New house purchase with Shower drain Issue

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kenneth Brown

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2018
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Location
guyton Georgia 31312
Hi there, my wife and I just purchased a house that was built in 2007. and after moving in my wife went to clean the shower and noticed the metal screen was balanced on top of the 2" pvc pie that was sticking up about and inch above the flange. can anyone tell me what problems this may have caused due to its been like that for a while? I assume and how do we repair this?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0767.jpg
    IMG_0767.jpg
    43.6 KB · Views: 45
  • IMG_0768.jpg
    IMG_0768.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 39
you Should redo the whole drain piece. For maximum satisfaction. You may be able to to cut pipe off. With an internal pipe cutter. I always shove a rage down pipe. Sometimes the cutter jumps out of drill. But all that takes a good drill and steady hand. If you can find out who done it. At the least so you know to not call that guy.

If you let it go. You will have a constant puddle of water. Then grow mold. At worst it leaks and mold up under the shower. But yeah. I would redo that totally new drain. Can you get under it at all ?
 
you Should redo the whole drain piece. For maximum satisfaction. You may be able to to cut pipe off. With an internal pipe cutter. I always shove a rage down pipe. Sometimes the cutter jumps out of drill. But all that takes a good drill and steady hand. If you can find out who done it. At the least so you know to not call that guy.

If you let it go. You will have a constant puddle of water. Then grow mold. At worst it leaks and mold up under the shower. But yeah. I would redo that totally new drain. Can you get under it at all ?
No this is on a concrete foundation:(
 
you Should redo the whole drain piece. For maximum satisfaction. You may be able to to cut pipe off. With an internal pipe cutter. I always shove a rage down pipe. Sometimes the cutter jumps out of drill. But all that takes a good drill and steady hand. If you can find out who done it. At the least so you know to not call that guy.

If you let it go. You will have a constant puddle of water. Then grow mold. At worst it leaks and mold up under the shower. But yeah. I would redo that totally new drain. Can you get under it at all ?
When you say redo the whole drain Piece does that mean pull the whole shower unit out ?
 
Sometimes you have to pull it. But if you can get under it even from the side or rear. You won’t HAVE to remove unit. I would call your inspector and demand a refund for him/her just being a useless inspector. This refund will help your chances of not being out too much more money. If I get one that comes up in next few days. I will try to video it with phone. I wouldn’t suggest a novis but can be done. Gonna be fun if you wanna tackle it. My dad, (a hack of all trades) would say cut the pipe flush and use some good roof caulk around flange and let it go... you might get lucky. I as a pro. Would tell you to replace the drain so we can insure a tight fit. If you can open wall behind shower? This would be your best reach. Just need to reach big nut with a spanner wrench. To hold. Your partner can spin drain from in shower. Can you get behind shower
 
Last edited:
You might be able to use an inside pipe cutter to at least trim the PVC down below the rim, but I don't know how the PVC is attached to the drain fitting, so this may be a bad thing to do.
 
Like said just buy an inside pipe cutter. Trim it carefully down even with the shower drain and then put your drain cover
on and see how it fits. Put a rag inside the pipe while you are cutting. If water is not running out from underneath the
shower while using it don't worry about pulling the base. This is a very simple fix. You can probably buy one of these
tools at the box stores. There are more professional one's but I have one of these too.shopping.png
 
Buy a inside cutter and cut it down ridgid makes one that is easy to use
 
I’ve seen people make one with a couple washers and nuts between a used grinder blade on a threaded rod. But don’t do it if your not familiar with these things.
Now when you apply pressure around the drain area does the shower pan slide up and down? If it does then whenever the shower is used your floor underneath is getting wet. The drain has a special gasket when tightened it grips the pipe and seals it so it’s water tight. Best advice is to be sure you have to pull the pan off and reset the drain the right way.
 
the shower is one solid unit so pulling it is not an option for me. I agree that the inspector should have caught this. I did go out an buy an inside pipe cutter today and will try my luck tomorrow. what bothers me is the water drains down the side of the pipe almost as fast as the pipe itself. I have to wonder how long has this been going on and what kind of damage has been done that I cant see!
 
Then yeah your gonna need to pull the complete drain. It looks like putty has been shoved around tension ring. There should be a rubber gasket under the tension ring. But they couldn’t get it tight enough and now here you are. Trimming it will just direct more into drain not all. Some water will still be able to penetrate around exterior of pipe and go into concrete below. Then with no air flow. Mold will multiply to the point of mushrooms.
 
Do yourself a favor and get a plumber in there to asses it. People on the site here just guessing at what is going on and what is packed around the pipe is no bueno. There should be a sleeve around that pvc and he may be able to replace it for you.
 
You didn't say it was leaking in your original post. Thought the grate was just the problem.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top