Mine is not installed yet, but the plumber did the rough-in for the valve in the center and the supply pipe for the elbow to the side away from the door. So, our slide bar will go on the wall toward the inside corner - the spray won't be "angled toward the back wall" as you say - if anything, the opposite - toward the door. Not sure if this is right or wrong, or how I will like it once it is in, but that's what we've got! :-)

Hi Kimkitchy,
Thanks for your reply. Is this shower head that is on the slide bar the only shower head you have or is it in addition to a "traditional" one? If this is a second shower head where is the other one?

Anyone else? If you've got a secondary shower head on a slide bar, where is it located?

I really need some ideas on where to place it. Just seems to belong in the center of the wall.

My slide bar is in the center of the wall; the controls are positioned within easy reach of the outside, so they are to the right of the slide bar. If you have a deep shower, you don't want to have to get inside before you can turn the shower on.

Hi jrabbot, yes, the slide bar shower head is the only one in this shower. Guess that probably doesn't help you much, but suero seems to have the answer. :-)

Like suero, my slide bar is in the center of the wall and the controls shifted somewhat to the shower door side on the wall. The ell or water supply (whatever it is called where the hose exits the wall) is equidistant to the opposite side. So the valve is centered between the bar and the water supply, but the valve is not centered on the wall. The hose loops gracefully underneath the valve.

We're going to have a fixed shower head centered, with the diverter centered below it. The handheld shower & bar are going to be placed a few inches to the right side centered between the floor & ceiling. We looked a many inspiration photos for visuals & that was the design we preferred for us. Bottom line is it's your home and there's no real right or wrong way. Our contracter "suggested" we put it to the left side but since it's primarily for my use (and not DH's, he wants the fixed shower head) I preferred it went on the right, and that's where it's going. As for those who are "stuck" with how their plumber or contractor decided to do it for them and it's not what you wanted, I offer this: It's YOUR home, and YOUR money paying him to do the job therefore it's HIS responsibility to ensure he has the correct specifications so the job is done correctly. If he didn't take the time to make sure with you first, and the placement he chose to do is wrong, he needs to do it over again to YOUR specification and on his dime!

Thanks for the replies.
lukkiirish, I completely agree with you and that is my position with him. Thanks.

Our situation is a bit different in that we are having a stationary regular shower head on the __Opposite__ wall so that we can have 2 shower heads pointing at us from 2 directions - kind of mimicking those nice spa type showers (not sure of the correct term as we couldn't afford that so didn't look long at them)

Suero and astridh would you be able to post a photo of your set-up? I would really appreciate it!

astridh, I'm confused a little, I may not have the terms straight. you said the slide bar is centered between controls and water supply (elbow) and then said also that the the valve is centered between water supply and slide bar. What I would call the valve is the round plate with the lever to control the temp of water. Is that what you are calling the valve? I guess a picture is worth 1000 words.

Anyone else have photos of a slide bar (that is used as a secondary shower head on opposite wall) that you can show me? Photos much appreciated.

Thanks!

I have a shower-over-tub with a fixed showerhead and a handheld on a slidebar. They're on the same (short) wall. There wasn't room to put the slidebar in the center, but I wanted it as close to center as possible so I could aim the handheld at my lower back. I also wanted it mounted at a particular height. I explained all of this to the contractor.

Unfortunately, he didn't explain it to the plumber - he wasn't expecting the plumber to mount the slidebar; that's normally the job of the tile guy. So the plumber put it close to the corner, where there were grout joints that were easier to drill through. And he centered it perfectly between the two tile borders. It looks gorgeous, but it's completely not what I had spec'd.

They couldn't have fixed it without redoing the entire wall. I let them have that one - I was too busy fighting with them about the kitchen cabinets (another story).

Anyway, if you want it centered, get it centered. Having it at the side and angled at your lower back just isn't the same thing.

Thank you charlikin! That is exactly my point. Having it at the side and angled toward my lower back just isn't the same thing.

Anyone with photos?

Sorry I can't post a picture, but maybe this is more clear.
My BAR is in the middle of the wall.
The shower door is on the right as you look at the bar.
The valve is shifted about six inches to the right.
The ell is shifted six MORE inches to the right.
The valve is centered between the bar and the ell.

Thanks astridh,

So starting from the left wall you have beginning in the center -- slide bar -- valve -- ell -- shower door. Is that correct? Sounds great to me. The hose loops underneath the valve (and as you say gracefully). Thanks very much for your follow-up post and explanation.

Would still love to see some photos of how people have their slide bar and valves, water supply elbows mounted.

I need some photos to show my GC that you don't always have to place the valve in the center. Show me photos of your set-up - slide bar or even if you have a hand held shower head on a bracket. I would appreciate it so much!

These are Hansgrohe and the entire slide bar pivots almost 180 degrees as well as the slide attachment going up and down and changing angles. French shower doors make access easy.

Before making decisions, we got in there and held the pieces to figure out where we wanted the elbow to come in. In our case, mounting it where we did below the controls was the only place that kept the hose from poking out into the shower.

Exactly which model slidebar is that, gbsim? It's so hard to tell what "features" they all have - they tend to really skimp on the descriptions.

It is the Hansgrohe Unica A (36")#27825. When I swivel the bar to the left, it winds up under the other head and perfectly centered for showering if I want to leave it on the bar on pulse instead using the main head.
BTW the main head is awesome. It has enough power to rinse out my thick hair when on the rainshower setting. It is #27447 Hansgrohe Raindance 3 way.

Yes, you have it right.
I forgot to say that on the left side of the bar I have a tiled-in shampoo niche which visually balances the shower valve on the right side of the bar.

