Tubs and Showers
While you are taking that invigorating morning shower or long evening soak in the tub, take a look around: Is the shower head leaking, is the grout around your tub worn out, does the water drain too slowly? These are all signs of more serious problems to come. Prevent the problem from growing worse by calling Atlanta Plumbing Plus at 770-447-0374.
Then, once the repairs have been made, read the rest of this page to learn more about:
But first, check our Glossary of important plumbing terms; and, remember Safety is Your Responsibility*. Be careful as you work around your home and if you don’t think you can perform any of your plumbing tasks safely, call Atlanta Plumbing Plus to do it for you.
Finding and Repairing Leaks
Sometimes leaks in the shower or tub are easy to spot, especially if the leak is from a dripping faucet. Unfortunately, sometimes the first sign of a leak may be a damp or wet spot on the ceiling of the room below your bathroom. Diagnosing the source of this type of leak can be almost impossible if you are not a trained professional as there are so many possible sources for the water. The leak can come from the shower drain, the shower valve inside the wall, the waste and overflow for the tub, or any one of a dozen other sources such as cracks in the fiberglass or gaps in the grout between tiles or sections of marble. It can even come from something as simple as water being splashed outside the shower or tub.
Luckily our trained and experienced licensed plumbers can usually diagnose the source of the leak quickly and repair most leaks the same day. If the leak is coming from the shower surround, however, the problem may take a little longer for us to fix or may require replacement of the entire shower surround; and, the damage to the wooden structure behind the tile could be serious. That is why you should check your tub and/or shower surround frequently and call us as soon as you suspect you may have a leak in this area.
Selecting Shower Fixtures
Most people refer to the fixture in their shower as a faucet, but to a plumber this important fixture comes in two parts: The “valve” – the part inside the wall that controls the flow and mix of hot and cold water; and the “trim” – the handle(s) and shower head(s) that are visible to you when you are inside the shower.
There are two basic types of shower valves:
- A regular shower valve mixes hot and cold water based on how the handle is turned. It is not self-adjusting and cannot control or limit the amount of hot & cold water going through it. If the temperature in the shower is correct and then water is run somewhere else in the house, the valve cannot adjust for this which results in a surge of hot or cold water. Regular shower valves are usually found in older showers.
- A pressure balancing shower valve has an internal mechanism that senses fluctuations in hot or cold water pressure. It compensates for these fluctuations so that, if there is a sudden drop in hot water for instance, the valve will automatically lower the cold at the same rate, thus keeping the water temperature constant and comfortable without any action on the part of the user. The result is that the person using the shower will only feel a very minor change in temperature if someone else in the home flushes a toilet or runs a dishwasher or washing machine.
The shower faucet or “trim” comes in many varieties of color, shape and finish from the simple single handled lever with a basic shower head to complex shower systems with rain heads, body sprays, and adjustable wands.
If you buy a good quality product, the trim should last a long time regardless of which style or finish you choose. To make the sprays and wands on a modern shower system work though, you have to be careful which valve you choose. And, you can’t just connect that valve to your existing plumbing and expect it to work. You need to make sure you have the right size water heater and large enough water lines to the shower to deliver enough hot water so that you can enjoy the experience these systems are designed to provide. So, if you want to upgrade the plumbing in your home to include a shower system with multiple heads and sprays, be sure to call Atlanta Plumbing Plus first. We can help you choose the right shower system for your home and ensure that it works as it was intended to work.
Of course, if you are looking for a more cost-effective way to upgrade your shower and save water and energy you can just replace your current shower head with a new water-saving device. With the new shower head designs you can save up to 7.5 gallons of water per minute and you will still experience the same water pressure as with your old shower head, possibly even better.
Maintaining Shower Fixtures
Once you have your beautiful new shower system, you will need to maintain it. You can clean the trim after each use by wiping it with a soft cloth; but, to clean mineral deposits from your shower head, unscrew it and soak it in vinegar overnight. Then remove the mineral deposits with a damp cloth or use an old toothbrush to reach into crevices. If you cannot unscrew the shower head, you can put the vinegar in a plastic bag and place the bag over the shower head. Hold the bag in place with a twist tie and leave it overnight. In the morning, remove the bag and remove the mineral deposits.
Tub and Shower Enclosures
Selecting and Installing Tub and Shower Enclosures
Tub and shower surrounds can be made of tile, acrylic, marble or even granite. The material you select will depend on your budget and taste. Regardless of which material you choose, however, you should take the following steps during installation to avoid water damage to your home:
- Make sure that your installer puts the correct backing on your tub and shower walls before the new surround is installed. Regular sheet rock will not do. It should be DenShield or Durock.
- If you choose tile, marble, granite or any other material that has joints in it, be sure to have a licensed plumber install a “shower pan” or “shower liner” before you install the floor tiles. Then, if the grout or other sealant fails, the leaking water will be captured in the pan instead of leaking through to the ceiling of the room below.
