I Broke The Shower

this is what I broke.

While I was turning off the water the other night, I broke the shower, lets face it you purchase an RV the age of ours and its bound to happen, right?  I guess I don't know my own strength....or it was old and brittle, lets go with that....because I am not strong.


We had never thought to even LOOK for an access panel to fix anything like this, so off we go to look on the internet to see just how to fix this problem...and found that we were going to have to cut through the fiberglass tub surround, or we could just take it all apart....which would be about a 2 day job.  (Lets not remind ourselves that it turned into a 2 day job anyway.)

But I have jumped ahead in the story, so let me back up a bit.  After trying to look on the internet and seeing that others with this problem and how they fixed it, I thought lets just see what we have here, so the misadventure begins!

First, We decide to take the faucet apart, so we can see whats going on.  I got the handles off, and saw the part that had broken, ah ha we said, its just the stem thingie bobber, easy fix, just go to the trusty RV place down the street, they will have it, we will just replace both of them since we have the knobs off....and then the bad news, they dont make the replacements anymore, we are going to have to replace the faucet...

Now between the time I got the handles off and Terry had to go to the RV Place, my son had to go to work, and I had the fabulous idea that the shower caddy in the corner might hide a way to get to the plumbing behind the wall, only to find: 

                           Yep, thats about right~!


 The trusty RV place down the street has panels so that if we have to cut the wall to cover.  Yes, but I really don't want to cut a hole in the wall.  While Terry is checking on all that, he called me to say the stems were no longer replaceable, (I guess we need to get another RV that we can salvage parts from, NOT) so I decide to go take the rest of the faucet apart to see what it looks like back there.  Did you know that for an RV shower, its pretty much the same as a regular fixture, except for the shower adapter thingie that makes it where you can shower...cuz all that plumbing is not behind the wall, its like when someone invented the "turn your bathtub into a shower" adapters.  You know the ones that look sorta like this: 
                                            

Our shower faucet looked like this one though, with the hose screwing on the bottom:

                       LOL, I love the internet, things I dont have pictures of I can find!!

Back to the story now.  

I really really really do not want to cut a hole in the shower stall, because I dont want to tear everything apart, so I get the brilliant idea that we might be able to gain access through the sink cabinet..so off I go with my trusty screwdriver to see if there is a way to take the thin sheet of veneer out and get to the plumbing....that was fun, because in order to be able to see what was there, I had to take off the door of the cabinet.  Ah ha I said again, there is a hole that is an ok size at the bottom of the cabinet, we might just be in luck...oh there is a pipe there cant get my arm through...darn it!!!

But I can see how to take apart the city water inlet....maybe.........no, lets just go for cutting a hole in the wall....mind you, I didnt want to make a mess and tear everything apart, but I am doing a good job at just that, I quit, I am done, this can wait til tomorrow.....end of day one!


Day 2!

Today we are going to get this done, Terry is going to go get the parts, and he is going to finish this job, he is going to be my hero, (well he always is!).  Tonight we will have water, because with the shower broken, we have been without.  (Did you know it takes 3 16 oz bottles of water for one pot of coffee?)  

Terry ran to the trusty RV store and got the faucet, the panel and then to Ace Hardware to get stainless screws to attach new access panel!

While he was gone I cleaned up my mess, reattached the cabinet door, and was really done, I am just ready to have water again.

Here are a few pics from the job he did!

So now we have repaired the problem, we have a new fixture and a new access panel!

The fun never ends.  Word to the wise, newer RVs now have a way to replace these fixtures, if you dont have a panel, dont be like me and think you can do it without having to cut the wall...it wont work, not only is the space in the RV at a premium, so is the space between the walls!~