Here's a picture of our setup, sorry it's a bit far off:

We have main fixed showerhead on the left wall, and then the slider bar on the wall you're facing. I like that you can angle the slider to get both sprays if you want them, or angle it away towards the right wall if you're using it to rinse a kid or something.

The slider is pretty much centered on that back wall in our case. I might have actually liked it a bit further to the right, aesthetically, but then again I like being able to angle it to either interact with the main head or to be usable on its own.

Excuse the spotty/not yet rinsed the grout dust off pic, but this is our very simple set up. We don't have another shower head other than the handheld/slide bar set up as our shower isn't big enough to warrent it. We also don't have a door, as we've gone with a curtain that can/is pulled back behind the small arch wall. Just below where the curve of the water line for the shower head is, is the tub filler spout. We don't have a tub anymore, but needed to have water available for washing/rinsing buckets/pails etc. The slide bar, valve and tub filler are all in the centre of the shower wall.

What we forgot to consider though when we intalled the shower light, was how to do math! When I did the measurements for centering the light both lengthwise and depth wise, I took into account the footprint of the entire shower, including the arch walls, and now my shower light is off centre by nearly 6" depth wise (it's closer to the arch than the back of the shower wall). No big deal, but just something to consider if you are "detail oriented"!)
HTH Kym

Here's our set-up. Fixed centered and slide off to the side. I'm with you - if they are on opposite walls, why wouldn't the slide be centered?

Thank you for posting follow-up! This is all very helpful.
crazyhouse, yes -agreed why wouldn't they be centered! - especially since he knows that our shower is small. Not much room to move around.

countrycottageklutz, look at that - a slide bar with showerhead and valve all in the center! My plumber just doesn't get it. Well, he will need to fix it. We also are using a shower curtain, at least for now.

snowyshasta, I love your shower - we would have done something very similar had we the funds and the extra room. Love the rain shower head you have above. And I like that you have the flexibility of having 2 showers spray toward you if you want. Just curious, where is the valve control for the slide bar shower? I don't see it.

gbsim thanks for posting the photo. I love that pivoting slide bar. I am going to check that out!

Thanks again to all of you posting your photos and feedback. This has been very helpful!

The valve controls for all 3 heads are on the left wall of the shower, as you're entering. You can sort of see it in the picture, but the glare/reflection makes it hard to see. We have a single temperature control at the bottom, and then 3 valve controls arranged above it. We figured it was easiest and looked best to have all of the controls near each other.

Thanks for the quick reply snowyshasta. I think it looks like a nice set-up - definitely convenient and looks good too not having all the controls scattered all over the place.

So there is one temperature control for all 3 shower heads? Do you like that set-up? Just wondering why they wouldn't have their own temp control. I guess it would be more expense to have. I have to admit I haven't researched all the ways to plumb a shower - our plumber recommended a diverter and we considered it but then decided we wanted to be able to have both showers on at once if we wanted to - not that we'll be using that feature a lot.

I can't wait till this project is finished and I get to actually use it. :)

jrabbot,

This is a pic off the Hudson Reed website- we don't have it installed yet, they may have more pics there. DH was thinking he would put ours to the left of the main controls - door will be to the right as you face the shower heads. I was thinking to the right (cuz I'm right handed), but this will probably be primarily his shower- so he gets to choose. I hadn't really thought about it till you posted this question- I'm surprised you haven't rec'd more pics- I'm interested in the reasoning too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Hudson Reed

See below
{{gwi:1410143}}

PS to above posting. I like having the wall supply end of the hose low on the wall --- this gives me maximum reach with the hose when bathing the dog in our double shower (rain shower head on opposite wall).

nclakehouse.. the entire reasoning for our shower set up is to make it easier to shower the dog LOL!..Well, not entirely the only reason, but it sure has made life easier than the short/but deep 1950's tub.

As a side note to the whole thing, I forgot to mention that although our set up is centered, (with the hose valve? slightly offset, we did end up with the shower slide bar slightly higher than normal, so we can now shower 8ft tall guests if need be! When at the bottom of the slide, the bottom of the shower head is 38" off the shower floor.

one more picture. i like the slidebar being in the middle and centered. but if i were to change anything, it would be to move the wall elbow and diverter out more from the center, by a couple of inches. (yea, i can post pics now!!!)

Thanks for the continued follow-up and photos. A picture is definitely worth a thousand words. It is great to see other people's set up. Thanks raehelen, nclakehouse, and nolamom. And bathing a dog (or cat- sometimes they need a bath too!) was a definite consideration in this placement.

This has turned out to be very informative. Something to think about before you place your bath fixtures and valves. Hope this has been helpful to others too.

Quick answer on our controls - mainly we did the single temp control for expense, it would have required more purchases to have them controlled separately. Possibly more plumbing time, too, I'm not sure whether it would require mixing the hot/cold differently for each and where our cut-off point is that they split to each head. Also we figured the wall was cluttered enough with 4 controls, 6 would have been even more!

As to in use, it's not really a problem. If one person is using multiple heads, they generally want them all the same temperature anyway. The only time I'd have wanted them different is when I'm using the main shower and using the handheld for a child - I like the water a little warmer than they do. But generally we can compromise on a temperature that's between the two and it works out fine.

Our slide bar is low and to the side on the advice of 79 year old DM who has had to sit on a shower seat in the tub to shower, a cousin who recently had knee surgery who said she would have loved a shower wand at that level and so it's convenient to wash the dogs. Those are the exact reasons I wanted a slide bar in the first place.

Listen here, you can put the slide bar anywhere you want as long as this guy hasn't roughed in the wall valve yet then you're ok. Do you have another shower head in there or are you going to put one? Or are you only using a slide bar? If you are only using a slide bar then go ahead and put it in the center.

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique Brass Slide Bar