DIY Shower Now Leaking in wall

[Todd Fyffe]

So I am in a predicament...

I remodeled my bathroom recently, which was an entire tear-down to the studs and rebuild. I installed a new Onyx Collection stand up shower which included a new mixer valve and I decided to raise the shower head up about 6". Everything was pressure checked before we put the walls up. When I went to put the mixer valve cover plate on I realized that we installed the mixer valve about 1-2" too far back as the screws wouldn't quite reach. Just a slight push and I did get them to reach, but could tell that it pulled the mixer valve forward a little bit as I screwed it in.

I later removed the mixer valve plate to adjust the hot water mix, and while testing the temperature and making adjustments, I noticed water leaking down the valve. After some cutting and investigation it seems like it is coming from the under side of the shower head elbow (not from the front side where the arm is screwed in which was my first guess). There is also a support pipe welded in halfway up that is not pictured, that I believe caused the shower head up pipe to bow as I screwed the cover on, possibly causing a solder point to pop?

I would rather not remove the new shower walls, nor cut them any more than needed. I am able to get into the shower from the kitchen behind it. I took down a cabinet and cut a small hole where the arrow is and peeked inside, which is how I verified the leak is in fact coming from up top, even though I cannot actually see it from the front. The shower head is right behind small square above the microwave, but is also mounted on the 2x4 and is obscuring the actual spot of the leak from me.

So, any suggestions or do I give up and call in a professional?

No leaking seen from front:

Support brace halfway up not pictured.

 

[wwhitney]

I don't think you've adequately ruled out the most likely possibility, which is that the leak is at the threaded connection of the drop-ear elbow and the shower arm. If you let the area dry out, you can check for a leak there like this: run the water, wrap a tissue pretty tightly around the shower arm and advance it until it just touches the face of the drop ear ninety threaded entry, pull it out, and see if the tissue is wet at all. You may need to let the water run a while if it's a really slow leak.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Todd Fyffe]

I don't think you've adequately ruled out the most likely possibility, which is that the leak is at the threaded connection of the drop-ear elbow and the shower arm. If you let the area dry out, you can check for a leak there like this: run the water, wrap a tissue pretty tightly around the shower arm and advance it until it just touches the face of the drop ear ninety threaded entry, pull it out, and see if the tissue is wet at all. You may need to let the water run a while if it's a really slow leak.

Cheers, Wayne

Thanks for the reply. I was near positive this is where the issue was at first too. While I am now 100% sure the leak is not in the threaded connection, I did go ahead and try this just now (I haven't tested the water in days so it was completely dry to begin.) The tissue came out completely dry. The leak is not a slow leak and begins to drip, nearly streaming, off the mixer valve within seconds of turning the water on.

 

[wwhitney]

OK, that's pretty definitive it's not the threaded joint.

Is there a way for you to similarly use tissue as blotter paper to confirm it's leaking from the bottom solder joint of the drop ear 90? Maybe just slide it below the shower arm, with a tear in the end to make a Y shape and try to get it around the joint.

In your first photo, it looks like you've stopped tiling maybe 6" below the shower arm, and that green layer is a liquid applied waterproofing? If so, I think it would easier to fix the joint by opening up the front side and patching in your waterproofing layer. Attacking it from the backside would require patching and painting above the cabinet, which is more or less a wash with the front side, but you'd have to destructively remove the 2x4 brace, fix the joint, and then reinstall a new brace from the rear.

Whichever side you want to attack it from, give yourself plenty of room, cut out the drywall from center of stud to center of stud and at least 12" tall, staying away from complicated areas (like near the tile you have).

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Todd Fyffe]

OK, that's pretty definitive it's not the threaded joint.

Is there a way for you to similarly use tissue as blotter paper to confirm it's leaking from the bottom solder joint of the drop ear 90? Maybe just slide it below the shower arm, with a tear in the end to make a Y shape and try to get it around the joint.

In your first photo, it looks like you've stopped tiling maybe 6" below the shower arm, and that green layer is a liquid applied waterproofing? If so, I think it would easier to fix the joint by opening up the front side and patching in your waterproofing layer. Attacking it from the backside would require patching and painting above the cabinet, which is more or less a wash with the front side, but you'd have to destructively remove the 2x4 brace, fix the joint, and then reinstall a new brace from the rear.

Whichever side you want to attack it from, give yourself plenty of room, cut out the drywall from center of stud to center of stud and at least 12" tall, staying away from complicated areas (like near the tile you have).

Cheers, Wayne

The green area is tape to help prevent any scratching of the Onyx from the jigsaw. There is no tile and the wall is one entire sheet of the Onyx (composite) material. I taped around the shower arm escutcheon plate so that I knew how much room I had to work with while cutting it back, and used the jigsaw to make the hole bigger so that I could see if the leak was in the front. I do still have about 1/4" to cut away at the front on the bottom, but still not giving me much room to reach in and even use some sort of plumbers putty (was thinking i might be able to just squirt a bunch in from the backside without having to remove the brace?)

 

[wwhitney]

Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. I don't think you're going to have much luck with any sort of putty product. If it's a leaking solder joint, it needs to be resoldered. I'm a little unclear on what you mean by a "support pipe welded in halfway up". So I do suggest trying to verify from the front that the leak is at the bottom of the drop ear elbow.

In which case you should attack it from the backside. Go ahead and cut open the drywall above the cabinet, from stud to stud. Hopefully that will give you enough access, as removing the microwave and the cabinet about it would be more trouble. You'll need to cut out the 2x4 and then figure out an alternate way to anchor the drop ear elbow once you've fixed the leak.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Todd Fyffe]

Thanks for the replies!

So I cut a fairly large size hole in the drywall of the kitchen, and actually kept it all behind the cabinet and did not go above. It was large enough to get the top quarter of my body in and verify the leaking spot.

Then got in with a jigsaw and cut two slits up on each side of the pipe and then used a wood chisel to cut a notch into the 2x4 to expose the bottom half of the elbow and solder point.

It took a few attempts, and the board scorched a little bit due do the hot metal (kept water and fire extinguisher near by), but I was able to fix the leak and verified FULL pressure tested and survived two showers so I went ahead and patched the hole and put the cabinet back up!