shower handle/pipes not secured

[Lyn Ryan]

Home is 3 years new (built during the peak of insanity here with home building).

The shower handle fixture slides around the wall when I turn it on....I took it apart, you can see in the hole that the plastic pipes coming up from the floor in the wall are not secured to anything so they move freely when i touch them.

there is no other access to the pipes other than thru this hole behind the handle.

Other than it being annoying to have the handle slide around, do i need to worry that the pipes will not take this kind of movement well, and eventually break?
Thanks for any input.

 

[Speedbump]

I know all about the housing insanity. When it was alive and well here in Florida, there was one white anglo american to every 150 or so Mexican nationals doing all the work. Plumbing, drywall, stucco, framing, you name it. They work cheap, and they work fast. I think that covers their resume.

Too bad the house isn't under a year old, you might have some recourse.

bob...

 

[Lyn Ryan]

Thanks for commiserating and.......

Do I need to do something about it now, is it a serious situation to have this movement in the pipes when turning on the shower, or do pipes have the flexibility to be able to take that kind of motion without breaking?

Thanks,
Lyn

 

[travelover]

One option would be to shoot Great Stuff into the cavity. It expands like crazy and cures fairly rigid.

Great Stuff

 

[Lyn Ryan]

Sounds creative. I'm off to Lowe's !

 

[Speedbump]

Go easy with that stuff, it really expands. If you get it on your skin, it will wear off in a few years.

bob...

 

[Blue Jay]

I believe code states that an access panel needs to be in place. I would search REAL HARD on the wall behind the shower for one and fix it right, you stand a chance of bowing the wall with that foam plus if you need to get to it later it would be about 3 times the work of doing it right the first time even if you have to make an access panel!

 

[Lyn Ryan]

Wish I'd have read these last two posts, and.....the foam seemed to have worked wonderfully, as far as I can tell.
If it's supposed to be code, would that make my builder still responsible? There were inspectors who came during the crazy building time.
Thanks again for your responses. I really appreciate this site.

 

[Lyn Ryan]

I have another shower which has no access either.

 

[Redwood]

I would not use the expanding foam trick!
It will make future repairs and replacement a huge headache as well as possbly interact with the PEX tubing used on the piping...

I would open the wall through the sheet rock on the wall on the other side of the bathroom wall. Slip a piece of 2X4 or whatever fits behind the valve and secure the valve to that then secure the 2X4 to the studs to make it ridgid.