BostonDIYer
Member
Hoping someone can help me out a bit as I progress through this tile shower tear out & rebuild. Long story short, our tile shower failed and leaked to the floor below. It was not really salvageable so I ripped it out and am starting over. Now that the walls are open, I am looking to also improve a couple of quirks from the original installation.
I've attached photos of the current plumbing along with the shower valve. We have body sprays in this shower but because of how they were plumbed, they would continue to spray for a good 30 seconds after the water was off. I suspect this is partially because the contractor chose to run the pex 3 feet up the wall above the valve to get water to the sprayers on the opposite wall. The water goes off and there is plenty of gravity and water left over to make these things pee on you for a bit.
I am going to reconfigure this pex to help stop/reduce the leaking after the water is off. I noticed this Graff M-series 8076 valve that handles volume control for the body sprays has a nut on both the left and right sides of it. It appears we can definitely use one side or the other because the two valves below it are also 8076 valves. Does anyone know if I can use both sides simultaneously? If so, any thoughts on how I would connect the pex? I can dig into it to figure out but am about to hit the hardware store for more supplies and not sure if I will need any adapters to attach it.
My thoughts is, if I can indeed branch out both sides without compromising pressure, I will just eliminate the huge branch that is 3 feet up the wall.
Also, they did not install a pressure balance loop. I don't know if one is necessary or not. We had not complaints about pressure from these sprayers per se, just the leaking after off issue. I am ok with leaving well enough alone unless you all think I should include the loop.
As always, thank you in advance!
-- Chris
I've attached photos of the current plumbing along with the shower valve. We have body sprays in this shower but because of how they were plumbed, they would continue to spray for a good 30 seconds after the water was off. I suspect this is partially because the contractor chose to run the pex 3 feet up the wall above the valve to get water to the sprayers on the opposite wall. The water goes off and there is plenty of gravity and water left over to make these things pee on you for a bit.
I am going to reconfigure this pex to help stop/reduce the leaking after the water is off. I noticed this Graff M-series 8076 valve that handles volume control for the body sprays has a nut on both the left and right sides of it. It appears we can definitely use one side or the other because the two valves below it are also 8076 valves. Does anyone know if I can use both sides simultaneously? If so, any thoughts on how I would connect the pex? I can dig into it to figure out but am about to hit the hardware store for more supplies and not sure if I will need any adapters to attach it.
My thoughts is, if I can indeed branch out both sides without compromising pressure, I will just eliminate the huge branch that is 3 feet up the wall.
Also, they did not install a pressure balance loop. I don't know if one is necessary or not. We had not complaints about pressure from these sprayers per se, just the leaking after off issue. I am ok with leaving well enough alone unless you all think I should include the loop.
As always, thank you in advance!
-- Chris
