Replacing bathroom shower faucet

My 16 year old guest bathroom has a loose bathroom shower faucet. I was about to turn off the water and remove the center screw to tighten up the handle and the wife stopped me. She is concerned that an attempt would prevent us from turning the water back on -- I am not .handy so the lack of faith is justified I suppose. With that said, I am looking into replacement now and not sure how comfortable I am with the job. I am looking for a shower head/handle/faucet combo. I am not sure the current manufacturer nor can I see behind the tile. If I am replacing the hardware, do I need to replace the valve? If this, to remove/replace tile to replace valve is well out of my comfort zone.

 

Really depends on what you have underneath the visible area. Can you send us a picture of what you have already? http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html Understand that your picture will need to be resized to web quality prior to being able to upload.

At the time of your install 16 years ago, many manufacturers were using Universal Rough Ins that could be used with multiple trim kits.

 

I'll try and take a photo tomorrow. I started to remove the screws on the plate but it hit the knob. I think I need to kill the water to remove the knob first to have room to remove the screws to get the plate off. I doubt I can even tighten the knob as my wife told me that my daughter was yanking on it and she heard a 'crack' which explains all of the player in the knob now. There's no cut off in that room so I will need to kill the water to the house. Not a big deal just need to go look for it

 

No, you do not need to turn the water off to tighten or remove the handle. The screw in the handle is only there to hold the knob in place. After that screw is removed/loosened the knob will pull off. After the handle is off you should have easy access to the escutcheon screws.

 

"I am not handy so the lack of faith is justified "

A person should know their limitations. I've never been very good with filling out tax forms, so I call an accountant. It avoids the headache and saves a lot of time.

 

The handle was cracked so it was spinning the steam as I loosened the screw. I finally removed the screw (really tight) and then used players on the bare steam. It is a Moen knob so I just replaced it from HD.



Yea. I am trying to improve but I am very OCD so that's not a good combo.

 

Replaced with replacement. No problem. I got all confused due to the broken piece that would engage the faucet while removing the handle. Thanks everyone.