The shower arm springs a leak behind the wall. The first time I can understand since it was pretty old and got pitted and corroded. The second one is only a year old and split open right where it goes into the elbow. Both times it wrecked the living room ceiling below. This time is actually much worse since I drained more than half a bucket of water out of the ceiling before I started ripping it down.

So how can we prevent this in the future? It's a standard plumbing installation in the wall. I use Teflon tape and turn it hand-tight. I looked around and all the hardware stores sell the same crap.

The up side, if you can call it that, is that I'm getting pretty good at drywall work.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Go to a used plumbing supply place and find an older stouter model in good condition. Seems like plumbing parts are being built lighter and cheaper. I hate having bathrooms above drywall. If at all possible I remove the drywall under bathrooms and put some kind of plastic material in its place.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Thanks to Chinese products, I quit using tef tape on fittings because they need to be tightened way to much to seal. I now use use pipe dope.

Might not be the look you are going for, but you could move the female half of the coupler beyond the shower wall, then if it ever leaks again, it will be inside the tub. Simple plumbing job, depending on what material the pipe comes through. I did one that way because the homeowner had previously had a failure, and swore to never put that joint behind the wall again. Used a standard copper male poking through the wall with an escutcheon ring, and a fairly large chrome bushing, and it really did not look all that unusual.

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I also thought about an inset plastic housing that the pipe can stick up through like a washing machine hookup, only smaller. On most showers I see the pipe and trim ring just flop around loosely. I hate that, but the basic design is bad to begin with and sloppy construction makes it worse.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma