Securing shower arm to old splitting wood

[Concord102]

Hi all! Old house from 1953. Swapping out shower head to a rain shower head and the arm was too wobbly up and down, side to side. I opened up the wall and it is nailed into split wood. The bottom of the split is secure, the top wiggles a bit.

I know the nails are contributing to the wobbles too. And, they are nailed into the split. Split is coming from the left hand nail.

How to fix this? Ideas I have are 1. Replace nails with screws. Screw in two small blocks of wood over the split on either side of arm to reinforce wood. 2. Attach a second piece over the pipe to secure it better, also combined with reinforcing the split somehow?

I dont want to open the wall up more and replace the wood entirely unless I have too. It's not a terrible wobble and the bathroom isn't too precious.

T i A!!!!

 

[Jeff H Young]

one thing I often do is add a copper 2 hole strap below with screws or even 2 straps

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Concord102]

Thank you, I will look into this!

 

[Reach4]

You can drill the holes bigger, and use moly anchors or toggle bolts. This presumes you can displace the drop ear elbow sideways temporarily after the nails are out.

Alternatively, that auxiliary strap could be secured with anchors instead of screws.