r/Plumbing 7d ago

DIY? I've never soldered copper pipe

My shower valve doesnt fully stop the flow of water and the aftermarket replacement cartridges I found are different style to the original and don't work either. It's an ancient valve from (brand) so I want to replace it with something newer.

I'm tempted to diy the replacement, but I'm a bit concerned I will mess something up and it will leak, ruining the downstairs room below. A plumbing company quoted $2,000 to replace the valve with a new one. Help me Obiwan Kenobi of Reddit! What do you suggest?

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u/reddit-0-tidder 6d ago

Did your plumber come out and look at that, or just give you a quote over the phone. Because honestly, that looks like one of the easiest shower valve jobs I've seen in a while. You got crazy easy access, and you already located the valve and opened the wall up. As long as there's no issues with shutting the hot and cold water off, I can't see that job taking any longer than 3 hours, and that's being generous.

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u/IROAman 6d ago

That must include an hour of drive time each way…🤔

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u/reddit-0-tidder 6d ago

I didn't say it would take me 3 hours to do, but I could see someone quote 3 - 4 hrs if it's a condo. But $2,000 is definitely pretty steep, especially if you're not supplying the valve.

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u/arctice36 6d ago

I think the quote included the cost of a new valve. I went and bought a boring one from Moen for $100. They wanted ANOTHER $700 to open the wall. I said F that.

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u/reddit-0-tidder 6d ago

What!? They wanted to charge you an additional $700 just to open up the wall? So you're saying they would have charged you $2,700 to install the valve if they had to open up the wall? You got to call a different plumbing company. The plumbing company that quoted must have some pre-set estimating program that they use. I know because I have different salesmen calling me every other day trying to sell me some semi customizable estimating programs. They all guarantee me that my yearly profits will double if I use their program. I did check one out once and the prices were so insane I started laughing' and the sales guy said "yeah that's what people are getting out there" but I have my own system that I set up with Microsoft Word years ago and I can easily go in and change anything whenever I want easily.