Bathroom. Replacing fixed shower head with hand held shower unit.

I

IsleOfMan

Registered User
Messages
925
Our shower has a fixed head unit. We would like to replace this unit with one of the hand held hose type shower units.

Is it possible to simply take off the fixed head and purchase a hand held unit that will screw in to the old fixed head?

or

If I have to replace the old unit with new piping. Is it possible for a tiler to cut away a run of the old tiles in the shower, have plumber install new piping/shower and then put new tiles in the gap? I understand that we won't be able to match the new tiles with the old tiles but we could put in some feature tiles.

Our whole bathroom floor to ceiling is tiled. It seems an awful waste to retile the whole bathroom just because we are replacing some piping in one area.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks
 
Could you post a photo of the current shower head? At a guess I'd say the threads may be a different size to your typical shower hose, but that could probably be solved with a converter. It will also look a little odd coming out of the wall at that height, but if you're staying there long-term that may not matter to you.

Regarding the tiling, unfortunately the answer is 'it depends'. I've had individual tiles removed and replaced and it worked perfectly, you wouldn't know. However if it's a stud wall you can find that the plaster board will be obliterated when you remove the tiles leaving you nothing to fit tiles.
 
A picture would help, as Zenith63 said. Is it a fixed head coming out of the wall at above head height, or a rigid pipe coming out of a mixer at hand height, going up to a curve with a head (so you would be replacing the fitting at hand height.)

If the latter, it should be simply a case of unscrewing one and screwing on a flexible pipe with shower head (and fitting on the wall to hold the showerhead. These are readily available. You might need an adaptor, but again, readily available

Even a link to what yours looks like, from a website, would be handy. Easier to find than taking and uploading a picture.
 
I haven't seen a handheld shower head that would look well mounted at the height of a fixed wall unit. Most of the fixed units will have a half inch thread fitting for the head, and depending how long it's in place, this may well be fused / very difficult to disassemble.

Is it possible access the pipework from the room behind the shower? Might be possible to make the necessary changes without disrupting the tiles too much.

Otherwise cutting the strip out will work, but will be a messy job that will require a lot of attention to detail to get a decent finish. Chipping of the tiles that are to remain is likely. An alternative would be to line the shower enclosure with PVC paneling after making the changes, this has improved over the last few years so doesn't looks so cheap as it did at first.
 

Bushboard Home

Wilsonart
www.bushboard.co.uk

Leo, is this the type of thing that you had in mind? Could this be cut to size and put inside the shower cubicle over the existing tiles also covering the gap that would be left by the tiles taken out?
 
Yes, that's the stuff. Easily cut to exact dimensions.
 
What is the name of the adaptor that I need to put in a fixed head shower unit to enable me to attach a hand held flexible shower?



This is called a mount in this video but not sure if that is what it is called here.
 
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