Concealed shower outlet

[Pecanfan]

I'm sure this must be simpler than I'm making it out to be. Can anyone tell me how on earth you're supposed to attach concealed shower outlets to the wall?? The type in question look a bit like Screwfix part no. 58943.

Wickes (where I got it from) reckon the pipework effectively holds it in place, but I'm dubious of this. It comes with a rubber washer the size of the outlet itself and that's it. By the looks of it an angled tap connector fits of the back.

Any ideas? The thread isn't even long enough to reach through the wall. ?!?

Andy

[John Stumbles]

The thread is 1/2" BSP so you're in Meccano-land as to how you connect to it. I think I did the one in my own bathroom with a wall-plate elbow buried in the wall (it's from a shower mixer valve that's embedded in the wall) and then screwed the outlet into it. I probably wrapped PTFE tape around the thread so it'd hold tight at the right angle. If you wanted to connect to it from the other side of a wall you could connect a 1/2" BSP female X 15mm solder or compression fitting to a bit of pipe and take that through to the other side. In this case I might be inclinded to Araldite the outlet's thread into the fitting so that the pipe through the wall becomes an integral extension of the outlet connector (using a solder-type fitting, natch)

[Pecanfan]

Cheers for the reply! I'm building the wall (aquapanel and tiles) in situ so I'll not be able to get to the back of it once it's tiled. The wall-plate elbow sounds like the way to go but I still don't see how I can fix everything in place and then tile over the top, if that makes sense - not without breaking a tile in half, cutting a semi-circle in each half, and carefully sliding them under the outlet. Seems like a bit of a bodge though - is there not a better way of doing this? Why don't they come with fixing kits so you can fit the outlet *after* you've tiled?

Andy

[pknw29683]

Use a wall plate elbow (probably 15mm x 1/2 BSP) screwed to a batten fixed between studs. Fix so that the outer face of the elbow will be flush with the tile surface. Then do your tiling, having made sure that the elbow is on the joint between adjacent tiles so that you can cut a semi-circle in each tile. When tiles have been grouted fix the outlet to the elbows - don't forget the PTFE tape.

Cheers petek

[Pecanfan]

Thanks for the info. Can I just ask, if I'm doing it this way (fitting the tiles *before* fitting the wall outlet), why do I need to have a semi-circle cut in each tile? Surely I could just have a 1/2" hole in a tile at the point where the outlet needs to get through the wall.

I guess this will work providing I manage to get the adhesive exactly the right thickness and also fix the wall plate elbow at exactly the right angle so that when the outlet is tightened it's not at a bizarre angle. I certainly can't think of a better way of doing it so cheers! :-)

Andy

[Steven Briggs]

In message , Pecanfan writes

You could do that. It all depends where you expect your grout lines to end up. I, for example, had my shower valve & outlet all positioned based on

200mm tiles & 2mm gaps. Then when I got the tiles I found they were actually 198mm wide. That _would_ have looked like a crap bodge, 1/4" off a grout line, so I had to move the valve & outlet.

Yeah, make best estimate of tile & adhesive thickness when fixing the elbow. If you briefly screw the outlet into place immediately after fixing the tiles, it'll squash the tile/adhesive to the right level +/-. I finally fixed my outlet with a good dose of silicone joint compound on threads, locked in place & no leaks.

[pknw29683]

You will probably find it a bit difficult to drill the 1/2" hole in exactly the right place so that the tile lines up with those around it. I presume also that you have a suitable 1/2" drill for tiles?

A bit of tolerance on the adhesive thickness won't matter 'cos you can adjust the distance that the fitting screws on to the elbows by more/less PTFE tape. My shower fitting (Triton bar type) came complete with 2 offset couplers which can be adjusted so that you get the shower fitting exactly level even though the elbows are a bit out of line or not exactly on the correct centres. IIRC they give about

+/-5mm horiz/vert adjustment. It's a bit fiddly but it worked eventually. I'm not sure if these can be bought separately from the shower, you could try Screwfix.

Good luck Petek

[Pecanfan]

Just to report back on this one, it went slightly awry but not the end of the world. Even though I carefully measured the depth of the wall plate elbow beforehand it's slightly *too* recessed - so when it came to tightening up the shower outlet to squeeze the adhesive down I cannot FULLY tighten it for fear of cracking the tile. I think I've come up with a plan involving some silicone, PTFE, plumbers mait and lots of washers stacked on top of each other. So, I have a couple more questions...

1. Fibre or rubber washers?

1. What's the best thing to use to seal the thread between the wall elbow and the shower outlet? Lots of PTFE, plumbers mait or something else?

Thank you! :-)

Andy

[Pete C]

I would try wrapping hemp around the thread and sealing over it with a sealant like Fernox LS-X. The hemp should expand on contact with water and give a mechanically tight seal, and the sealant should seal the water in.

cheers, Pete.

[Pecanfan]

Ahh... cunning - I shall give that a try.

Andy