I'm desperate! My husband is not a repair-oriented person, but we are utterly broke. We have a plumber that we've used before who made a courtesy call the other day, and after finding what he thought the problem is, he left instructions and a couple of helpful items to save us some money (plumber's putty, teflon tape).
Here's the deal: We have a leak in the pipe behind our shower wall - the one located directly behind the water control lever. The plumber actually did attempt to fix it himself, but he ran out of time (it took him a long time to narrow things down). He basically said to turn off the water at the main outside, then remove the lever plate (which he'd already done), He showed me where the leak is, and it appears to be where the copper pipe and the pvc pipe connect.He said to unscrew the nut and use both the tape and the putty on the pipe, then re-tighten the nut as much as it would go (CAREfully!), and that should fix it.
My husband worked on it yesterday, and finally thought he had it fixed; however, I went in to check it a bit ago, and it has started dripping again. I texted him at work and he is NOT happy at all.
I suggested that he stop by Home Depot on his way home from work since they'll be open about then. I thought that someone there might be able to help. I've also been scouring the net for help, but I haven't found anything useful.
Part of the problem is that we have no way to shut off the water to the shower. We already shut off the water to both sink & toilet (this originally allo started with the discovery of wet carpet outside the bathroom, and we thought that shutting those off might resolve that issue. But the leak was pretty bad there for a couple of days, and there wasn't much we could do about it. I suggested that we turn off the water main and turn it on only when needed, but I am disabled & can't get to the main valve very well, so if he isn't home, I'm sorta out of luck; he declined that idea. So we've had water essentially pouring out of our pockets for several days. Currently, it's a fast drip.
I'm going to keep looking,and he'll work on it yet again when he gets home in about an hour - but we really, really could use some help. Thanks!!

it sounds like a compression fitting that just won't grab and seal any more.
a small tubing cutter and a couple of sharkbite couplings should do the trick. gotta cut the pipe above and below the bad fitting. use sharkbite couplings where you made the cuts with a short piece of tubing in between.
in fact, if you shut the water again, make a cut below the leaking joint (that should be the pressure side) then you can slide on a sharkbite ball valve, close it and turn the water back on. then you can play with the leaking fitting until you get it fixed or replaced.

I picture would help. Neither your description NOR the plumber's makes sense and if plumbers putty and PTFE tape is his solution for a leak, I am not even sure he is a plumber.

Correct, plumbers putty will serve no benefit in the situation you describe.

You need to take a picture of the fixture and the leaking connection so the pros here can properly advise you.

You mentioned the leaky connection is between copper and pvc. Are you sure it is PVC and not CPVC?

You also mentioned the plumber said to put tape and putty on the pipe. Did you husband put these on a "pipe"? Tape should be applied to a threaded joint, on the male end, some use pipe dope aka pipe sealant aka pipe joint compound, or both. Putty is not used in this situation at all.

Post pictures to be sure.



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