Hi folks,

I am trying to install a shower slide bar (for a shower hand piece)
My problem is that the slider bar needs to be mounted to the wall with two screw anchors.

I'm concerned that there is a copper pipe going from the temperature controller to the shower head.

I've been burned before with trying to mount anchors into walls. The ones I needed to go into must have been bearing walls... solid concrete.

I suspect that there is drywall behind the marble in this bathroom but I'm worried that I might end up punching a hole through the show head pipe.

Any suggestions?

Thanks guys,
Doug

 

Your shower head supply pipe usually goes straight up from the tub spout, through the control valve. If you stay off to one side and above the shower valve you likely have nothing to worry about. And keep in mind your fasteners don't need to be long in order to hold info an anchor. When you drill a hole, stop when you "feel" the bit go through the drywall.

 

If you use a drill often you'll recognize when to stop when the bit just goes thru the tile.
There are several things you can do to insure you don't go to deep.
You should try to drill thru the gap in the tile.
You need a spacer between the drill and the tile.
You can use a piece of wood or a dedicated plastic spacer.
You want to allow approx 3/4" to penetrate thru the tile into the wall.

 

Thanks for the comments, folks!

To the issue of offsetting the slide - I think it will look a bit goofy... my mother is 95.... not keen to see just how much OCD she might be dealing with

As far as drilling through tile - there really isn't any tile per see. The shower install is marble - no visible grout lines to deal with here.

I had hoped to glue it in place, but as I feared, a small surface area makes this impractical.

I just had a thought - I wonder if I take off the shower head arm, I could measure the distance from the NPT connector to the surface of the marble. Assuming the copper pipe to the head is 1/2", that might either increase my fear or reassure me

 

A one piece marble wall ?
I don't drill marble much but I use a diamond drill bit and plenty of water.
Marble is pretty thick. The plastic anchors aren't much longer.

If you have an escutcheon on the shower head pipe you could try sliding it away from the wall.
You could also take the faucet trim off and look in there too.

 

Maybe, I know mine from last remodel went out the sides then up.

Don't glue it, that wont work.

Piping it mounted inside the cavity or next to the studs not at the surface so you would have your marble thickness, drywall thickness, and an inch of clearance to the edge of the pipe, more than enough to install several plastic toggle anchors!

 

again, thanks guys.
the marble is only 1/4" or so thick... it's tile but installed without grout.
That being said, I think the idea of pushing the head fitting back and drilling in carefully might be the way to go.
I agree that gluing is unlikely to be a satisfactory solution!

There is also a bit of a cheat... a suction cup hand held head mount.... avoids damaging the underlying marble.
The contact area is ~2" od and can be mounted either with suction or, using a very strong adhesive disc.

I'll keep you posted!

Thanks again,
Doug