I know exactly what happened here having just done a renovation on a basement with a completely fucked up bathroom.
They re-used the existing piping and lines when replacing the tub and shower surrounds.
They wanted to save a few hundred dollars and/or effort of moving the pipes to center up with the prefab tub/surround, and just figured they could drill the hole into the surround for the shower attachments wherever.
They’re correct, but that doesn’t make them right.
More likely, there is a sistered stud directly in the center of the surround, and to fix it properly, they would have to tear out both sides of the wall.
Offsetting the valve to one side or the other, they don’t have to do any additional demolition, framing, or drywall.
I know exactly what happened here having just done a renovation on a basement with a completely fucked up bathroom.
They re-used the existing piping and lines when replacing the tub and shower surrounds.
They wanted to save a few hundred dollars and/or effort of moving the pipes to center up with the prefab tub/surround, and just figured they could drill the hole into the surround for the shower attachments wherever.
They’re correct, but that doesn’t make them right.
More likely, there is a sistered stud directly in the center of the surround, and to fix it properly, they would have to tear out both sides of the wall.
Offsetting the valve to one side or the other, they don’t have to do any additional demolition, framing, or drywall.
Source: been there, done that…