A fun and busy day yesterday, as a friend helped me update the master shower. We’d taken the free-standing tub out two days ago and the first job today was to create additional support behind the shower handle and head by cutting pieces of 2×4 to screw in between the studs. He had to replace some of the existing supports as they’d managed to move forward with the former water damage, and stuck out beyond where the wall would go. That part of the wall bowed out a bit when the wall of tiles was there. I can see now exactly what caused my shower head leak. I formerly used a hand held shower head, and would at every shower take it down from the holder and put it back in. Over the years, since there was no support behind the shower head, the pipe moved and weakened, springing a leak. I love seeing the interior workings of things and learning how they work. It took awhile to measure and cut the support pieces to size and screw them down. Then he measured and cut the hole for the shower control handle and the shower head and put the concrete board up and caulked.  

Meanwhile, I was out in the yard cleaning up the ceramic tiles I’d removed when I took out the wall, removing the adhesive backing, readying them for wall application. It was hot but I was under shade and it was breezy. I put on my swimsuit since I knew I’d get soaked, and took the hose and scrubby thang and went to work! Half the tiles just needed some surface cleaning and the other half had adhesive or caulk to be removed. I left them soaking in water overnight to loosen the backing. We’ve got enough tiles to do the entire job. Yay for buying extra boxes when I bought tiles.

I learned my shower is a Delta 600 series, so on the way home we went to Ferguson Enterprises on Ellis Road and got the parts we’d need to replace the valve. I learned my main water turn off is right behind my water pump, it’s the red one.

The concrete board is up and the new shower valve installed. Now we just need to finish installing the shower handle, then mud and tile the wall. We’ll also build up a new shower ledge a little higher by adding a piece of marble to the existing (image here) threshold, and we’ll box it in with concreteboard and tile it.  I’m super excited!