New Shower Valve

The valve in our shower needed to be replaced. The adjustment for the water temperature was very stiff. While showering the water would be too hot, then with any adjustment it would be too cold. It was difficult to get it just right. Sutherlands was having a big sale. On February 29th, they were doing 29% off most everything in the store. I figured it was a good time to buy a new shower valve. Since it was 29% off, I almost bought a new drill as well, but resisted the temptation.

We took everything apart to see if we could figure out how to change it. I told Jennifer that we could take everything apart and mess it all up about 30 times for the price of hiring a plumber to do it once. Luckily we just messed it up once and had to redo it.

I used a reciprocating saw to cut the pipes going to the valve. Got all the old pipes out of the way and new copper fittings screwed in place.

Cut the copper pipes. Clean the copper pipes. Flux the copper pipes. Solder the copper pipes.

We did as much soldering outside as we could, so as to reduce the chance of burning down our house. It is also much easier to solder standing up, rather than kneeling in the back of the hallway closet.

After it was all put back together, Jennifer did the final step. She handled caulking around all the new fixtures.

It is very nice to be able to adjust the water temperature in the shower. It was also fun to learn how to solder copper pipes. One more project down and on to the next one.