Note: This pan or liner should be installed and tested for 24 hours before your tile is installed because if the pan or liner leaks, the tile has to be removed before it can be repaired, which can be expensive and time consuming, so make sure the work is done correctly the first time.
Also, if you have Atlanta Plumbing Plus install the shower pan for you, they can give you a sloping/curbless shower entry for easy access wheelchair access to the shower for those who plan to “age-in-place.”
Maintaining Tub and Shower Enclosures
Once it is installed correctly, maintentance of your new tub/shower enclosure is fairly simple:
- Clean the enclosure after every use with a mild, non-abrasive cleaning product.
- Inspect your tub and shower surround frequently, looking for loose tiles or missing grout between tiles that would allow water to leak behind the tub or shower. Re-grout your tile regularly, as needed.
- Press on the walls of fiberglass surrounds where they come in contact with the bathtub or shower base.
- If there are gaps between the shower surround and the tub or shower base, re-caulk the joints.
- If the walls behind the fiberglass feel soft, or “give” when pushed, water may have leaked behind the walls and damaged the wood underneath. If that has happened, the shower surround will have to be removed so that the wood can be replaced. This type of job is usually too big for most homeowners, so call Atlanta Plumbing Plus and let one of our licensed plumbers help you with this work.
Like shower surrounds, bath tubs come in all shapes and sizes and are made of all manner of materials. We can help you select the right tub for your home and we can install it correctly, ensuring it is fully supported, set evenly, and properly hooked to the drain and water lines. Here are the basic types of bathtubs you can consider:
- Regular tubs and Roman tubs have fairly standard features: The tub, the drain, the plug or stopper, the waste and overflow pipe, and the faucet. Choosing the shape, size, and color is just a matter of taste.
- Whirlpool and spa tubs can have all sorts of wonderful features such as in-line heaters to maintain the water temperature while you bathe, champagne bubbles or whirlpool jets, and changing lights for Chromatherapy. They can be soothing and relaxing; but, they come with their own set of maintenance concerns.
- The motor for your pump may stop working and need to be replaced
- The jets or the air switch may break
- Bacteria may form in the lines of the whirlpool system.
Walk-in or ADA Compliant bathtubs such as the American Standard SafetyTub shown here. These types of tubs allows the elderly or infirm to walk in to the tub, sit in an upright position to bathe, and then very quickly drain the tub to exit before they can get cold.
Maintaining Your Tub
All tubs need to be cleaned regularly with a non-abrasive cleaner. Any aggressive cleaner with abrasives in it will easily scratch and damage the finish and should be avoided.
Jacuzzi and Whirlpool tubs have additional maintenance issues:
- If you have problems with the pump, motor, or air switch, Atlanta Plumbing Plus can diagnose the problem and make the repair for you quickly
- If the jets themselves break, new jets must be ordered from the manufacturer
- If bacteria forms in the supply lines to the jets, you can clean the tub yourself by filling it with hot water, adding 1-2 cups of dishwasher detergent and let the whirlpool run for 15-20 minutes. Then, drain the system and repeat the process with hot water only to flush the system out.
Note: You can tell if there is bacteria in your whirlpool or jacuzzi system if you see any discoloration of the water or if a gel-type material comes out of the jets when the tub is used. The bacterial growth may be caused by residue from oils and/or oily soaps used in the tub. For this reason, all manufacturers whirlpool type tubs discourage the use of oils and soaps in whirlpool and spa tubs.
Bacteria may also be forming because the tub is an older model that does not have the newer self-draining type of system. Whether you have an older model, or one of the newer spa tubs with the self-draining design, it is a good idea to flush the whirlpool system periodically
We get a lot of requests for help with steam showers; apparently, because not many plumbing companies in our area really know how to work on them well. At Atlanta Plumbing Plus our experienced plumbers know how to install, maintain, and repair your steam shower. We also have strong relationships with the manufacturers and can track down those hard to find replacement parts.
If you find it is taking longer to get steam to your shower or that the steam has a bad smell, the steam generator may very well be in need of a professional de-scaling. Steam shower manufacturers have chemicals they recommend for this, but sometimes they want a professional plumber to do the work in order to maintain the warranty, and sometimes they want a professional plumber to take the steam equipment out and ship it back to the manufacturer’s facility so that the manufacturer can de-scale it and perform other maintenance tasks at the same time. Atlanta Plumbing Plus can help you in either case.
You can do your part to maintain a healthy steam shower environment and keep your steam shower working well too, just by cleaning the steam shower nozzle once a month. This will ensure that lime and other organic substances don’t build up in the nozzle. Start by remove the nozzle and soaking it in vinegar for a couple of hours. Then spread a standard soft cleaner with no abrasives in it on the nozzle surface. Wait at least 10 minutes and then scrub the nozzle with a soft but strong brush to brush away any organic build up. Rinse all of the cleaning solution off the nozzle and then re-install it. Now relax in your clean and healthy steam shower. You earned it!
