I'm renovating my master bath+want to install mult shower heads and body sprays

[BobT3354]

I'm renovating my master bath and I have a few plumbing questions related to the plumbing for the walk in shower. I have a friend who's a plumber who's going to do the plumbing work for the shower, but most of his experience has been doing commercial new construction, so he's not too familiar with these newer showers with the multiple heads and body sprays, etc. We were able to take a look at part of the plumbing for another friend's shower that has one head and multiple body sprays. (we only were able to see the parts behind the access panel) I'm doing this on a somewhat limited budget and so far what I have found as far as the complete kits that are sold by Kohler, etc. with a shower head and body spray jets are very expensive. From looking at my friend's setup, it looked as if the hot and cold came into a regular mixer which then sent the mixed water up to the shower head and down, but instead of going down to the tub spout, it went down to the body spray jets. Then before the water got to both the shower head and the body jets, there was another piece that could turn the supply on or off (controlled by another knob inside of the shower) going to the shower head and body jets, so that you could run either the jets or the shower head or both at the same time. This seems pretty simple to me, I'm just wondering if this is correct and if so, what do they call those shut off valves? I have looked on the manufacturer's websites and haven't found anyone selling those valves separately, only in the expensive full shower packages.

[jimbo]

If you try to cut corners on this and design the plumbing on the back of a matchbook, you will regret it. The whole concept of multi-sprays is vastly overhyped, especially by the folks who sell them. Think one thing about this project: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$