The master bath tub had a couple of leaky places. The plumbing under the tiled step was oozing water and the drain was leaking worse.
Drain leak
The faucet hookup was leaking at the brass elbow couplings. These were too close together to tighten properly as the elbows touched when they were being tightened. I wanted the connections to be stable but decided to change from brass to shark bites because they rotate easily and I could connect two elbows side by side. That meant taking the whole assembly apart and removing the brass elbows and connecting pipes.
Luckily the tub supply has shut off valves installed and shark bites that make it easy to move piping out of the way. There is a fancy water balancing valve installed for this faucet. It was required by the plumbing inspector although the whole house water is tempered so that it would not be hot enough to scald anyone. The water balancing valve prevents that by tempering the water if another faucet in the house pulls hot or cold away from the faucet. The valve is impressive although it is behind the access door and not in plain sight.
Tub faucet piping cover
The replacement shark bites were relatively easy to install and I used copper instead of Pex to stabilize the hot and cold “arms” that connect to the chrome stand pipes.
Chrome standing pipe connection
The chrome had been scratched badly when I got it and the scratched part is under the step now so it doesn’t show. I used drop eared Sharkbite elbows even though I didn’t end up fastening them down, they have little legs that help stabilize the connections.
Drop Ear Sharkbite Elbow
The rest of the supply piping went back into place relatively easily and I replaced the access door cover.
Tub faucet supply piping
The faucet is now installed so that it does not leak.
Reinstalled tub faucet
Notice the can of Waterlox on the mantle shelf–still need to apply that. Also I need to tackle the tub drain leak which may prove more difficult than the faucet due to accessibility.