Roughing In For Hand Shower Supply Elbow

[Schwarz633]

I'm roughing in for a hand shower supply elbow with a 1/2" NPT connection. There will be tile over cement board so the exact finish distance from the studs can only be approximated at this time. I planned on using a drop ear elbow screwed down but now I'm wondering if I should let it float as the 1/2" nipples only come in 1/2" length increments. What's the best practice for this? How much length "adjustment" is there when working with NPT?

 

[Terry]

You will want the drop ear screwed in and tight. The 1/2" tapered threads work fine on that. Between the two sides and the tapers, there is enough adjustment.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Schwarz633]

I should have mentioned this is a sweated copper installation.

 

[Terry]

I should have mentioned this is a sweated copper installation.

The drop ear doesn't care if it's copper to it. It still needs to be secured to prevent twisting the copper pipe off when you go to install.

 

[Schwarz633]

The tile installation is finally completed and I was able to trim out the valve, install the spout and showerhead, and mount the hand shower supply elbow today. As it turned out, a 2 1/2" brass nipple was too short and a 3" was too long. I ended up fabricating a nipple out of 1/2" copper with a male NPT adapter on each end. I made it the length I thought would be right, but had to unsweat it once and shorten it by 1/8". Then I had to heat it up again to index it by 45 degrees to get the correct orientation. Certainly a lot of screwing around, but there wasn't really any "give" between the drop ear elbow and the finished surface and I didn't want to crack the tile by drawing it in too far. I'm thankful I'm able to take the time on small details like this to get it right.