Our shower leaks badly – more like it runs continuously (enough to quadruple our water bill). The cold-water valve stem is ruined in such a way that it cannot be shut off. Two plumbers have told us that a piece “on the back of the stem” broke off and fell behind the wall. Therefore, about a 2" x 3" section of tile and drywall has to be removed to replace the shower’s plumbing. Then the drywall and tile would be replaced. We cannot afford the repair out of pocket.
One of the plumbers installed a diverter behind the shower head as a temporary measure. It’s not a full-fledged diverter that changes water flow from tub faucet to shower head (our shower is standalone, no tub). It’s just a small piece fit behind the shower head. There’s a small switch on the side of the diverter that allows one to more or less use the shower normally. Switched on, the water flows freely. Switched off, the diverter allows roughly 4 or 5 gallons per hour to flow through.
Opinions sought:
A) Since we cannot afford the repair out of pocket, is this the kind of thing that the mortgage company and/or our homeowners’ insurance would want to be notified about?
B) The current diverter in place was never meant to be a final fix. However, is there such a thing as a beefed-up diverter – or some other kind of plumbing fixture – that would reliably block the flow of water to the shower head as reliably as an intact valve stem would?
Would you be able to do the tear-down yourself, saving some money there, have a plumber swap out the defective valve, then do the drywall/tile yourself? Just pay the plumber to plumb.
Is there any other shutoff between the street and your shower other than the main? Is there a cold water run of easily accessed copper where a plumber could put a shutoff?
It wouldn’t be a pretty fix but you could install a ball valve between where the pipe comes out of the wall and your shower head. Then your lower valve would just be a mixing valve and the on/off would be in the ball valve. It would look ugly and unfinished but it would stop the water flow. The hardest part would be you’ll have to install the valve with the water flowing but you should be able Teflon tape the threads well enough and install the valve in the open position.
We don’t have the tools or knowledge. I’ve YouTubed a lot of home repairs (esp HVAC repair) – but I’ve looked into taking a stab at this and have just decided it’s too far above my skill level.
Parenthetically: I never did find a video of exactly this kind of repair. I’m sure more fiscally-secure homeowners would just use this as an excuse to redo their entire bathroom or something like that …just not an option for us, though.
Other than directly behind the shower head (about 5" of exposed pipe), no. Right behind the shower head, on this length of pipe coming from the wall, is where the current diverter is installed.
One thing that occurred to me is that there might perhaps be a special kind of shower head available that itself could cut off the flow of water. Haven’t found it yet, though, after some cursory searches. I might not have the proper search terms in mind – for instance, when I search for diverters, the only thing that seems to come up are the tub-to-shower diverters.
This is what I believe the plumber did, except I am not sure whether or not the diverter he installed is, indeed, a ball valve. I can tell you that he installed the diverter with the water to the house turned off.
Let me see if I can find a picture of the kind of valve he installed.
EDIT: The diverter in place looks much like this. The assembly is roughly the size of a C-cell battery:
Another bathroom, so tile on both sides. In fact, two showers back up to one another.
The other bathroom shower (this one with a tub) is unusable because the drain has a severe blockage, almost certainly under the slab. Yeah … our house has some bad plumbing problems that we’ve never been able to throw cash at.
Thanks for the consideration and advice so far, all.
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Dewey_Finn, point taken. I really hate to have an open gape in my wall for an extended length of time, and I’m not comfortable doing the in-wall plumbing myself. Maybe we’ll get to a more desperate point in the future, but we’re not there yet.
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I found this video of a guy installing what he calls a “reducer” to a shower head. He says it doesn’t cut off the flow of water completely, but it looks a lot better than what we’re dealing with now:
Do you really mean just a two-inch by three-inch section of the tile and drywall has to be removed? It seems to me that’s small enough that it could be hidden behind what a Google search tells me is called a smitty plate.
I goofed – should read two feet by three feet. Basically, the tile surrounding a pair of valves (hot and cold water, installed in the late 1960s) plus room to maneuver.
It’s entirely possible for you to replace the tile yourself. The hardest part might be trying to match the existing tile. You can buy premixed mortar or adhesive, and if you like, practice tiling on a piece of plywood.
It might come to that. What concerns me a lot is making sure the drywall and tilework is watertight afterwards. Also, I don’t have the tools to cut the tile.
With some home repair work, I can at least conceive in my own headspace how the repair is executed. Then I check out some YouTube videos, get the details down, and get to work. Doing this particular drywall and tile and plumbing work myself (I understand it will involve cutting the pipes, not just screwing stuff in) … can’t quite get my head around it.
You don’t have to repair and replace the tile. Break it out, make the plumbing repairs, then install a plastic shower surround over the existing tile. What are the dimensions of your shower? This doesn’t have to be a permanent solution either, in the future you take down the surround and do the tile repair.
This ball valve was basically what I was thinking. It’ll stop the water flow entirely for a quick and dirty fix.
Deliao Brass Ball Valve Shower Head Shut-Off Valve Shower Arm Volume Control Valve Hand Shower, or Bidet Sprayer Water Saver Flow Control Valve with 1/2-Inch Female and Male Pipe Thread Nickel Finish
I’ve done tile work with my parents when they were doing work in the house. The specialty tile stores and probably the big box stores (Home Depot, Lowe’s) will let you rent or borrow the tool needed to cut tile. If you’re just making straight cuts, it’s a very simple tool that scores the tile and then presses down on it to force it to crack at the score mark. It’s really very doable.
BTW, I’m not imagining you’re going to do the plumbing work yourself. Can you afford to have the plumber deal with the valve issues if you repair the drywall and tile yourself?
I’m with @Dewey_Finn. Break up that second shower that you can’t even use and get this shower fixed. Cover the hole with plastic and when you can afford to fix that second shower’s original problem and fix the tile (or do a surround instead) the do that.
You’re getting hung up on the tile part, which I too would be hesitant to do myself, but it’s just not needed at this time since it’d be tile for an un-useable bath. Put up the plastic, put up a shower curtain, and come back to it when you can afford it.
In all honesty: no. That’s a big reason I’m interested in installing a better valve or similar external solutions.
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One general problem I’ve always had with plumbing work is that I can never really find out how much it will cost ahead of time. Even with two plumbers having come out and look at the shower … I have no idea if it’s a $500 job or a $2,000 job. I really don’t want someone to come out and get started, initially estimating it will be (say) a $500 job and then partway through getting told that something is going to increase the cost substantially.
