Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Crooked Tub Faucet Pipe–and the tile is up! Is it too late???

Here's a question for the plumbers out there...

I've just finished tiling, grouting and sealing around my tub – and NOW I notice that the plumber I hired didn't align the pipe for the tub's faucet so that it was perfectly perpendicular to the wall; It's off by a couple of degrees to the left. When I screwed the chrome faucet piece on there was about a 1/8" gap between the tile and the back end of the piece on the right side. Aaaarghh!

Now, about 5" of copper pipe (including the threaded end) are sticking out from the wall, and my question is: What – if anything – can be done to straighten the pipe that doesn't involve removing the tile, backerboard, etc. and adjusting the angle at the connection inside the wall? I know I can't just bend the pipe over to the right because I could damage the soldiering and cause a leak (very bad). Could the exposed 5" be heated and the pipe slightly bent? Could it be cut and a slightly bent "elbow"-type piece be connected? Anything?

This room is my very first remodeling job, and I wasn't smart enough to make it easy on myself (there's was too much done for me to list here). This crooked tub faucet is just one of a thousand things I've learned to watch out for when doing the NEXT bathroom, but I'm trying desperately to finish this one and move on. If there is a good solution that doesn't involve ripping up my hard work I would be very thrilled to hear it!

Anyone? Help??

What's on the other side of the wall?

Can you open THAT wall and then call that less than talented plumber back to re-sweat the copper in the wall?:)

Fixing drywall is a lot easier than redoing the tile and backerboard.

By the way - the plumber needs to fix that oh-oh for nothin'.

Ahh, good point. I did fail to mention something important: I live in a condo and my neighbor's bathtub is on the opposite side of the wall as mine, so I can't access the pipes from the other side (if only!).

Otherwise that'd be a the perfect solution...


God, I miss being a renter... so much more #%**ing free time....

God, I miss being a renter... so much more #%**ing free time....

And so much less equity.

Call the plumber that did the job and explain the problem. If he's a pro he'll fix the pipes. Removing and replacing a couple of tiles because of some one else's screw up is a PITA but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet.

Problem solved! This isn't ideal (and does sound worse than it actually looks), but I just bought a $4 pair of "chrome" door edges at Pep Boys, cut a piece to length and slipped it around the back edge of the faucet trim piece. Once I assembled everything and slid the trim piece flush with the tile you couldn't tell there was ever a problem. The plumbing fixtures have a fair amount of edges in their design, so the extra edge of the "chrome" piece didn't look out of place.

I hated to use such a tacky solution, but I've already spent so much time on this room that removing tile, calling the plumber, repairing the wall, etc. would have just destroyed my last nerve.(Oh boy, and only every other room to go!)

Anyway, at least I'll know to look out for that next time (I already know to never use that plumber again).

Thanks to everyone for their replies!!

Problem solved! This isn't ideal (and does sound worse than it actually looks), but I just bought a $4 pair of "chrome" door edges at Pep Boys, cut a piece to length and slipped it around the back edge of the faucet trim piece. Once I assembled everything and slid the trim piece flush with the tile you couldn't tell there was ever a problem. The plumbing fixtures have a fair amount of edges in their design, so the extra edge of the "chrome" piece didn't look out of place.

I hated to use such a tacky solution, but I've already spent so much time on this room that removing tile, calling the plumber, repairing the wall, etc. would have just destroyed my last nerve.(Oh boy, and only every other room to go!)

Anyway, at least I'll know to look out for that next time (I already know to never use that plumber again).

Thanks to everyone for their replies!!
measur twice;cut once! hard to find good help!