Shower Rough-In

I got out today and picked up the plumbing fittings I had ordered, which let me get the hot water heater connected up.  If you look close at the following picture, you can see the cold water line continues on and stops at a ball valve.  This is going to be the cold water supply line into the second hot water heater, that will run our radiant heating system.  You can also see that I wedge in some rockwool insulation between the exhaust pipe and the cold/hot water lines (better safe than sorry!)

Hot water heater connected!
Hot water heater connected!

Also included with that batch of fittings, was the stuff I needed to rough-in the shower for the master bath, here are the steps I took to get it done:

Step 1: Fasten your shower valve to some 2×4″ blocking in the wall, at a comfortable height.  The instructions that come with the valve will tell you how far to set it back, to ensure that everything will be flush with the finished wall.  We used a Delta multi-choice/shower only valve.

Step 2: Apply pipe dope to the male threads on the valve.  On this valve, because it’s a shower only, there are only three connections (hot & cold supply lines, and the showerhead).  If you had a bathtub faucet there would be a fourth connection on the bottom.

Shower rough-in 1/5
Shower rough-in 1/5

Step 3: Tighten the 1/2″ PEX to threaded fittings onto the connections that you just applied the pipe dope onto.

Shower rough-in 2/5
Shower rough-in 2/5

Step 4: Stub out a couple sections of PEX with 90 degree fittings.  Convention with water is always, cold on the right, hot on the left.

Shower rough-in 3/5
Shower rough-in 3/5

Step 5: Connect cold and hot water supply lines to the 90 degree fittings, and another line up for the shower head.

Shower rough-in 4/5
Shower rough-in 4/5
Shower rough-in 5/5
Shower rough-in 5/5

From here I have to pressure test the system to make sure there are no leaks,  and finally attach one last fitting that the showerhead will screw into, and we’ll be ready to close in the walls completely!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, tomorrow will try to fire up the hot water heater and see what happens!

One thought on “Shower Rough-In

  1. How exciting to have the hot water connected! You will surely enjoy your first hot shower knowing you did this all yourself! So proud of you!!!

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