Comment on Can I replace my shower controls?
cedarmesa@lemmy.world 1 year agoYou can replace internals on your shower valve. Im not sure what brand that valve is but…first shut off your water at the main. Open your hot and cold side on your sink faucet. Go outside and open a spigot. This will drain down your pipes. Underneath the handle will probably be a tint set screw which is probably a small allen screw. Loosen this and remove the handle. Then there may be a decorative ring over the valve body (an escutcheon). Remove this if it has one. There will either be a threaded ring or the whole valve body will rotate. Unthread this assembly. Now the guts of the valve will be in your hand. Typically youre going to find 2 small black seals held in place by 2 small springs. These being worn out is whats causing the leak. They sell replacement seal and spring sets at the plumbing repair section at you local orange big box store. Reverse procedure after installing new springs and seals. Its helpful to know the brand and model of your shower valve to get the right seals. If not, take the old ones in and match them up. Id consider this to be a homeowner friendly repair and if you get confused or shit looks weird put shit back together and call a professional. Discretion is the better part of valor.
zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The leak got a lot worse pretty suddenly - so it’s now leaking something like a few gallons an hour I’d guess (Though water is the one utility we don’t pay for here, so it’s annoying but not world-endingly urgent). So I decided it was time to get around to this - but when I got to the point in the images, which is right after the escutcheon you mentioned, I was no longer certain how to proceed.
Based on the images, is this still a relatively simple job that I can do with one or two trips to Home Depot? I don’t really know what I’m looking at here - would I grab the hex bit the white part is sticking out of and start turning with a large wrench? If so, the rest of your advice is still relevant - take the seals to Home Depot and look for as close a match as I can, since I looked and looked and couldn’t find a manufacturer’s name?
As of right now I’ve re-assembled it and turned the water back on. I did get a look at the pipes at least and they seem to be copper. There’s drywall behind the pipes that I would absolutely be willing to let a plumber tear into to avoid tile work. If I did end up calling a plumber, and nothing went wrong, do you happen to know the general ballpark of what it may cost?
Also, sorry. I know I’m asking for a lot of information and advice here. If you’re not up for another round of free advice I’d totally get it.
cedarmesa@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Thats amazing. You ran into some type 2 fun and figured it out on the fly. I kinda hate plumbing for that reason. Seems like you touch it and 12 other things go wonky. I forget if I mentioned replacing the cartridge potentially. Some have a cartridge, some have seals some have both. But yea, good work, appreciate the update.