To plumb a hand held shower or use diverter off of shower head

Hello all,

Need opinions/expertise on this. I'm at a crossroads here. I was going to plumb a diverter valve in my shower and attach a hand held shower slider bar in my shower stall in addition to the regular shower head. With Grohe valves/parts this addition was going to add $700+ to the overall cost.

I figured the hand held would be great for cleaning the shower stall and if our little one used our shower the adjustability would work for her.

Then, I thought I could save money by attaching a diverter valve at the shower head and use a cheapo hand held only when need to clean etc. Right now in my rough in, I have the shower head arm attached and the threads are covered with Harvey's TFE paste. The joint fitting is screwed to a 2x4 crossmember. Is TFE the way to go right here. I suppose it's either TFE or tape right?

Any problems down the road with attaching or unattaching a hand held shower to a diverter valve and tugging that joint around with the use of it? I worry about leaks once installed behind the tiled wall.

thanks,

Doug

Hand held shower plumbing !

No it works quiet well,
I have done my own like that for the last 25 years or so

shower

Unless the little one is playing Tarzan and swinging on the handheld shower, there is NO stress on the shower arm.

If find the handheld on the bar works just fine as the only showerhead in the shower. I see no real use for a second one (i.e., a fixed one).

jadnashua said:

If find the handheld on the bar works just fine as the only showerhead in the shower. I see no real use for a second one (i.e., a fixed one).

Click to expand...

'tis true, but I've always found that I could aim a fixed showerhead better than I could a hand held. The hand held mount always seems to have some limitation as to where you can place the stream compared to the fixed unit.

Doug

I've not found that to be a problem. The better units have a swivel so that the hose isn't constantly trying to tweak it back in place, and at least on mine, the holder (on a bar) adjusts to both get the elevation and angle so it points where I want.

If you use the in wall diverter then rough-in the wall out low (the same height as the shaower valve works well). This will give you much more reach when using the hand held.