I have a plexiglass full wall surround in the bathroom. The tub faucet is running a fast leak... I turn the water off for most of the day. I cannot afford to pull out the surround and reinstall or install a new wall. The current plumbing is old (installed in '86 when house built) and the plumber said he could not find a replacement seat for the stem valve and a new valve unit(?) must be installed.
Is it possible to replace the stem valve without cutting into the wall surround?
What is the solution to repairing the leak and avoid having to cut or remove the wall surround?

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I have never heard of faucet to which I could not find new seat. Please, get second opinion. Sounds like your plumber want to make little more money than he should.

Anyway, you can access plumbing from the other side and through the drywall.

I agree with Milo, take the faucet apart yourself and take the parts with you and do some scouting at different places, Home Depot is a good start, look for a plumbing shop wth a parts department, you should be able to find any part that you want for that faucet.

Can you tell us the brand and the model number of your faucet, or post a picture?

Thanks.
John

I did not include some info in my initial question, sorry.
1) the other side is not drywall, but another plastic wall surround to a shower stall adjacent to the master bedroom;
2) unfortunately, neither I nor the plumber could locate a manufacturer name, brand or model number on the handles or the spout; and
3) I do not have a digital camera for posting a picture, but the unit resembles an American Standard unit that both Home Depot and Lowe's carries.
There are specific tools one needs to go into the stem and get the seat out? Are these tools affordable?
Thanks much to each of you for your responses.

Yes the tool is very affordable, you can buy a set of maybe six to eight and would be less than ten dollars. They aare called faucet seat wrenches.

If you need more information let us know.

I think you need to keep in mind any faucet from home depot or Lowe's will have numereous problems. A lot of the faucet parts are plastic. You may want to in the future replace the whole thing, and not just the seat. That may keep you having any additional problems. I used to work in a plumbing showroom and so many people have problems with home box store faucets so be careful.

Hello Work4kids,

Thanks for the info, but there are a lot of good faucets in Home depot and Lowe’s, and we are not here to tell people which product to use which one not, we here to help to fix their faucet, you may have seen that there are plastic cartridges from Moen, Delta, American standard and many more.

Joyday,

It sounds like you have a three knob/handle faucet see the attachment, as the other experts suggested remove the stems, shut the water to the faucet remove the stems check the seats inside for any scratch marks if any you will need to replace them other wise no need, take the stems to a Home Depot and get the replacement attach you will find the tool for stem removal and seat removal, good luck.

John