Installing a New Shower Valve with 3-Way Diverter [copper pipe]

this video is a step-by-step breakdown of how i got my shower valve installed of all the inner turmoil that i felt when demoing my master bathroom installing the new valve and plumbing caused some of the most stress when i was remodeling like everything else in this video you'll see how i saved hundreds of dollars by prepping and installing this new valve set myself my name is ryan andrews and it's my mission to help you build equity in your home by doing projects yourself check out the playlist in the card here at the end of the video i'll share a couple of takeaways you might find helpful so hang out until then leave a comment with any questions or suggestions hammer that like button and let's get working when you're getting started it's important to lay out all the pieces in your kit to see what you're working with i like to use my ipad and an app called notability and i bring in a picture of what my cell looks like so that i can lay out where i'm going to place my valve how i'm going to run my hot and cold water and how i'm going to route my rain and my shower spout it also gives me a great opportunity to count all the elbows and 45s i'm going to need for the project so i can pick them up at this store here's my valve and my diverter valve diverter i did get it in the same kit that i got off amazon i'll link it below this one has an on off valves right here so you can shut the water on and off this mud guard right here is going to show you where you need to finish this finish wall flush with this surface important we want to do that i'm going to take these cups off we want to take the cartridges out of this thing before we go soldering anything in we don't want to heat them up and melt them that would be awful it's not in there very tight flame protector for inside the walls the mount looks like it is tight to the brass there not tight to the brow stairs so i won't be going like this now i'm going to be using what i have available which is this propane torch this doesn't get nearly as hot as map gas but propane torch does a deal i use this entirely in my hall bath got the job done does take a little bit longer to heat up the elements but it will save a little bit of money i'd rather stick with what i have if it's going to take me a little bit longer i'm fine with it you want to do as much layout and soldering on your table before you go and install the valve i'm using an old 20 inch piece of tile to protect my table this looks really good i'm going to burn it water soluble flux since it's been a while since i've done this i'm going to go ahead and do it a test piece here i'm going to turn this on it'll crank it off and as it's going down i'll grab it and then turn it back on as it catches it still gets really hot now i couldn't get this top piece out so i'm being kind of risky here and trying to heat up this brass but it wouldn't ultimately go it's getting that hot i couldn't get this brass hot enough to do the solder really quick so what happened is it started dispersing all that heat all around this whole element right here putting in jeopardy our plastic piece that we couldn't get out to begin with i'm still not gonna get the map gas in the torch because that's 50 60 bucks i can get these for 280 a piece plus that'll keep me from having to heat any of this element up if it didn't get hot i can't pull this plastic piece out and when i tried with this propane torch it got dangerously hot and almost lost its form but thankfully it's still turning and clicking in there not having a problem [Music] i'm gonna let these cool off so i don't want to hit them with any wet rags or anything like that between expansion and contraction with heat that can compromise the seal underneath it so i'm going to wipe these down a little bit clean them off just a little so i can take a look and make sure that i'm feeling good about the solder t plus two got this at the local hardware this is pipe thread sealant which you want to look for is it's formulated for potable water i'm going to liberally apply this on these pipe threads what's important to realize is that it might not crank around as much as you want so you want to mark the spot before you add any elbows you want to make sure how far around these adapters are going to go that's what's going in and that will go up on top there you can find this kit in the description below if you want to follow along with the exact same thing to make it easier in your project i got to put this back on so that i can define how far in to drill the hole in the side for this pipe and how far back i'm going to need to put the stud in to support this valve my overflow is lined up directly with my drain so i don't need to see the drain in order to line up my plumbing and my valve i want my valve to be center right over the top of this overflow that'll give me a nice even plumb line from the water faucet to the overflow to the drain the line right on the center of my drain and we're square that being the center of it i know this pipe is directly in the center so i want it right on that center line right there boom to the end of the mud guard is two and a quarter inches do i'm going to take this two and a quarter inches and i'm gonna set this back an inch and a quarter that leaves this out about an inch from the wall which is where we want it that's how it'll sit see i'm right on top of my line right there one inch off of the mud guard now i'm gonna turn that water off chop these down put that block in support the valve enter in the hot and cold water kick the water back on and rock and roll because i'm gonna take these shark bites off which are reusable by the way when i turn the water off i open up the hose tends to relieve all of the pressure downward away from the house so that there's nothing trickling back in here the main water line sometimes just doesn't crank all the way off turning that exterior hose on allows that to drip out there instead of coming up and dripping through your pipes if you have that drip through your pipes you can't solder anything because it doesn't actually recede down and give you the room that you need to make the pipe hot enough to actually take the solder these shark bite caps have these little tools you can get and what they do this is for a half inch and it wraps around the pipe and when you pinch it pull it up it grabs that plastic piece pushes it back up into the device allowing you to release the pressure it comes right off this does from really small pipes i cranking it down all the way up to 5 8 inch pipe i just dropped this little thing down into the back side of that tub wouldn't have been able to get it out of there unless i had that access panel gonna make sure that all the old oxidation is off and we got a nice clean surface to work with got my fire protector here the water's turned off so in order to douse it now they say you don't have to douse it but i put it in the water anyway water's turned off so i just shoved