Easy to replace now, harder later. Replace now while everything is torn up.

Can you give just a bit more info?

This looks like an apartment / condo / multi-family unit. Is that the case?

I can't tell from the video / photos - some of it looks like galvanized pipes and places it looks like copper - which is it?

Is this a long-term residence, or one that you will sell in 5 years?

Is the budget tight?

Replacing all of the pipes would add a lot of expense with little benefit in an apartment, but installing a new shower body could be good plan if you can afford it. That would involve a limited amount of new plumbing but may involve a lot of expense to turn the water off.

If this is a short-term residence (5 years or less), a new shower body is stupid expensive, or you have a very limited budget, don't replace the shower body.

If I had to guess, the tile started coming loose and you had to do a limited budget repair - not a high-end redo.

Never ever redo a shower and not replace the valve bodies behind the walls. It would be foolish and short sighted to do that. As for the pipes, a bit if a cleanup consolidation could be in order. Or not. Depends onnthings you can’t see in those pics. But that your chosen plumber can, on site.

@Jake: thanks for the questions :) Probably helps to narrow it down:

It's a condo building (erected in 1959) on the upper east side, and the apartment is on the 6th floor (of a total 7 floors). It's hard to tell when we will re-sell, but probably within the next 5 to 10 years, yes.

Our current budget is pretty tight, as we are right after the apartment purchase (we closed last month, and all the taxes and fees of the property transfer and mortgage are killing us, but that seems to be normal in NYC...).

Thanks for all your comments, guys!!

Verbo, I would normally agree with you about the valve body - but this is an apartment and they aren't replacing a somewhat dated tub. This looks like a very limited redo due to water damaged plaster tile backer. Without individual unit shutoffs, this could be very pricey.

If this were a home I would say to consider replacing pipes over 20 years old and the valve while you have the walls open.

Current plumbing code requires anti-scald valving, that would require a new valve body.

@HU-867564120 At what point is this just a tile job - and at what point does this kick-in an update to plumbing code. If you aren't moving / replacing fixtures and just repairing the tile and backer are you required to update the plumbing to bring it to current code? This question might be an argument for NOT getting into the plumbing at all to avoid any follow-on code update issues besides the valve body.

That can not be ”repaired” without compromising the waterproofing of the wet area. It will just leak again, and damage even more of the adjacent unit if a halfass fix is tried. So it is already at the point of a complete gut and start over for everything from the studs out. That includes plumbing valves and drain assemblies. And the tub, if you’re smart.