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Rafi89 t1_ja9cnhh wrote

You've gotten good input but I will ask, do you have access to the back side of the shower wall and do you plan on living there for a while? I ask because, and please don't take this the wrong way, that looks pretty old and busted and it would be a shame if you invest time and money into a temporary fix of something you want to use for any length of time. Based on the tilework and state of the faucet it looks like it's been DIY-ed at least once already so you may want to contemplate more of a replacement and tile refresh than a patch job.

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knewtoff OP t1_ja9jthb wrote

Oh you’re fine! I bought the house two years ago (my first one). Built in the 50s and the previous homeowner of 30+ years did lots of DIY stuff. I do have access to the back, on the other side is the kitchen and specifically the gas stove. What more would need to be done from that end versus replacing the cartridges/valves from the front?

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Rafi89 t1_jaatwjv wrote

Well, if you can get into the wall from the far side you can replace and replumb the faucet valve without demoing the tile wall and make sure that the valve is properly secured. Also, depending on if you have an accessible crawlspace and how ambitious you are you could address any water pressure issues or realize any dreams you have for an elaborate multi head shower setup by running additional lines or larger lines.

Also with the faucet and tub spout pulled you can use a grout knife to cut out all that shitty grout and sealant and regrout the wall. I'd strongly recommend using a knife and not an oscillating multi-tool with a diamond grit head unless your hands are way steadier than mine, heh. But a multi-tool would be great for cutting in from the back side. I'd also strongly recommend renting or buying a PEX-A expansion tool and using PEX-A for any plumbing as it's just an amazing system and running PEX-A into the crawlspace to sharkbite connectors to the copper lines unless you want to sweat PEX-A adapters to the copper. This allows access to the sharkbites in the future.

I know this is a lot all at once but the work is not terribly complicated, personally I think the hardest bit would be blending the drywall patch over the far side which may be harder or easier depending on how the wall is.

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Western_Detective_84 t1_jab2jo5 wrote

I was thinking something similar to Rafi89's reply just a bit ago:
If you can get to the plumbing from the other side of the wall, it could be what you need to do. Go to Youtube and look up Vancouver Carpenter on how to cut, and then patch a hole in drywall. He's got lots of great drywall vids. Once you've learned a little about how to do it RIGHT, it isn't so hard. But it's easy to do bad drywall jobs. I was doing bad ones for years until I found his vids.

Maybe you DON'T have to do this, and you can find cartridges that will replace what you've got. If you don't see the right thing at Home Depot or Lowes, find a plumbing supply, and pay a little premium for the free advice they've given to help you find - or not find a replacement.

However, I also do NOT like the looks of that grout. I suspect if you took some of that tile off you'd find black mold from moisture underneath. If you started taking tile off, you'd quite possibly end up putting up complete new concrete board to replace the sheetrock and doing new tiling. I wish you luck, and hope that regrouting does what you need!

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Rafi89 t1_jabjm79 wrote

Yeah, heh, I don't want to be 'dude, you should retile that wall and probably the whole bathroom' but looking at that tile wall... the combination of cracked grout and smeared silicone... ick. But I have a fair amount of experience with tile and don't want to assume, heh. The wonderful thing with tile is it really isn't very expensive, it's just work.

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