Basic (hopefully!) shower plumbing question

[ASmith4]

Hi all,

I am doing the plumbing/tiling for a shower installation in my flat (my brother in law is a qualified electrician and is doing the elctrics), and I have what I hope will be a simple query.

I am taking a feed from the cold water tap in the bath. I have chased out the wall and intend running the feed behind the tiles straight up to the shower inlet. In order to easily get around the bath into the chase I want to run a flexible hose from the bath cold water feed. (I will use a 't junction' (incorrect name I think, but never mind) from the cold water feed, put in a full bore isolation valve, and am happy I wil have the right size connectors between the various components).

I have a piece of 15mm copper pipe, but believe it will be simpler if I can buy a flexible hose 150cm, which is the length I need to go all the way from the cold water feed to the shower inlet (the alternative is 300mm flexible hose to the copper pipe from the cold water feed / from the pipe to the shower inlet). I know the grout from the tiles will corrode the copper if I don't wrap it in something, and think it more likely that the joints will leak rather than the actual pipe, and need flexible hose at the shower end (the flat is in a block which, it turned out, is made of very very tough concrete, so it wasn't easy chasing out (so need the flexible hose to meet the shower inlet) - hence me preferring the flexible hose if possible...

The only flexible hose I have found is this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/wras-hose-15mm-x-1-2in-x-1500mm-x-10mm/41845

I could use this, but am concerned that the bore of the pipe is only 10mm. I get that it is possibly a difficult question to answer, but would the smaller diameter of this pipe cause a problem, or would it most likely be ok? Is flexible hose ok for a shower full stop? Ideally I would like 1500mm 1/2in 1/2in 15mm flexible hose but can't find it anywhere, does flexible hose in this dimension exist? Is there anything else anybody can see I am doing wrong other than my hose query?


Apologies for the long post - have tried to get all the necessary detail in there.


Thanks so much for your help appreciate it!

All the best, Ron

 

[Gasguru]

You're proposing to bury a hose behind the tiles...that's not plumbing, it's bodging of the highest order. Get a plumber in and do it properly in copper.

Hope your cold tap is off the mains or sufficient pressure for an electric shower.

 

[HERTS P&D]

 

[ASmith4]

Anyone with anything constructive to add?

I got a plumber, paid him a deposit, and he disappeared with my money! Hence having a go myself......

 

[Diyisfun]

Anyone with anything constructive to add?

I got a plumber, paid him a deposit, and he disappeared with my money! Hence having a go myself......

Hard luck, hope you have reported him to trading standards.

 

[Gasguru]

Anyone with anything constructive to add?

I got a plumber, paid him a deposit, and he disappeared with my money! Hence having a go myself......

Well grow some and get your money back Did you get a written contract, did you pay him with cash?

 

[longdogs]

Much better to use copper pipe behind tiles with as few fittings as possible. You can still use the flexi hose to connect at the bottom of the copper if you wish. I am assuming that you have are using mains pressurer so the bore shouldn't be a problem.

Personally, I would prefer to use copper all the way from the tee to the inlet.

 

[longdogs]

PS. Hire or borrow a good SDS drill with a chisel bit or chasing bit. It will take about ten minutes to chase out.

 

[ASmith4]

Hi Squeaky thanks for the replies.

I have chased it out already - and it took considerably longer than 10 minutes! Another chase I did at the same time in my kitchen (with the good quality chasing machine I hired for the job) took about 5 minutes, but I am in a block with crazily toughened concrete on the wall on which the shower is going.

I suppose I could/should have taken the bath out to chase right down to the cold water feed (which is the only thing that would have allowed me to use copper pipe all the way), but thought that seeing as there is flexible hose feeding the cold water tap in the bath anyway it should be ok...

I will use the copper pipe behind the tiles, and am going on the principle that although this whole approach isn't ideal it will be ok, ... I am concerned about the grout corroding the copper, but will look into how to protect it.

Finally the chase is a couple of inches or so deep, and as I am not soldering coper pipe, I haven't seen two elbows with a tight enough diameter for me to be able to get the feed parrallel with the wall, which is what the shower water inlet demands....

Anyway, thanks again for the reply. I am a carer and need the shower as heating the water for the bath is too expensive at the moment unfortunately, so paying someone to do it a far better job just isn't quite a luxury I can afford at the moment. IT's all good though!

If it all fails I will come back for the laugh!