Plumbing for sliding transfer chair for elderly

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Jeff_Bathroom

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Hi,
My 92 yr old Dad has dimentia and Parkinsons and is using a regular shower/tub with sliding glass door and no grab bars. He's stubborn and doesn't want to realize the danger, but I'm insisting we remove the glass doors and do something like a sliding transfer seat into the tub. That would work except that the toilet next to the tub is adjacent to the front if the tub. So, he could sit and slide over but not reach the shower faucet. That's the problem I need to mitigate.
I can get a hand held shower to mount further back on the wall by some means.... glue tape, suction or screwed in. I can get one that has an on/off switch. Still he needs to get to the faucet to adjust the temp. I wondered if I it is practical to get a scald protected faucet fixture, as theirs us very old and I don't think supports that feature. Set the temp for some optimal temp and gave him just turn it on all the way to full hot, then get into his sliding chair and bathe with the hand held shower. Or, move the faucet up along the long tile wall closer to him. I suppose if I were going to be cutting copper to put a new fixture in, I might as well put in a new one closer to his seat. I wondered if anyone else had come up with any clever but hopefully inexpensive solution for this problem.

Thanks for any ideas...
 

LLigetfa

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If the tub fixture is left turned on and flow halted by a valve on the wand, then there is a high likelihood of creating a crossover situation that will affect other fixtures in the house. Note that many of the flow stop wands deliberately leak a small amount of water as a deterrent.
 

Jeff_Bathroom

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If the tub fixture is left turned on and flow halted by a valve on the wand, then there is a high likelihood of creating a crossover situation that will affect other fixtures in the house. Note that many of the flow stop wands deliberately leak a small amount of water as a deterrent.
I actually hadn't thought of leaving the water turned on constantly. I just wanted him to be able to turn it all the way hot then control the water with a hand sprayer. Thanks for the thought though.
How about suggestions for an easy valve/shower to install. I installed a couple of Kohler shower and bath valves that I had to spend quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to mount and the exact position to mount based on the thickness of the tile wall, etc. I thought I might split off the copper prior to the existing fixture and do a copper to pex to the new fixture. I want the existing fixture to remain in tact. I wish there were some way to make that seat work without having to put in a new faucet.
 

Jeff_Bathroom

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I think something like this may work with the sliding seat to provide access to the water controls, but also be cost effective...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079J9LK6K/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
I would mount this on the tub's long wall and leave the existing shower fixture in tact.
Essentially an outdoor shower with mixing valve outside of the tile wall. Appears that I just run hot and cold nipples through the wall, saving from having to do major installation. The units from Derpras seem to be high in features and shakey on reliability though, especially the temperature readout. I've seen a bunch of decorative flat panel units that could work too, but most have horizontal body sprayers and I'm afraid my 92 year old Dad will set the controls to spray himself in the face and all over the bathroom. Anyone have suggestions for other external mixing valve, single handle faucet shower with hand-held?
 

Jeff_Bathroom

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I've decided this looks like my best shower option. Again, keeps labor effort/cost low by having mixing valve external. I like that I can set temperature and pressure stops with this mixer, so that Dad just has to turn the water on til the handle stops. Going with the moveable handheld can act as a regular showerhead for the most part.
What should I expect a pro to charge for raised floor install? That would entail splicing into the hot and cold 1/2" copper, running lines through the 3/4 ply subfloor to the side tub wall, attaching nipples to cross brace, making holes for the 1/2" nipples through tile, attaching the valve, attaching the vertical handheld bar and putting an access door in the wall which happens to be the rear of the closet of the adjacent bedroom. If I do the job, I'm going to use sharkbite T's and pex. I would be fine with a pro doing that instead of sweating the copper, if he is ok with that. Guessing some pros won't use sharkbites or even pex for that matter.

https://www.supply.com/grohe-grohtherm-1000-handshower-122629-chrome/p647977
 
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