Concealed Shower Valve in brickwork?

[cluelesswithdiy]

Hello

First off I'd just like to state that as far as DIY, especially plumbing is concerned, I'm largely useless. I'm here because I'm about to get someone in to do a job for me in my bathroom and I just want to make sure I have the right information before I agree to their proposal.

The situation is this; I have a bathroom next to a bedroom. The wall between these rooms is now wet due to leaking sealant and poorly grouted tiles. So I've got a company to dry out the wall, replaster on the bedroom side, and completely re-fit my bathroom (which was due to be done anyway). The bathroom isn't very big, and at the moment as you walk into the room, the bath runs the length of the room on the left. There's a gas powered shower, but because of how the bath is laid out, the shower valve is fitted into a wall on the other side of which is the boiler (from the top view layout, think of my bathroom as sort of like a left handed L shaped bath).

As part of the refit, I'm having the bath moved, so that its across the room as you walk in. This means that the shower head is going to be on the left hand wall, the other side of which is the bedroom. I've ordered a 3 control bath valve that will control the bath and shower from a single valve (this one: http://www.bathstore.com/products/metro-vertical-thermostatic-shower-bath-valve-284.html ). However, the valve controller unit bit that sits behind the on/off controllers is massive (to me at least), almost like a brick. The wall it's going into is going to be tiled, but in order to seat this unit behind the tiles, I'm thinking that we're going to need to take a brick out of the wall in order to accommodate it. This doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but I don't know for sure. The wall it's going into is, as far as I know, just a brick wall with cement board on the bathroom side and plaster board on the other. Does this sound like standard practice to you guys or am I creating big problems for myself further down the line by weakening the wall structure?

Again, please bear in mind I know next to nothing (I'm an IT guy, so give me a laptop and I'm fine, but give me DIY...well..)

Thanks everyone

 

[buck51]

Send it back, & get a refund, If you can.

 

[longdogs]

My experience of these valves is that a round hole is cut using a diamond cutter, so the wall does not lose any strength.

 

[BigSnoopy01]

consealed valves are a bad choice imo.

fit something that can be changed easy as most stuff does not last the life of the bathrrom nowerdays. make sure they tank the shower area to avoid any water getting into the wall in the future.

 

[cluelesswithdiy]

Thanks everyone

Is it possible that the valve can be fitted elsewhere - maybe floor mounted or mounted against the wall lower down, behind the bath panel - rather than being fitted in the wall (so that there are pipes leading up to the wall mounted water controls, rather than the unit being directly behind the controls)? Also, what's the typical thickness of a wall if it is cut out, is it single brick or double brick? (guess that could depend on whether it's a load bearing wall or not?)

 

[Justin Passing]

Bathstore's typical useless advert tells us nothing, and they'll be clueless if you call them. And in 2 years you may find they can't supply spares. Nobody knows who makes a lot of their stuff, apart from "China, somewhere".

The mounting of the valves will probably be to the back of the plate and designed to go into a wall so options are very limited.
Your wall could be anything - even some wood walls are structural, but many can be impossible to fit a concealed mixer into.
Internal walls are quite often too thin for the bigger valves. If it's single brick, that could well be too thin.
Your best bet to fix a valve like that is an external wall.

I'd only fit a well-known make though, so I'd agree, send it back, then do some measuring, or go "exposed", or ask the fitter for help before buying.