Today at work! the big goal has kinda taken a lull.. I had a bout of gout, and then a decent allergic reaction to, what I imagine was poison oak, sumac or ivy. So, I hope to get truckin on that soon. back to work today.. had a shower valve replacement... pretty str8 forward.. but not too simple. Lol the boss though.. trying to tell me once I got out there and informed him that its a good three hour job, and that he ought to handle my one remaining job for the day..that the job I was on was an hour and one half, and that u just have to unsolder this and that lool total ****ing clown planet.. anyway.. I said come on out and instruct me lol He gets out there, fumbles around for a bit then leaves, and I do the job just as I had imagined.
Ceramic tile shower enclosure.. here's the valve as I found and after I started a bit of the tile removal that was necessary to provide access.. if u look closely, you should be able to see the trace of the face-plate/circular finish trim/ escutcheon or whatever u want to call it that will ultimately still be plenty big to cover the larger opening in the tiled wall.
Ok so I futzed with a Sawzall with a weird composite blade designed to cut cast iron pipe, and that worked a bit, but was too slow.. then I used my rotary zip(similar to a Dremel tool) with a shank designed for tile, and that made some progress, but was too slow too, so I tried my lil Milwaukee hand held grinder, but the grinder disc wasn't for tile, rather for metal and other chit.. I finally just used my concrete chisel and 3 lbs hammer, though I was worried the tile might crack beyond where the face plate would conceal it.. I was successful! Great Success! u can still faintly see the trace perimeter.
ok so above is the damaged valve that required replacement.. and below is the valve I installed! u can see the soldered couplings in the lower image that were needed to obviously reinstall a shower valve to the hot and cold water lines etc.
trace still evident.. im obviously hammering that home, but its critical.. to a shower enclosures aesthetic and functionality .
Oh and here's the opposite side of the common wall with the shower. That was the other option for access, but it would obviously be unnecessarily invasive, and require sheet rock patching post install.. not to mention the proximity of towel holder and electrical outlet.. U can actually see the back of the electrical outlet in the 2nd image above. In the third image, u can see where I singed the wire's insulation slightly, but when uve got a torch head in a 3 inch wall, sheeeiiit is gonna get hot.
Zeee Stud Boyee at the shop this morning prior to heading to the above job.. funnel err dunce cap on head.
Last edited by Schlitz mmmm; 05-21-2014 at 05:44 PM.