New shower project turns into fixing what was done wrong... Help!

I've ripped out an old, ugly yellow fiberglass shower from about 1982, and the first goofy thing is horrible source plumbing. After fixing all that, I now am dealing with the drainage. The shower drain was butted up to an ABS stub, in a concrete mound. I know I need to install a proper trap, and that's going to be cutting concrete, installing the proper stuff, and filing it back in.

Here's the problem I have now. The Jacuzzi jetted tub I'm now looking at the underside of is almost as bad. It's draining straight into the drain line as well. I've already had some sewer gas issues on thankfully rare days. It needs a trap, and I'm debating on how the heck I'm going to do this from this back access I currently have.

I think I'm going to have occasion to buy one of those PVC fitting drill attachments to strip this out and do it right. Thankfully the base of the tub is quite high. Anyway, what do you all think is the best way to get in here and do this?

Here's a bit of info about what is going on.

The trap is under the floor.

johnjh2o said:

The trap is under the floor.

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Considering that the shower was done the same way? There's not enough room. The pipe this feeds is down 6-8" to the bottom of the pipe. I do have a small endoscopic camera, so I suppose I can confirm...

Confirmed with endoscope camera. Tub drain goes straight into the main line, no trap. Flush the toilet and you can see water rushing by.

Well, while destroying a cheap harbor freight air chisel, I was able to chew enough out to install the trap. Between the cable saw, ratchet cutter, and the fitting auger i was able to save the connection to the main. Installed the trap, rebuilt the drain and overflow, and we're in business.

You installed an S trap. That's an illegal connection.

Well, it looks like it's time to cut this out and sort out another option. Any ideas?

I'm going to have to put some flat on this to break any siphoning, but there is literally NO room to do anything without some goofy fittings, or taking out the entire tub...

To work with what you have, and still meet code, you could use an approved air admittance valve if you can get it above flood level rim of the tub.

You would need a minimum 3" trap arm, going into a sanitary tee. Drain goes down, vent goes up with the air admittance valve on top. That will save a lot of work.

Checking local codes, it looks like mechanical vent devices are not allowed. Looks like I'm running a vent all the way through the roof. Yay. Just what I wanted to be doing while my bathroom was torn up...

Don't you just love it when someone half arses something, and it takes 5x longer correcting everything?

HarrySeward said:

Don't you just love it when someone half arses something, and it takes 5x longer correcting everything?

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Welcome to my world.