I live in the Bronx and have heard that the plumbing requirements that are being instituted in Manhattan are making their way uptown. It turns out that my thermo valve has stops so I'm all set there. I am writing as I was told something today about shower fixtures that had been suggested to me previously. It was suggested today that instead of purchasing a trim that has a temperature and volume control, and a tub spout with a diverter, I instead buy a regular tub spout, and buy two volume controls and one temperature control. By doing it this way, I can place the controls anywhere I want, say, the temperature control half way between the handheld and the tub spout, one volume control near the handheld and one near the tub spout. It is also less expensive to buy three separate trims and valves, and I don't have to deal with the diverter on the tub spout. I can also have water coming out of the handheld, tub spout, or both. Neat-o!

Well...first you need to find out the worst case scenario. Add up the flow for your two body sprays, plus the flow of your shower head. That's the GPM that you need to carry to through your shower valve and to your diverter. You;ll need a valve that can pass through that volume of water. You can do what you want with an A/B/AB diverter. Coming out of the diverter is where you can run one 1/2" copper run to the shower head and a second 1/2" copper run to the body sprays. That's when using a separate on/off valve and a separate diverter. However, for your setup, you can run all three outlets from a 1/2" copper supply going into the valve and with 1/2" copper running from the valve to the fixtures. There are quite a few valves that can do what you want. One of the last houses I did I used Hansgrohe Thermobalance III valves in all of the bathrooms in the house. The TB III is an A/B/C/BC type of valve. It's also a 1/2" valve. I used it that way in a couple of the bathroms, in others the A and B outlets are looped together (let's call this new combined AB loop "D") so you now have a D/C/DC setup. "D" can be your shower head. "C" can be your body jets. "CD" can be your car wash with everything throwing water at you. In case that's confusing, think of it as the A/B/AB valve that I described in the beginning. It's an approved way to plumb the valve, and it with the TB III having ON/OFF, temp, and diverter all in one valve, you'll have an uncluttered wall. But again, besides the TB III there are other valves out there. So can you do it with a single control head? Yes. Can you do it with 1/2" copper into the valve and 1/2" copper coming out of the valve? Yes.

Unfortunately, the options are: 1. Get the big ugly plate and have a single control. 2. Redo the tile and get an attractive single control setup. 3. Get another three handled set. (Remember that not all three handled sets are interchangeable--the spacing needs to be the same to use the existing holes, or you'll still have tile problems.) I'm in a similar situation. Old valve is leaking, not quite ready to do full bath reno yet, so it looks like another threesie for the moment.

I would suggest he move fwd and in the end will likely be the only one to notice... BTW Nice DIY steamer ill bet there is a sealed slip joint up there?? Good point to touch on ...The cost of compromising the initial waterproofing efforts can be a real concern when pulling tiles to re-set. Moreso with the liquid membranes..and downright risky in this steamer scenario.