Some days, nothing seems to go right. That was the case on the day I tried to install the shower plumbing for our basement bathroom remodeling project. The old bathroom had a small shower stall, with the piping extending to the stall from the ceiling. During the demolition phase of the project, I disconnected the water from the old shower and re-routed the hot and cold water pipes to the bathroom wall. I installed valves and capped the lines in preparation of the reconstruction phase. That phase is currently in progress.
On paper, the installation was simple. I bought a shower valve, and just needed to solder together three legs of copper piping - one leg for the hot water, one for the cold, and one from the shower valve to the future showerhead. To reduce the potential for damaging the plastic portions of the shower valve, I soldered together the components of each leg as individual units. Each water line leg has a threaded fitting at one end to connect to the shower valve, and a soldered coupling at the other end to connect to the house's water lines. the shower leg has a threaded fitting at one end to connect to the shower valve, and a threaded elbow on the other to connect to the showerhead. Each leg has an elbow or combination of elbows to make various turns.
All of my plumbing projects involve a minimum of three trips to the hardware store to purchase fittings and supplies. In this case, I bought extra fittings in case I needed to make an unusual turn. I soldered each leg together, threaded each leg to the shower valve, and soldered the water lines to the legs. Standing back, I opened the valves, and promptly had leaks in two of the three legs - the hot water leg and the shower leg.
In most cases, a leak occurs because of a failure in the flux. I suspect that as I installed each fitting, heat traveled up the leg and affected the flux in other fittings. I cut out the hot water leg and unthreaded the shower leg. I completely rebuilt the shower leg with my extra fittings, and cut out and replaced the leaking fitting on the hot water leg. Because the piping did not quite line up, I soldered in two 45-degree elbows to jog the piping over a bit, which was probably a little too fancy for my soldering skills. I reinstalled both legs, turned the water on... and the hot water leg still leaked, from one of the 45-degeee elbows. I needed a couple of fittings to fix the leak, which now required a trip to the hardware store. Frustrated, I decided to quit while I was ahead with two of the legs working, take some time to calm down, and return at a future date.
A week later, after having some time to think through my soldering steps, I removed the leaky fitting and opted for a straight run instead of extra jogs, reinstalled the hot water leg, said a quiet prayer, and turned the water on - no leaks! It is not the prettiest job as the joints got a little extra solder, just to be sure, but the work is done. I had a hard cider that night to toast completing another small step of this project. The next step will be closing up the walls and waterproofing. There is still some plumbing to do, including moving the floor drain over several inches for the new shower pan. That, I am sure, will take a few trips to the hardware store.
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