Installing Shutoff Valves: A Step-by-Step Guide
I'm excited to share with you my experience installing shutoff valves in my very first rental home, which is also approximately 120 years old. As we're going to be redoing the bathroom today, I'll show you how to put in a new shutoff valve and demonstrate the process over time as we remodel it.
The rough-in valve in this old bathroom is where we'll be installing the SharkBite shutoff valve. By the way, we're going to keep this bathtub and add Schluter KERDI Board on top of the walls. We'll also use Roxul insulation in this cavity before applying the Schluter KERDI Board and tile everything for a beautiful finish.
Before we begin, it's essential to shut off the water supply to the house at the main valve located in the basement or garage. Then, drain your system at its lowest point – it could be a hose bib outside or a laundry tub. For this tutorial, I'll be using a ½" ball valve from SharkBite. One of my favorite questions is whether to leave the plastic inserts in or take them out for copper pipes. The answer is simple: you don't need to do anything with these inserts as they provide rigidity for PEX or CPVC pipes and can be used on copper, CPVC, or PEX.
Now, let's talk about ball valves. They're fantastic because there's only one on/off position, making it very easy to use. When working with ball valves, make sure to wear gloves as I always do – even though I have them right here, I often forget to put them on! Now, let's move on to the installation process.
The first step is to slide the shutoff valve onto the copper pipe using the depth tool provided by SharkBite. The depth tool ensures that the valve is properly seated and aligned with the pipe. For example, if you're working with a ½" pipe, slide the tool onto the pipe until it reaches a certain mark – in this case, the ½" mark. This will help you determine how far to slide the shutoff valve onto the copper pipe.
Next, we'll repeat the process for the second shutoff valve. After installing both valves, turn them on and off to ensure they're working correctly. Finally, make sure that the shutoff valves don't leak by turning on your water supply slowly at the main valve and checking the fitting between the SharkBite valve and the copper pipe.
If you need a reliable kit for all your plumbing needs, check out my latest project – a copper pipe repair leak kit! I recently put together this kit, which was a huge success among my viewers. Now, I'm giving away one of these kits to a lucky random person who leaves a comment on this video explaining why they need this kit and where it would help them in their home.
To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below telling me why you need this kit and where it would help you out within your home. One lucky winner will be randomly selected and notified. Don't forget to check out BathroomRepairTutor.com for more awesome video tutorials and one-on-one advice on DIY bathroom remodels.
In the future, I'll be sharing a brand new video tutorial with my buddy Steve White, a professional bathroom remodeler. Until next time, thanks for watching, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI’m talking low because it’s the earlymorning hours. I’ve got a special videofor you today. I’m going to show you howto install a shutoff valve. This is my veryfirst rental home ever. I’m going to giveyou a little tour today. We’re going togive you a tutorial on the shutoff valve.But this is going to be pretty cool video.What I just showed you is a rough-in valvein this old bathroom that’s in my very firstrental home ever. So this bathroom is about120 years old, and we’re going to be redoingit today. Well, not the whole thing today,but we’re going to be putting this shutoffvalve in today. And we’re going to showyou over time how we’re going to remodelit. So let me show you what it looks like.So there’s where we’re going to put theSharkBite shutoff valve, right here wherethis rough-in valve is; in the bathrub. Bythe way, we’re going to keep this bathtub.We’re going to put Schluter KERDI Boardover top the walls. We’re going to put Roxulin this cavity here before we put the SchluterKERDI Board on. And we’re going to tileeverything and make it look awesome.First things first, shut off the water tothe house at the water main down in the basementor in your garage, wherever it is. And thendrain your system at the lowest point. Itcould be a hose bib outside, it could be alaundry tub, wherever.For this tutorial, I’m going to be usinga ball valve. It’s a ½” ball valve bySharkBite. Now they have these little plasticinserts in them. I get a lot of questions:Should you leave the insert in? Should youtake it out for copper? You don’t have todo anything with these inserts. So reallyjust meant to give rigidity to PEX or CPVCbecause you can use this on copper, CPVC,or PEX. But you can leave these