Rough In for Body Spray

I have a simple question, I have completed a rough in for a body spray system. It shows that for the body sprays I need no more then 1/2" to 5/8" threaded nipple sticking out from the finished wall. My question is should I use a fitting that has a 1/2" inside thread and leave that behind the finished wall, much like a shower head fitting and then thread my pipe into that with the body spray, or stub out a threaded nipple to the measurement I mentioned, that is sweated on. I would have to be bang on my measurements using this approach. Is there a standard procedure for this. Thanks in advance

I don't know if there is a standard, but I did the latter approach since I was not confident that I could thread a nipple, leak free, into the female threads after the finished wall is installed. All you need to do is calculate the thickness of your finished wall such as 1/2 cement board, 3/8 tile = 7/8. I just installed two Moen systems.

Thanks

That is exactly what I am installing as well, do you think I will be ok if I am 1 1/2" away from the rough wall. Thanks much appreciated.

You should be fine. It does pretty much lock you into a finished wall material, but you have to make up your mind sooner or later.

use drop ear elbows in the wall and stubb out test nipples. When you set the finish replace the test nipples (galvanized nipple with cap, extending at least 2" past finish depth) with brass nipples. If you stub out a soldered male adapter and the threads get damaged you are screwed. If for some reason the wall has to come out further than expected,(not unusual),you're screwed.The drop ear elbows enable you to screw the fitting directly to your blocking, if you use a copper stubbout there is nothing holding back on the fitting while you tighten (or disassemble) the sprays. It the pipe (or solder joint) breaks in the wall guess what? you're screwed!

Well, not totally screwed...

...they do make a tool to unscrew fittings like that from the inside. I'm sure one of the pros here can tell us the name, but they're kind of like a fat "easy-out" (I call them hard-outs -- there's nothing easy about removing a really well-corroded-in bolt) screw/bolt remover. I've got one sized for my lawn sprinkler risers that is designed for plastic, but I'm sure they're available for metal as well.

You can also use a deep socket, which might require enlarging the hole around the stubout, and possibly cutting off the stubout, depending on how deep the socket is. The problem with this approach is that the size of the hex on the male adapter is wildly variable, but if you have a good stock of sockets, usually one can be found that works -- I've found that 13/16", 22mm, or 23mm cover all the adapters I've used. Often a 6-point won't work where a 12-point will, but you want as tight a fit as possible, or you could round off the hex, then it's back to the hard-out.

-mike

I used drop earred elbows and soldered male threaded fittings with a galvanized cap.