it in the toilet just kidding use bottled water this one doesn't have a stop so i'm gonna make sure that it's right roughly halfway there don't want to forget that nearby in case i do all kinds of bad stuff torpedo level on this to make sure i'm accurately portraying where i need to go over and make a line on the bottom [Music] that's our cold water right there [Music] this flux is a million years old and it's changed colors but it is working like a chair heat up the coupler for the elbow and 45 not the pipe itself and from one side and then just grab it from the other side and it sucks it all in and this is going to go relatively fast because this pipe's already hot hot and cold or hooked up now it should get itself squared away to the block that i'm going to put behind it no hits to the back of the wall i'll use a little piece here in order to keep it from throwing it off level i'm going to pop something underneath to make sure it doesn't move here [Music] now i can secure my valve down to the block for that i'm going to go back to my deck screws i want to make sure that i'm on my center line right there [Music] now i need two there i'm secure here i'm just about an inch outside of my stud which is where i want it to be half inch backer board quarter inch or so of mortar and then a quarter inch of tile i'm going to put in this piece right here right directly on my line facing 90 degree out like this so that i will leave a hole in the wall and this will screw directly in and it looks like that'll kick about two inches in over the tub which i like there still is a gap between the two so when i put this in this block right here and i might have to manufacture block i'll probably just attach it right to the chipboard [Music] center line and now i can line up my shower head and my rainfall because wherever you put your valve is going to be a little bit different and then whatever you put your height of your shower head is going to be a little bit different depending on how tall you are 41 inches i decided not to follow the manufacturer design because i wanted my rainfall to be right in line with the shower let that cool off because of that i had to get a couple other pieces that would go along with this system and for that you'll find those in the description below but again pipe thread sealant i want to make sure it's fully engaged in all of those threads right on our center line boom can't tire that flip oh it was the old cigar lighter [Music] push it against the back of the sheetrock make sure it's flush there we are rain hiding this is nailed in with a couple of copper fasteners here so that it doesn't oxidize against any other metal that's on it square away and i got my hole cut in here to access it it looks like it's pretty sturdy i'm going to countersink [Music] now we're on there now that i've got everything in place this will give me a good opportunity to test my drain kit to test the valve and to make sure that everything is working right and there are no leaks in my plumbing now is the time to know if you've got a leak not after you have tiling i thought this would be enough to secure it down but clearly it is not [Music] all right i got that batter secured up there pretty happy with that plumbing's looking good now just gotta test the fittings make sure everything works no leaks in the plumbing and water coming somewhere i just don't see it oh there's water coming out right here i have a leak right here it's coming off at the joint which means that i probably either didn't seal it enough or didn't crank it down enough there's water in this that is why it's not getting hot enough to loose that up so that that's no fun cutting out what you just put in [Music] i clearly had some room for tightening that down and i'm pretty frustrated myself that i left that so loose it's got more it's got more there we go [Laughter] go ahead and turn it on half turn please no water there no water there no water there no water there everything seems to be dry let's try to turn this thing on man all right so that's the rain [Music] over to the tough spot and it looks good just over to the handheld [Music] leaks [Music] there it is that's hot water so we are in business everything's connected yeah no leaks two questions i have one will this thing hold water and two how's my drain kit doing let's hit the exit button on this thing and go check it [Music] i hear it sounds good no leaks anywhere super dry tested our plumbing works gnolly tested our drain kit works no leaks now we're on the backer board so we can get tile in the alcove and get ready to use this shower it's my shower you're not gonna i'm gonna use a shower you're not invited so fast forward to the tile going in here and you'll see that one inch out from the stud is exactly where we want that valve it's nice and flush with the tile and it looks spectacular you can totally do this project yourself with a little preparation pick the shower kit you like or grab this one from the description below and build your confidence as you add equity to your house a couple of takeaways number one listen to your intuition as i was soldering the valve on the table i realized that it was dangerously close to overheating the actual element inside the valve so i switched to the threaded adapter and if i would have kept going instead it would have cost me the whole valve assembly which would have meant a lot of money we want to spend more money secondly if you want to stray a bit from the original design of the product do a little bit of preparation like i did in notability and then see the route that you want you're going to use the shower every day well most of us and you want to be satisfied with the final layout i knew i didn't want to drill holes in my new tile to hold the shower head on the right side of the wall as the design specified so i installed it in the center and added a new neck find the link in the description below listen i enjoyed this part of the master bathroom remodel check out the other videos in the playlist and it's really helpful to get your feedback so leave comments below subscribe click that bell to get notified and choose the all options so you get notifications when i post something new and share this with any other diyers or homeowners you know it's super helpful it would be great to see that like stat hit triple digits see you on the next video at cool hand ryan

Channel: Cool Hand Ryan

Views: 63,784

Rating: 4.8052435 out of 5

Keywords: Installing a Shower Valve Kit with 3-Way Diverter, shower valve, shower valve rough in, soldering shower valve, rough in valve, shower valve replacement, shower valve installation, how to install a shower valve, bathroom remodeling, installing shower plumbing with copper, shower installation, coolhandryan, install, do it yourself, DIY, master bathroom remodel, bathtub plumbing, how to, bathtub, remodel, handyman, shower, bathroom, installation, cool hand ryan, ryan andrews

Id: AX1CVJ9nCAs

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020