Help! Where do you mount elbow for handheld shower?

[fidoprincess]

Plumber is here and putting in the plumbing for the shower. I have a Grohe Shower Bar with a hand held shower head but there are no instructions as to where to put the pipe from the wall/ the elbow connection.

I thought it would be obvious but it's not because I don't want the shower head to be able to hit the floor or the hose to hand down over the corner bench seat. Any instruction or pictures I can show the plumber?

Thanks

[fidoprincess]

Well, I think I messed up. One side of shower has a regular wall mount shower head, the other side has this slide bar and the corner bench is there. The slide bar is this one and now I think the hose will hit me sitting on the bench and also the shower bar has a small shelf that I am going to bang my head on!

Should I have the handheld on the opposite side of the bench? Help please, plumber went to lunch while I figure this out.

I called the plumbing supply store and they said the elbow should be 4" below the valve and 4 inches either to the left or right. Is that for water flow purposes? If I do it that way, the showerhead will be able to hit the floor if one of the kids knock it off.

The bar/handshower is this one:http://www.grohecatalog.com/product/28574/

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

[Redwood]

Pick a spot where it reaches and hangs the way you want and say put it here.

[fidoprincess]

Gosh Redwood, can you come do it?! You have already helped me so much, I should be paying you.

I think this is something that the plumber should know but now I see people just put them anywhere "willy nilly" so I have to figure out what I want and it is hard. Since it is on the side with a corner bench, I am afraid I am going to hit my head on the darn shelf so I don't know where to put the bar or the elbow but he already put in the valve so I can't move that part.

I see that a lot of the hoses are installed up high, as if they were a shower head and when I ask about it, they say that they will be able to replace it down the line with a regular head if they want. That doesn't make sense because you still have the bar installed into the tile...won't it leave holes if you take it out?

I think the nicest looking ones have the "elbow" coming out directly below the bar but when I called they said the rule of thumb is "4 and 4" meaning 4 inches below the valve and 4 inches to either the right or left. Is this for water flow purposes?

How high is the bar supposed to be off the floor? Are there no "standards" for this? Think I should switch it to the other side away from the bench?

[Redwood]

I could tell you where I would like it...
There really is no set location so it would be a matter of my personal preference...
Who are you building this shower for?
I would suggest that you put it where you like.

[fidoprincess]

"I could tell you where I would like it..." Redwood, does this mean you don't like these? Why not? It's not too late for me to switch it out for something better.

I think I figured it out. I looked and looked online and I think the ones that look the nicest have the elbow directly under the valve in the center so I will see if that can be done. I just wanted to do what is "right" and there doesn't seem to be a set way or set height. As long as the hose doesn't drag on the floor or get caught in the trim for the valve and I don't hit my head on the shower bar shelf when sitting on the bench, I guess I will be okay. I just wish the plumber would have asked me before he set the valve, would have surely moved it over to make more room for the shower bar/shelf/ bench set up.

I am not doing the plumbing myself but you helped me a while back with picking out all my fixtures and valves. I did finally pick having a valve on each end and a shower head /handheld shower bar on opposite sides so I think I will be happy with that-I hope I will be! With little ones, I can throw them in and each can have their own side at their own temperature. One wants it too hot and the other wants it too cold. It looks like he did a nice job and ended up putting the plumbing under the floor in the crawl space because he had to open up the subfloor anyway to make some repairs and add enough support for the tile floor.

Another question for you: You also recommended some outside showers for us since we live at the beach and I really liked them! It's too cold here to just have cold water and the laundry room is right in the middle of the house(I think you said something about using the hot off the washing maching), so it there any other suggestion of getting the hot water to the outside shower? I'm not doing this project right away but I am planning it out because I think it is the perfect solution to avoid sand on my hardwood floors!

[hj]

Put it wherever you want it. It can be 48" up, or it can be 78" high, or it can be 12" above the floor. It is immaterial because the only thing critical is that the hose can reach from it to wherever you are using the hand held.

[jadnashua]

The hose has a vacuum breaker on it. This does two things, prevents grey water from being sucked into the potable water supply, and, if installed low enough, empties the line when you shut off the water supply. Mount it high, and it may not so when you turn the divertor on to get that water you've carefully adjusted to just the right temp gets preceeded by a hose full of cold water from the last time.

[fidoprincess]

Thank you for all of your replies!

jadnashua, I did not buy the "optional" vacuum breaker. I saw that it was "code" in a bunch of states but not mine and didn't really understand at the time what it did. The plumbing salesperson said she had NEVER sold one with the stuff I was buying so I skipped it.

Do you think I should quick get it? "if installed low enough"-do you mean in relation to the valve? The elbow is now set up directly below the valve-about 4 inches and the bar will be centered on the wall to the right of the valve.

[jadnashua]

Any handheld shower should have a vacuum breaker installed. If the thing is allowed in the tub and there's a hiccup in the water supply system, you can suck dirty bathwater into your supply lines. Do you want to drink dirty bathwater?