Shower Head and sweating involved?

If I am installing a new shower face plate - where I turn the water on and the diverter to shoot the water up to the shower spout - if I buy a new shower head and face with diverter, do I need to sweat those on or can I just hook them up? I am ripping all walls down in the shower and installing new tub and new cement walls.

Thanks.

If you install a new shower valve you will have to solder pipe unless it is CPVC or PEX behind the wall.

Can't really tell until the valve assembly is exposed and we can see how it's connected to the plumbing. It might be a threaded connection or sweated, pipe could be copper, galvanized, or plastic. Post a picture when it's all opened up -- don't be quite as agggressive in reducing the picture size next time.

valve

Your pictures are so pixelated that all we can tell is that the handle has three arms. From your descsription we cannot tell if you are just trying to replace the trim or the entire valve. If you have the walls open you should replace the valve so you have a pressure balanced system.

It looks like you're just replacing the trim (faceplate and showerhead).

Is it the same mfg as the previous trim? If yes, and the prev was not too old, there's a good likelihood that the new trim will fit the old valve. If yes, no soldering required. Just a screw driver & teftape.

If you're switching to a dif mfg or if the new trim doesn't fit the existing valve, you'll need to remove the internal valve - which could be soldered in or screwed in. That's a bigger operation (consider going in from the other side of the wall if you ultimately have to replace the valve)

I would like to just do the trim? When would I put a whole new valve on? I just want to tune things up and maker' pretty. I saw the same face at HDepot. So that just comes off with the screws and and teflon tape?

Thanks.

The valves is the thing that actually mixes and controls the flow of the water. The trim is just the handle and face plate. That handle, though, needs to interface with that valve. The valves are all different between manufacturers, so trim for American Std might not fit a Delta valve.

Even within the manufacturer, not all trims/valves are interchangeable. One main dif is valves that allow pressure and temp to be independently controlled. Older valves might not support trim that has separate temp and pressure dials.

If you got the same trim from HD that's on there now, you SHOULD be ok.

The faceplate unscrews. It might be siliconed to yr tub surround, so you MIGHT have to delicately cut that bead of caulk.

The teflon tape is for sealing the threads btn the shower head and the shower arm. When u replace the head, replace the existing tape with fresh,new stuff.

Thanks for all the advice. I went to Lowes tonight. I have a clearer picture now. I would like to get the pack of shower head, spout and diverter (simmons brand), it was 98 bucks for all three. Is there a diagram someone could find or tutorial on how to hook up the diverter to the copper? I googled it but didn't see anything. I guess I am looking for a diagram/instructions. I saw three pipes out of the diverter, one in the middle and a hot and cold. Those would obviously have to be sweat on eh?

I am going to pick up some parts and practice a bit as someone suggested. There wasn't a plumber at Lowes so I held off on buying anything tonight.

Thanks again.

The simmons unit looked similar to the picture but it has the lever/diverter to switch it up to the shower. Excuse my ignorance of terms.

On the one pictured, there is a divertor on the tub spout. Basically, there are two outputs from the valve. Gravity causes it to normally go out the lower one into the tub. If you block that with the divertor by pulling up the knob, the water goes up instead of down.

The valve you were referring to has a valve inside that you switch to direct the water either to the tub or the shower.

The pros on this board prefer Delta, which typically uses the tub spout divertor (although you can get a dedicated separate valve) because they like the reliability.

Just to clarify, so the preferred divertor is the one on the tub spout not the handle?

And, when I install a new valve with the diverter on the spout and it previously had the diverter on the handle, is that a big change plumbing wise?

Thanks.

Have you tried unsuccessfully to find the instruction manual online? That'd be the best way to find out if what you want fits what you have.

Can't say which is preferred. Either works well most of the time. A separate valve can usually be repaired. A malfunctioning tub filler with divertor is usually replaced.

Bypassing an existing one without access to behind is probably best to repair or replace the existing one, rather than reworking the existing plumbing since it probably can be done from th efront. Hard to say. A pro probably has a better idea.

The difference between a tub spout with a divertor and one without is fairly small, and thus less expensive than a separate divertor so that is more common - doesn't make it better.