little plasticinserts in. You don’t have to take themout. Ball valves are great because there’sonly on and off. It’s very simple. If youhave a water leak, you just turn on or off.One of my favorite tools for cutting copperpipe is the Autocut tool. You simply clampit onto the copper pipe. You turn it in thisdirection that the arrow indicates. Sevento ten revolutions later, your copper pipeis cut. Really easy to use. Very nice fortight situations like this. So you just clampthis on. Turn it thiscut nice and evenly.To help me with this configuration, I’mactually going to cut this piece of pipe outnext. I’m going to actually slide this on,and I’m going to take it back off. The onlyreason why I’m doing this is I want to seehow I can position this shutoff valve so thatit works. Now by the way, you can actuallystill spin these. So if I wanted to, you know,I can have these line up just like this, allright? And I can turn it like so. Now in thiscase, I probably want this to turn outward.This is the removal tool so you can slidethat back off. So instead of it twisting inlike that, I can actually turn it like thisand put it on there, and see how I like thatconfiguration. So this is going to be in theoff position, and this will be the on position.Now I can see if this is going to work withthe other valve.So if I put the other valve right here, thisshould work. Just so you know, this goes onby about an inch. So if I want this to behere, I need to mark that right there. SoI probably want to make my cut right here.So again, I’m just going to line up my cuttingwheel with that mark. Then I’m going toclamp this Autocut tool over that.The next step is to deburr the inside of this.Now it’s really hard to see on camera, butI’ll try my best. When I’m using thisdeburring tool, it’s basically taking thislip out that I created by cutting the copperpipe. You want to do that so that the sealwith the SharkBite shutoff valve isn’t brokenor compromised. This is a Ridgid No. 15 tool.It has a deburring tool. You can also usethis to cut copper pipe. Now if you don’thave any deburring tool, you can also usea utility knife.Next step is to use emery cloth, and smoothout that copper pipe. You can also use a brushlike this to do that. And also on the inside.SharkBite makes this really nice depth tool.Basically what you do is for whatever sizecopper pipe you have—so ½”, ¾”, 1”—youslide it onto the pipe then you make a mark.And that way you know how far to slide theshutoff valve onto the copper pipe. So thereyou go. We slid it on up to that mark. Thatway you know that it’s on the entire way.I’m just going to do the exact same procedurefor the second shutoff valve.Now we’re going to turn them in the offposition. So there you go. Now I have shutoffvalves for my brand new rough-in valve.And the last step is to make sure that thesedon’t leak. So turn the water back on slowlyat your water main, and then check that thatfitting between the SharkBite valve and thecopper pipe, or whatever pipe you’re using,doesn’t leak.Okay, there you go. So that is how you installshutoff valves for a shower. You can alsodo this for your tub. You can do it for outdoorspigots. You can do it anywhere in your housethat needs a shutoff valve.Now I’ve got a surprise for you. A few weeksago, I put together a copper pipe repair leakkit. It was a huge success. Everybody likedit. So today I’m going to be putting togethera kit—I’m going to give away one kit toone lucky random person here on YouTube. I’mgoing to include the SharkBite shutoff valves,the SharkBite depth tool, a few other reallynice things like maybe this. I don’t know,I haven’t decided what tools I’m goingto put in there. It’s kind of spur of themoment. But one lucky person is going to win.Hwo do you enter? Well, tell me down in thecomments why you need this kit and where itwould help you out within your home, and you’llbe randomly entered into the giveaway hereon YouTube.So that is it for today. Thanks so much forwatching. Remember, if you’re going to bedoing a bathroom remodel, you can always checkout BathroomRepairTutor.com. So if you’redoing a DIY bathroom remodel, you want somehelp, you want one-on-one advice, you wantto watch awesome video tutorials, check outBathroomRepairTutor.com. That’s where Iput my videos with my buddy, Steve White,who is a professional bathroom remodeler.We’ve helped out several members to gettheir bathrooms up and running and lookingawesome and amazing after not looking so hotfor years. So you can check that out on yourown. And next week we’ll have a brand newvideo tutorial. And that’s it for today.Thanks again for watching. I’ll talk toyou soon.I don’t know about you, but every time Iwork on my house or my rental homes, I alwayscut my hand. On copper pipe, glass, tile,you name it. I should wear gloves more often.I actually have them sitting right here. Ijust don’t know why I forget to wear them.\n"
