Bathroom reno in a condo
My bathroom was renovated – the room was gutted and re-plumbed using pex by a licensed plumber, while the remaining work was done by a contractor.
The issues are:
1.Shower head leaks when tub is filling.
2.When showering, great effort is needed to keep the diverter high enough to stop the tub filler, otherwise it leaks and shower is weak.
3.Tub spout is loose on the wall.
The facts are:
1.Moen shower head and tub spout with pull up diverter
2.The line that feeds the tub spout is pex not copper. It is housed in a 2 inch wall.
3.A piece of plywood was installed on the interior wall in order to staple the pex line, close to the 90 degree fitting that then connects to the spout.
4.Tub spout located on 5’ wall so 2 people could share a bath without the spout in one person’s back
Contractor blamed it on the position of tub spout. He quoted Moen as saying tub spout cannot be more than 14” from shower. His solution was to install a diverter on the shower. Though this is effective to prevent the shower from leaking when filling the tub, it does not solve the tub spout diverter problem. Three months later, the issues are more pronounced, and our contractor offered to use more silicone.

Reading various forums on the internet suggest the issue is related to using pex and not copper for the tub filler. In previous home renovations, copper had been used and the unique position of the tub spout was never an issue. Would you please offer your opinions and solutions to remedy our issues. Thanks in advance.

the 90 deg fitting needs to be fastened to the plywood. the fitting is called a drop eared 90..
the pipe going to the spout can not be pex.. as stated elsewhere it MUST be copper.
i don't think the more than 14 inches has anything to do with it

The PEX to the spout would be an issue by itself, but the added distance to put the spout that far from the control valve, assuming it is not also in the 5' wall, just makes it worse, and COULD even create the issue with a copper line.

I still can't believe people don't use drop ear fittings. Especially since the installer wrongly used pex from valve to tub spout, there was no way it wasn't going to wiggle. Now he wants to try to "glue" it to the wall with silicone?! A material designed to flex without cracking?! That drop ear is $3 more at my home depot. He thinks the call backs to fix the problems will cost him less than 3 dollars?!