Hi all,
This is my first post and I'd be grateful for some advice.
So, I had a leaking 800 x 800 quadrant shower enclosure in my ensuite bathroom so, with the help of a handyman, I've pulled it out along with the base, the old concealed shower valve and all the tiles and have been working to replace it. When the old tiles came off it was clear that there'd been some leaking to the wood/plaster behind them. One wall was plywood and the damage was pretty bad (as the sealant around the taps must have deteriorated) and the other wall is plasterboard and had less damage.
We replaced the concealed shower valve with a new Aqualisa one, which connected to the old plastic hot and cold inputs. Then, still behind the wall, from the shower valve to the bit where the shower head/handset connects, we used three 90 degree compression elbow joints. We then tested these for leaks before covering everything with a new piece of plywood board and tiling over that board with waterproof adhesive and grout. And tiling over the other old plaster board wall with the same stuff.
The problem is that we'd left a screw fitting in the wall (with a hole in the tiles) to attach the shower head/handset to when it arrived. But later we realised the attachment doesn't screw in and instead requires a few cm of copper pipe sticking out the wall instead. So my handyman solved it by screwing in a second screw fitting to the first one, with a piece of copper pipe attached. The problem is that this pipe protruded too much so he had to drill out the screws holding the first screw fitting in the wall and poke it further into the wall cavity (now un-fixed) for everything to work.
My questions are:
- Is this poking in a screw fitting into the wall an accident waiting to happen? (e.g. because it could affect the compression joints?)
- Was it okay to use compression valves in the wall or should we have soldered them?
- Was it okay just to use waterproof tile adhesive and grout over the new plywood and the old (dried out) plaster board) or was it necessary to tank it?
Right now I'm thinking as a minimum we should remove a couple of tiles and replace that screw fitting in the wall with a piece of copper pipe connected to a proper compression elbow, then re-tile and grout and seal? I'd like to avoid making other changes if they aren't necessary.
(My other related problem is that the shower enclosure door wasn't meeting properly at the bottom so my handyman has solved it by pushing the bottom of the shower enclosure further out, and holding it there with sealant (using a bit of propped wood to hold it in place while it was drying). I'm pretty confident that it's not going to hold so I'll have to remove the sealant, adjust the door so it fits properly in the original position and reseal everything.)
I'd be grateful for any advice.
Matt
This is my first post and I'd be grateful for some advice.
So, I had a leaking 800 x 800 quadrant shower enclosure in my ensuite bathroom so, with the help of a handyman, I've pulled it out along with the base, the old concealed shower valve and all the tiles and have been working to replace it. When the old tiles came off it was clear that there'd been some leaking to the wood/plaster behind them. One wall was plywood and the damage was pretty bad (as the sealant around the taps must have deteriorated) and the other wall is plasterboard and had less damage.
We replaced the concealed shower valve with a new Aqualisa one, which connected to the old plastic hot and cold inputs. Then, still behind the wall, from the shower valve to the bit where the shower head/handset connects, we used three 90 degree compression elbow joints. We then tested these for leaks before covering everything with a new piece of plywood board and tiling over that board with waterproof adhesive and grout. And tiling over the other old plaster board wall with the same stuff.
The problem is that we'd left a screw fitting in the wall (with a hole in the tiles) to attach the shower head/handset to when it arrived. But later we realised the attachment doesn't screw in and instead requires a few cm of copper pipe sticking out the wall instead. So my handyman solved it by screwing in a second screw fitting to the first one, with a piece of copper pipe attached. The problem is that this pipe protruded too much so he had to drill out the screws holding the first screw fitting in the wall and poke it further into the wall cavity (now un-fixed) for everything to work.
My questions are:
- Is this poking in a screw fitting into the wall an accident waiting to happen? (e.g. because it could affect the compression joints?)
- Was it okay to use compression valves in the wall or should we have soldered them?
- Was it okay just to use waterproof tile adhesive and grout over the new plywood and the old (dried out) plaster board) or was it necessary to tank it?
Right now I'm thinking as a minimum we should remove a couple of tiles and replace that screw fitting in the wall with a piece of copper pipe connected to a proper compression elbow, then re-tile and grout and seal? I'd like to avoid making other changes if they aren't necessary.
(My other related problem is that the shower enclosure door wasn't meeting properly at the bottom so my handyman has solved it by pushing the bottom of the shower enclosure further out, and holding it there with sealant (using a bit of propped wood to hold it in place while it was drying). I'm pretty confident that it's not going to hold so I'll have to remove the sealant, adjust the door so it fits properly in the original position and reseal everything.)
I'd be grateful for any advice.
Matt
