I have a shower arm which will be at a fixed height. It will be fed from the other side of the wall.
The pipework/fittings that come through the wall will need to be reasonably sturdy. What is the usual way of doing this?
mark
Some are intended for surface mounting, some are intended to be sunk. Not enough information & varies by manufacturer
Some are intended for surface mounting, some are intended to be sunk. Not enough information & varies by manufacturer
It is essentially a square chrome pipe with a 15mm thread on the connection end. All chromed so I would say not meant to be buried in the wall to any extent.
mark
I have put in bits of thick ply between the vertical battens in the past to fix stuff to.
Probably a 1/2" BSP thread?
In that case, it wants to mount on a pipe with a 1/2" BSP fitting on the end, protruding from the wall, and attached to the the wall framework. I would use 22mm pipe for sturdiness, at least back as far as a couple of sturdy mounting clips. 1/2" steel would be even better, but much harder to make up if you haven't got thread cutters, etc.
There are 1/2" through-the-wall wall plates too, but they're hard to find.
Another option would be to use a bulkhead coupler, mounting it on a sheet of steel or aluminium behind the plasterboard.
I find it very odd, as I expect the OP does, that showers are just hung on the end of the copper pipe without any sort of bracket to support them.
I know you have mentioned a couple below, but they are rarely used.
they probably expect you to use something like this:-
would this be any better for your through the wall business?:-
Jim K
What about something like this?
Screw it to a piece of ply screwed between the studs. IIRC it takes standard tap connectors on the other side.
Andrew
sturdy. What is the usual way of doing this?
Can't see how that would work. That's for an outside tap I'd say.
That's more like it, but it is a plastered breeze block wall and the screw fixings on the circular bracket would be too close to the pipe hole.
The thread is the same as a 15mm compression fitting. I've just tried.
Just to clarify, the wall is a plastered breeze block wall. The pipework will rise on the other side (landing) and be boarded over. It would be difficult to use the wall plate/copper tube for which you have provided a link, as the fixing screw holes on the bracket/flange would be too close to the pipe hole, especially in breeze block, which seems crumblier than the modern lightweight blocks.
I like the idea of 22mm for extra sturdiness. Steel would be ideal but I vaguely recall something about dissimilar metals and corrosion.
The shower arm and head unit is quite heavy and hanging it off a bit of 15mm tube would be good for about 2 seconds, hence my question.
mark
It's a masonry wall.
mark
I think I see what you mean, if it was a cavity wall this could be fixed to a nogging. That would still leave the problem of the arm/spray head exterting considerable leverage on the pipe work, too much for copper tube I'd say.
mark
Ahhh, sorry, I missed that bit.
That's 1/2" BSP. A proper 1/2" BSP thread connection is a bit longer than the thread on a 15mm compression fitting, and either has a sealing flange, or a tapered thread.
Unless the shower has a sealing ring/O-ring, you would probably use a taper thread. Looking at bes.co.uk, I don't see a 1/2" taper male thread to 22mm compression, although they do a solder version (BES part 7156). 1/2" parallel thread+flange to 22mm (17635).
Don't think that would be a serious issue here. BES do have some short steel pipe (nipples, they call them), which have taper threads on each end, which you could use for sturdiness through the wall: Black painted:
4" (11488), 6" (8730), 9" (8731), 12" (8732). Also galvanised versions: 6" (9807), 9" (9992), 12" (9996).You'd want something like a BSP female to 15mm compression elbow (6691) to connect to copper behind the wall.
take it back then?
seriously if you've designed it all to come through a masonry wall and to survive someone hanging themselves off it I can't imagine how you will ever attach it *that* well and still allow water to come to it and function as a shower.
Maybe think agaiin?
Jim K
nah he never said - along with most of the rest of the "reasons" becoming apparent
Jim K
You may well be right. Not willing to give up yet though, would involve too much undoing of other stuff such as the control part is set in the wall. Can't believe there's not a engineering solution short of cutting out a large hole and reinstating it with studwork.
mark
"Andrew Gabriel"
Thanks for the info. Looks feasible. I'm now wondering if there is an industrial unit specialising in steel pipe and fittings within my area.
mark
are there no instructions? is there no-one where you bought it to ask? who is & have you contacted, the manufacturers?
can you not modify the parts mentioned above to give you the anchorage you feel you need? e.g. larger area backplate to spread the load across your crumbly breeze blocks?
I expect any solution will necessitate hacking the wall about to some extent to either recess fittings or give the required anchorage.
Jim K
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