In a recent column we reviewed the benefits of infiltration control plugging air leaks using canned expanding foam sealant. What we didn't divulge was that we found another interesting use for expanding foam. As you read on, you might think of additional uses yourself.

We had to figure out how to stop a showerhead from wobbling in the wall. Even though we couldn't see it, we knew that the wobble was caused by a broken copper fitting inside the wall cavity. There were no leaks in this shower, just a wobbling showerhead. We knew that two small mounting brackets had broken off the shower arm fitting.

A normal repair would mean opening the wall from the shower side and soldering on a copper replacement fitting. After paying the bills of a plumber and tile contractor, you would be several hundred dollars in the hole.

At the time this problem arose we were doing a kitchen remodel in the same home. Only the day before we had been using expanding foam to meet local infiltration control requirements. When we began to clean up at the end of the day we noticed that one brand of the expanding stuff dried soft and the other brand dried hard as a rock.

This gave us one of those Carey Bros. ideas. Why not try using the hard-drying foam to repair the showerhead that had broken loose in the wall? Remember, there were no leaks in the shower. The only thing wrong was that brackets that prevented movement of the showerhead had broken.

We pulled the showerhead trim ring forward and away from the tiled wall. This exposed the opening in the wall that the shower arm passed through. Next, we pushed on the goose neck, moving it as deep into the wall cavity as possible so that the copper fitting attached to it rested firmly against the block in the wall to which it was affixed before the break. Holding firmly so that nothing moved, and using the long, slender spray extension tube that comes with the foam, we sprayed the hard-drying material into the wall cavity, making sure to hit the opposite side of the wall. We continued to spray until buildup oozed out of the hole.

After a few minutes the foam had hardened enough to hold the mounting bracket in place and we were able to release our grip. We thought that our repair would only be temporary at best and that the homeowner eventually would have to perform the more extensive repair described earlier.

We are happy to report that it has been three years since we made that repair and it still is holding. Since we felt we made a sort of a discovery, we are happy to share it with those of you with wobbly showerheads and the imagination to employ this procedure in other situations.