I have a 1950's home built on slab with galvanized plumbing that is mostly still functioning. I am midway into a bathroom remodel that includes replacing the tile in the tub/shower. The tile was damaged all the way thru the wall so this had to be done to make the house habitable.
I want to replace the tub/shower valve. The first plumber I tried told me that replacing the valve could not be done without risking a catastrophic failure. We then proceeded on the project trying to make it work with the existing valve which now looks like a mistake.
At some point in the past, a prior owner re-plumbed all the hot water lines with copper tubing from the water heater to all the hot water outlets/valves through the attic. The cold remains intact and running thru the original galvanized to all the outlets/valves.
We have now gotten to partial completion of the job with a lousy tile patch fix attempting to use the old valve and retro fit parts of the old trim. It doesn't look like it will work and I am considering going back to ground zero and starting over.
Is it advisable cut the galvanized cold water line and use a compression fitting that converts the water line to PEX in order to have good connections to install a new valve? Another thought is to run PEX thru the attic from the main line at the inlet to the water heater to this valve and leave all the other plumbing intact, cut the galvanized cold in and stub it off with a compression fitting. Is there another way get cold water to the valve without redoing the plumbing in the entire house?
This house is destine for a complete remodel but that cannot happen for 3-5 years so I am crossing my fingers and hope I can get that much time out of this fix.
I want to replace the tub/shower valve. The first plumber I tried told me that replacing the valve could not be done without risking a catastrophic failure. We then proceeded on the project trying to make it work with the existing valve which now looks like a mistake.
At some point in the past, a prior owner re-plumbed all the hot water lines with copper tubing from the water heater to all the hot water outlets/valves through the attic. The cold remains intact and running thru the original galvanized to all the outlets/valves.
We have now gotten to partial completion of the job with a lousy tile patch fix attempting to use the old valve and retro fit parts of the old trim. It doesn't look like it will work and I am considering going back to ground zero and starting over.
Is it advisable cut the galvanized cold water line and use a compression fitting that converts the water line to PEX in order to have good connections to install a new valve? Another thought is to run PEX thru the attic from the main line at the inlet to the water heater to this valve and leave all the other plumbing intact, cut the galvanized cold in and stub it off with a compression fitting. Is there another way get cold water to the valve without redoing the plumbing in the entire house?
This house is destine for a complete remodel but that cannot happen for 3-5 years so I am crossing my fingers and hope I can get that much time out of this fix.