Shower valve roughed in just a bit too shallow

Oh, the fun and joy of owning a home. Rather, the fun and joy of finding all of the completely stupid stuff that the ridiculous pre-purchase inspection didn't reveal, but really should have.

My focus in this post is the shower valve in our master bath. While showering for the first time, I discovered that the backplate was not all the way against the wall, and that it would be possible for water to get behind the wall. We haven't used the shower since then.

Here's what it looked like originally.


The screws weren't tightened down enough to pull the plate against the shower wall. Further tightening revealed that something was definitely not right. Even unscrewing them was difficult, and I soon discovered why.

Check out the 2X4 that the valve is attached to. The screws were actually going through their metal brackets and had been driven in to the wood behind them.


I also noticed that when they cut the hole in the acrylic shower wall panel, they clearly had either been drinking, or were incapable of operating a tape measure. Nice. Just how can anyone replace that valve in the future without ripping down the shower surround? It must be nice not to care.


...Continued in next post.

Is there more to this?

valve

The plumbers did not cut the hole so you had more than one marginally incompetetent crew on the job. A competent plumber, would not have used those adapters, which had the potential for a leak, and would have inserted the copper into valve openings and soldered them to it. You should not have to change the valve until you change the surround, and very few valves can be replaced through the opening, anyway.

so, is the general concensus from the pros is that you never use the threaded portions of valves and always solder those joints?(when possible) HJ seems pretty adimant that this area is a probable leak area in the future. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, Pete

A soldered connection is always better than a threaded one when it is normally hidden in a wall. Threaded is good for when you anticipate removing it fairly often which is not the case of a shower valve.

A lot tub & shower valves sold at big box stores come with threaded
and solder connections,it is up to the installer what method they use.
I would solder it.But that is just my preferance.

I've been a bit upset about the male connections I've been seeing on some of the new valves, including Moen. They aren't very strong, for one thing. And it's not the best way to connect. It's all about saving brass - after all, brass costs money. The company probably saves $100 per 1000 valves. I'll take a more solid valve body with female or solder connections, please. I know you can slip the copper into one of these and solder it but the brass is thin and I can see any stress eventually breaking it.

joints

Threaded joints are not prone to leaking once they are installed properly. The problem is that they can leak when tested and have to be redone. Soldering into the port eliminates that possibility, especially if it is a very small leak which is not noticed before the valve is enclosed. If installed properly the valve should not have any "stress".

I was kinda wondering about that "stress thing myself"

In this particular situation, with those threaded connections, I'd be very careful moving the valve back. It wouldn't be a factor if they were soldered.

is it "kosher" to mount a volume control valve "sideways" so that when I bring the line in from the Thermo valve paralell that I can run the line to my hand shower paralllel also. Does that make sense? Thanks in advance, Pete

We can blame the moronic previous home owner for this bit of nastiness. The plumber wasn't even a plumber, but instead was the neighbour from three houses up the street. I believe her brother, a "contractor," was responsible for the installation of the tile and acrylic surround. Somewhere in that mix of people, you'd think that someone would have stopped and said, "Wait, this isn't right." Perhaps someone did, but since they were just remodelling the bathroom to sell the house, they apparently didn't care.

KAdams4458 said:

We can blame the moronic previous home owner for this bit of nastiness.... but since they were just remodelling the bathroom to sell the house, they apparently didn't care.

Click to expand...

Jeeez.Quick fast and cheap! No way!

Hey bombjay, you gotta change that avitar. It raises my blood pressure to abnormal highs

As it turns out, I finally found my easy solution to this problem.

I finally managed to contact a plastics fabricator willing to make a one of a kind acrylic ring that will allow me to completely avoid opening up the wall. The ring will be laser cut from a solid chunk of white acrylic, and will be 8.5" in outside diameter and 0.75" thick. The outside edge will be bull-nosed, and the finish will be high-gloss to match the shower surround. Total cost will be about $32.

I'm glad my idea seems to be working out. The only down side is that their laser doo-dad is apparently broken, and it will be a few weeks before it is repaired. Looks like we'll be relying on the second shower for a while longer. Either way, it beats opening up a wall.