Help with shower drain repair

[Corn_Fused]

A few years back I tried to help out a vet. I needed a new shower and he had a lot of experience. Unfortunately I think his skills might have lapsed a little bit.

Some years on we noticed a small leak outside the curb. It wasn't much. After a lot of head scratching and research I came to the conclusion the pan was filling with water and wicking up over the curb. I don't have the money to replace the whole shower again so here I am.

This is a hot-mop shower pan. As you can see in the picture, I took out some tile and some of the mortar bed around the drain. Sure enough I found what I suspected. The three weep holes were plugged. Two of them had tar filling the holes and the third... well you can see in the picture. There is a nail sticking through it. I was about to remove that nail but then I thought I should ask about this here first.

Is there any chance that nail has a purpose? It's not holding up the drain pipe is it??? I feel dumb asking the question but why in the heck would someone put that nail there? I'm betting it gave them a site line as to where to end the tar bed and they just forgot to take it out.

So that's my first question: can I remove that nail?

Second question comes a little late but I should ask anyway. Is what I'm doing going to work? My plan was to open those drain holes then patch the mortar bed and replace the tile (I have some left over from the original job).

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

[TomFOhio]

Not quite sure what your talking about. If the pan is filling up with water then the drain is plugged. What weep holes
are you talking about. I never put a shower drain in that had weep holes. Thats just me. I don't know why that rod is
sticking through like that. The trap will hold up the drain especially after filled with dirt or sand.

 

[Corn_Fused]

That is for the reply. The tile and grout are not water tight in any shower. This is why you make your mortar bed “dry”. It remains porous so that when the water gets through the grout, it will seep through the mortar bed towards the drain. This water is below the top of your drain. That is where the weep holes come in. There is usually 3 or 4. The water will make its way downhill and enter the weep holes and down the drain it goes! Unless of course the guy that did the install plugged all the weep holes! Haha.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Looks like they put nails in the weep holes before they hot mopped and no one ever removed them.

 

[Corn_Fused]

Looks like they put nails in the weep holes before they hot mopped and no one ever removed them.

That’s my guess. I opened up the other two weep holes and this weekend I’m going to get that damn nail out of there. Sure hope I can put all this back.