Be aware you can also do a modified home run for potable/DHW piping... run feeds to a manifold near a bathroom, for example, and home run the fixtures from there. That has become the industry standard best practice in modern years. Also greatly simplified doing DHW recirc if hot water delivery is an issue for you.

yea foam sleeves. Most do just hot water but really you can do the cold too. Cheap and easy. There are two kinds, the ones with the sticky tape-backed precut edges and the ones that have a scored split down the length. Both work well. The taped ones are more expensive. Get a bag of zipties and the scored pipe. Cheaper and you'll probably want to zip the taped ones anyway. But cost difference is minimal. A couple free lunches is what we're talking about.