Putting in a shower

ormus

its true that access is the biggest problem. using the correct tool/s is the way.
buying the tools is pretty cheap and far cheaper than a plumber day rate.
try the pound shop for basic plumbing tools for DIY.
ie

ormus

gives you some idea of how to use the tool.

EliteHeat

OP, the first thing you need to do is identify what kind of water system you have; vented low pressure via a hot water cylinder, direct mains via a combi, mains via an unvented hot water cylinder or mixed via cold mains and low pressure hot.

Find your stopcock and shut it. Verify that this has worked by opening your kitchen sink cold tap, the water should stop running very quickly if the stopcock is working properly. Leave the tap open.

Now open the hot tap, if the flow does not stop within a few seconds then you will need to drain your cold-water cistern. The best way to do this is to open the bath cold tap, this will save your cylinder full of hot water - allow 20-30 minutes for this. When the cold tap stops, open the kitchen hot tap – this will run for a few seconds – now open the bath hot tap and both basin taps to drain the residual water in the pipe work.

You can now safely disconnect the bath taps. The best tools to use are an adjustable tap wrench (see Ormus post) and a double-ended tap back nut spanner.

Make sure that the new taps are suitable for your supplies (high or low pressure) if you have mixed supplies then give up now as the shower will not work.

When you put the new taps on you might be lucky and find you do not need to alter the pipe work, If unlucky, you will need 15/22mm pipe slices and flexible tap connectors to reconnect. If you do need these, get the one with isolating valves fitted. If you are really unlucky you may find your pipe-work is imperial and you are now utterly stuffed. Make sure that new fibre / rubber washers are fitted and you do not cross the threads when tightening.

Open the stopcock and re-establish flow to all outlets, remove airlocks as necessary.

If you have a low-pressure system, do not expect too much in the way of performance.

Don’t underestimate the potential for what seems to be s simple job to turn into a complete nightmare. All plumbers will know just how difficult bath taps can sometimes be, so don’t think because someone else’s experience was OK that yours will be.

Personally, I would pay someone else to do it.

ormus

using flexible pipe connectors has made such jobs much simpler and easier.
and push fit connectors too.

pboae

It also depends how old your current bath and taps are. If they've been there forever, it can be a devil of a job to get the old taps off, especially if it's a cast iron bath.

Plus, old baths may not have standard hold centers, so modern shower mixers don't always fit.

EliteHeat

pboae wrote: »

It also depends how old your current bath and taps are. If they've been there forever, it can be a devil of a job to get the old taps off, especially if it's a cast iron bath.

Plus, old baths may not have standard hold centers, so modern shower mixers don't always fit.

I think you will find a 3/4" drill bit will quickly remove the most stubborn of taps. This is one of those must-complete situations - there is no going bvack once started.

jenniewb

Wow- thanks so much for all the advice on here! What a wealth of information!

I think on reading this, I will need to get a few quotes! I'll see how pricey it is before attempting myself- I do know some basics but think they are very basic! I do however like a challenge and can see myself reading up on this, fiddly is something I can get my head around, complicated would be too much for my brain I think! So I will read up as the majority seems to imply it can be done, but that it can also go wrong unless you are armed with the right information...seems some research is called for!

Thanks again everyone