Fun with Plumbing!

Mar12
by kevin on March 12, 2012 at 11:21 and modified on March 12, 2012. at 11:25
Posted In: Uncategorized

Last weekend came a long procrastinated task… replacing the bath/shower fixture. It had been corroded for some years, been leaking for some months and we went out and bought a replacement about 4 months ago… just waiting for a nice quiet Saturday to get it done.
Our water is very hard (>200) but the water softener brings it down to <10 in the measurement system. Even so we were shocked at the amount of corrosion.


There were no water cutoffs that we could find, so we shut down power to the well and then drained the pipes. The first three images show the removal of the old stuff (at least 10 years old, possibly 20?).
It was connected with three compression fittings that came off fairly easily with an adjustable wrench.


These three images show the new one going on.
I could not get the old compression fittings to come off, so left them on and reused them. Nice to see standards as the new fixture went on smoothly. Tightened up the nuts, turned the power to the well back on and tripped the foot valve. Soon we had pressure and two leaks 🙂
Tightening each 1/4 turn at a time and soon we had no more leaks. The housing went on along with the hot/cold/diverter handles and all was well.
Testing the shower with the diverter showed the middle connection leaking heavily. All of the handles and housings came off to repair that by tightening the nut and soon we were leak free.
Everything went back on and soon the cats were exploring the tub, wondering where their entertaining water drips went to.

All in all it took about 1 hour, mainly because I had no idea what I was doing. In the future it would take maybe 20 minutes.

The next day it was sealed along the top and sides of the tiles with a clear silicon (cures in 24 hours). The bottom was not done so as to allow any future leaks to drip down into the tub.

The next day after that the overflow plate was replaced as it was also corroded and rusty.

The only remaining item is to find a drain fitting and replace it. So far they seem to come only in kits with extra pieces that we don’t need.