Bathtub spout leaking at wall

[Brian Lovett]

Hi everyone. We have a newly remodeled home and woke up the other morning to water raining down from the ceiling after a guest took a shower. We have a delta wall-end threaded tub spout with a brass reducer inside of it.

I took a look and the water is dripping from the back of the spout where it meets the pipe from the wall. I can't tell if it is dripping from the reducer, or where the reducer threads into the pipe although I suspect it is where the pipe threads in.

I tried the following

1) make sure it is tightened properly
2) removed and reapplied teflon tape
3) tried a liquid teflon tape as well

Doesn't seem to improve the situation. Is there supposed to be an o-ring in the spout? I didn't do the install and couldn't find any decent pics online. Here is what it looks like (attached)

 

[Reach4]

We have a newly remodeled home and woke up the other morning to water raining down from the ceiling after a guest took a shower.

Usually that would mean that the guest did not have the shower curtain/door properly closed.

I took a look and the water is dripping from the back of the spout where it meets the pipe from the wall. I can't tell if it is dripping from the reducer, or where the reducer threads into the pipe although I suspect it is where the pipe threads in.

Tie a string to the middle of the threads and drape that into the tub/shower pan. That may help isolate if the water you are seeing comes from inside of that nipple, or on the outside through the wall. Another alternative is to screw a coupler and some pipe to extend that nipple to move the output of the nipple away from the wall for testing.

Or are you already sure that the water comes from inside the nipple?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Brian Lovett]

Usually that would mean that the guest did not have the shower curtain/door properly closed.


Tie a string to the middle of the threads and drape that into the tub/shower pan. That may help isolate if the water you are seeing comes from inside of that nipple, or on the outside through the wall. Another alternative is to screw a coupler and some pipe to extend that nipple to move the output of the nipple away from the wall for testing.

Or are you already sure that the water comes from inside the nipple?

Thanks, I was able to verify that the water comes from inside the nipple where the pipe connects. Pulling up on the diverter for the spout causes significant water to spray out of the back.

 

[Reach4]

Thanks, I was able to verify that the water comes from inside the nipple where the pipe connects. Pulling up on the diverter for the spout causes significant water to spray out of the back.

Nice. I suspect the problem is that the nipple from the wall is not long enough to engage the normal number of threads.

To try to reuse the same spout and same nipple, I would use Rectoseal #5 (or similar) and maybe 5 or more wraps of yellow PTFE (OK for gas) tape both. The gas-qualified tape is thicker and denser. Somebody may suggest a more gap-filling pipe compound to use.

If it still leaks, you could try to get a longer nipple. Your photo is not sharp enough to tell what is going on. You could maybe pull the existing nipple with a nipple wrench (inside pipe wrench). My limited experience with those has not been good; I got slipping inside. I might grab the nipple end with my big locking pliers. That will bugger the threads. I have access from the backside of my wall to be able to see what is going on.

Do you have access from the other side? I am not a plumber. A plumber would probably have better tools and the experience to make this work.

 

[Dj2]

You need to open the wall to determine the source of the leak.

 

[Brian Lovett]

You need to open the wall to determine the source of the leak.

The leak is from the spout where the pipe threads into it. It's really easy to spot when I pull up the diverter for the shower. I'm 100% positive on that part.

 

[MKS]

Looking at the first picture it appears that the spout is only on two threads of the nipple.