I would like to add a shower to my existing bathtub. I live in an old house originally built around 1860. The bathtub is working fine. I bought a kit to add a shower to the bathtub. The kit came with a replacement faucet and a loop to hang a shower curtain from - like you would use to add a shower to a clawfoot tub. I do not have a clawfoot tub. My bathtub is on the floor and has two faucet handles and a spout. When I went to try to install the replacement faucet set I found out that it would not fit on my pipes. The faucet set is a 4" center set. I measured the distance between my pipes and it is six inches. I went to a local big box store and a salesperson suggested that if I could remove the spout perhaps I could install a new spout with a diverter that could then have a shower added.

Fortunately I was able to able to remove the spout. Unfortunately the replacement spout will not fit as the threads are not fine fine enough or the right size. Apparently the plumbing for my tub is fairly old and things have changed. All I want to be able to do is add a shower to my existing bathtub. It's starting to look like this might be difficult to do because of the age of my tub.

Are there 6" center set faucets available with a diverter to use for a shower? Do any of you have any suggestions on how I should proceed? If you have any questions - please let me know.

Thank you.

 

You are in for a treat.

Try some of the local plumbing supply houses like Ferguson (national chain).

There may be a way to modify the spout adapter to take a new spout but (BUT) this would require cutting the old out and brazing a new piece in. I would not solder this, it could be done, but braze it in place. Brazing is more permanent and a better fix in this case. You could just pull the old valve, good luck on this, and take the whole valve assembly to a local welding shop. They would have everything needed to make a new spout outlet.

I just haven't ran into a 6 inch tub fixture that I remember.

Good luck with your project...

 

are you planning to use the curtain to fully enclose the tub? or will the shower be spraying on the walls? If so and they weren't finished for a shower you will be inviting a disaster.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. This is what I understand you suggest that I try to do -

1.) Remove the entire current faucet assembly. [Turn off the water supply, Remove the knobs. Unscrew the spout. Remove the plastic cover. Remove the assembly from the hot and cold water pipes].

2.) Take the assembly with a spout that has a valve that can be used as either a shower of bath to a local welding store.

3.) Ask the local welding store to weld the "new" spout onto the old faucet assembly. This would mean that I could no longer screw or unscrew the spout from the assembly - correct??

4.) Take the modified assembly back home.

5.) Reattach the faucet assembly to the hot and cold pipes.

6.) Figure out a way to add the plastic housing back - or try to build/create something different.

7.) Turn the hot and cold water back on.

8.) Test both the bath/shower options.

As to a shower curtain - *If* I can get this to work in some way I was planning on building a wrap around container attached to the ceiling/wall and hang from that a shower curtain that would go completely around the tub. This would be my first step. Eventually I might want to build something a bit more fancy to enclose the tub. I wasn't planning of spraying the water all over the walls/floors - this would be a mess!

Any other advice/help is appreciated.

Thanks!

dgj

 

Close but number 3....

The old spout adapter with the fine threads will be removed and new short piece of copper put in it's place. I'd use just a short, straight run of copper without the male adapter attached (this fits the screw on type spouts...there are spouts that slide on straight pipe and use a set screw to lock it in place..both of these have the built in diverter you need)
The straight pipe can be trimmed to the proper length after you have the valve back in place. At this time you can choose to use either of the above described spouts.

Hope this helps...Good luck...