Plastic To Copper Connection For Shower and Bath

[DazJWood]

I am in the process of redoing my bathroom (in fact I have been for a long time now!) and I will shortly be installing my bath and shower cubicle.

The pipework to the facilities is in plastic. My bath is going to have a bath filler (Centrafill from Screwfix) with wall valves. The instructions are very limited and make no reference on how to install the wall valves. There is no mounting plate for them. What is the most ideal way to mount these in a partition wall. I presume I am going to have to connect the plastic to copper at some point. Is compression or push fit the most secure way of doing this? I was then thinking of adding some wood frame work and securing the pipes via clips to this and then attaching the valves. The back of the valves have no mounting points at all. Is this usual?

Equally I will be installing a Mira minilux mixer shower. This is not the standard bar mixer but a unique design so I can't use one of the mounting brackets available for bar showers. Has anyone any suggestions on the best way of mounting this in a partition wall also? It does state in the manual that it would need to be copper so once again I'd have to join plastic to copper.

Any advice would be gratefully received plus if anyone has any links to photos of a similar job that would be good too.

Thanks in advance,

Daz

 

[Axel]

In this instance, you can use plastic pipe like copper, except you can't use solder joints.

If no purpose designed mounting bracket is available, use wall plate elbows which are a 90 degree fitting with a half inch female thread on one end and a 15mm compression on the other, which you can connect straight to the plastic pipe.

Best to look at the instructions that come with the taps / valve. They might suggest a mounting method.

 

[seco services]

Equally I will be installing a Mira minilux mixer shower. This is not the standard bar mixer but a unique design so I can't use one of the mounting brackets available for bar showers. Has anyone any suggestions on the best way of mounting this in a partition wall

the minilux has its own bracket that comes with the shower.
just bring your hot/cold feeds through the stud wall hot top cold bottom
at the required vertical distances and then fit the bracket followed by the olives cut the pipes to required length then fit the inlet nuts.

 

[DazJWood]

In this instance, you can use plastic pipe like copper, except you can't use solder joints.

If no purpose designed mounting bracket is available, use wall plate elbows which are a 90 degree fitting with a half inch female thread on one end and a 15mm compression on the other, which you can connect straight to the plastic pipe.

Best to look at the instructions that come with the taps / valve. They might suggest a mounting method.

Thanks I'll have a look for these elbows. Can you recommend the best place to get them? Is my local plumbers merchant likely to have these?

I would look at the instructions for the taps but as I said in the original post, they're aren't any mention of valve installation.

the minilux has its own bracket that comes with the shower.
just bring your hot/cold feeds through the stud wall hot top cold bottom
at the required vertical distances and then fit the bracket followed by the olives cut the pipes to required length then fit the inlet nuts.

Thanks. I didn't know whether this plate was sufficient to secure the pipes within the wall or whether additional support was needed.

 

[seco services]

you don't need wall plate fittings on this shower.
just fit your pipework with the right centres for the shower and use pipe clips in the stud wall.

 

[DazJWood]

you don't need wall plate fittings on this shower.
just fit your pipework with the right centres for the shower and use pipe clips in the stud wall.

Would you convert the plastic to copper for the hot and cold outlets? (I've reread the manual and it doesn't say that it needs to be in copper as I originally thought. I made that bit up somehow!). How reliable are pushfit connections? They'll be in the stud wall and I'm not convinced about their durability. Would a length of copper bent for the 90 degree outlets connected by compression be a better choice?


Thanks,

Daz

 

[Axel]

Good quality push fit fittings and plastic pipe inside a wall is ok if done properly. In a hollow cavity wall plastic pipework can give some extra flexibility that can help with aligning the pipe centres correctly without too much stress on the pipework & fittings.

If you are not experienced with using push fit correctly, you might prefer to stick to copper & soldered joints up until the connection to valve.