*
As a furniture and cabinet maker, plumbing is not my specialty! My wife wants the faucets replaced in our tub/shower enclosure. The faucets are the standard Delta single knob with pushbutton for the shower. There is not currently access from the back to the plumbing, although the wall is accessible from the utility room. My question is can the faucets be replaced from the shower enclosure side, or will I need to cut an access panel in the wall behind the shower to get to the plumbing? Any advice is appreciated!
Indian Creek Woodworks
Replies
*
I would doubt that you could do it from the front without making the hole around the faucet handle so big that it would be a real problem getting a plate to cover it. Doing it from the front probably would be somewhat worse than building a clipper ship in a small mouthed bottle. You would need some way to unscrew, unsolder, or cut the pipe, install the new faucet, replace the pipe, and then solder or tighten the pipe back up to the existing piping and the new faucet. I think you would be far happier and do a far better job if you were to cut an access panel from the back and then either patch it back in or install an attractive permanent access door. (Of course, if you were to borrow a laparoscope from your local hospital along with a new miniaturized, remote video guided saw, you might stand a chance from the front...) There was a thread here a few months back on providing an access door, so you could search for that. You may also want to check out the plumbing discussion board at:
http://www.plbg.com/cgi-bin/forum.pl
You also might want to go to your home supply store and see if they have a display of a faucet connected to the plumbing pipes to give you an idea of the problems and how big the opening should be.
(Of course, going from the front might be a good excuse to re-tile your shower in that new, exotic Italian tile that you have always wanted...)
*Repair plates are available that allow front access. You need a plate specific to the new valve set. Check with your supplier.
*If you're going for a complete faucet replacement cut an access panel from the back - unless you want an excuse to re-do the shower enclosure. Depending on how much piping needs to be replaced you will need an opening the width between the studs wide and a couple feet high. You'll need at least this much space to manipulate wrenches or to give yourself adequate clearance for soldering copper. Don't try to work in too small an opening - it's less aggravation to patch drywall than it is to try to work in too small a space.
*If you are replacing it with another Delta of the same basic design, then you could possibly get by just replacing those parts that are accessible from the front. That would take care of all moving parts and all visible parts.Rich Beckman