Toilets, Sinks, Showers, Tubs and Disposals - Loose shower arm?

It is my understanding that the shower arm should screw into a "tee" which is secured to a board a few inches inside the wall before coming through the wall into the shower stall.

Is this always the case?

While I am still able to take a shower, my shower arm has broken loose from this board inside the wall(goes in and out) and looking closely at it, it looks like the board was secured immediately to the other side of the wall and then the "tee" secured to that. (on the other side of the board, so to speak.)

I want to secure the arm. If this is the case can I just use an escutcheon that has a set-screw in it, pull the arm into the stall as far as I can and tighten the screw? :confused:


Thanks greatly for any help.

What you are calling a tee is what I call a Winged elbow. It is an elbow that has two flat pieces (one on each side of the elbow) that have a hole in them to put the screw through. It is flat on the back side. You can use the escutcheon you referred to but I would not pull the arm "as far as you can". This will put the piping below the showerarm that goes to the on/off valve in a strain. A little tension will not hurt. Good luck.
NOTE: The other problem with this is that if you ever have to change the showerarm, it will be waving around inside the wall.

I see what you're saying.

This all came about when I started thinking about raising the showerhead a few inches with an offset arm. So I would have to change the arm. Is there any way, short of cutting a hole in the wall, of doing that?

I enlarged the hole in the wall (still able to be covered by the escutcheon), the arm came thru, just to get a better look at the set-up. I was able to see that, instead of using a "winged elbow", the pipe had been secured by a piece of metal strapping bent over the top of the pipe "nut" at the elbow, which was then nailed on both sides of the pipe to a 2 x 4 secured to the inside of the wall, directly below the hole.
The arm had obviously been jammed forward sometime forcing the strapping to come off the "nut" and allowing the arm to move in and out.

I eased the "nut" back under the strapping and changed the arm to a large "S" shaped one.

Finally, I can rinse my hair without having to scrunch down. :) :)

Thanks for your help Majakdragon. Without your post, I probably would have taken out the old arm without securing the pipe, then lost that pipe :eek: , and had to take the wall apart.