I am not a plumber, but I am mechanically pretty good. I have a situation
with my shower drain that has me stumped, so I am turing to this newsgroup.
The shower in question is a fiberglass Aquaglass shower stall, 1 piece. The
base is solid. Here's the story:

THe shower drain started leaking. The drywall below the shower was damaged,
so I cut out the drywall and found that 4 years ago when the house was
built, the plumber did not glue the drain to the PVC pipe. The drain is
similiar to this one:

http://www.oatey.com/apps/catalog/sh...&prodgrpid=113

Obviously a little luck, and the tapered fitting must have made it last 4
years.


I called a local plumbing company (good reputation) and the plumber that
arrived took the drain apart and glued it like it should have been. I wanted
to give it a little time before I re-drywalled just to make sure it was not
going to leak anymore. I also marked the drain nut (the nut that holds the
drain to the shower base) to see if it was going to back off. He tested the
drain before he left and it did not leak. About a week later, I thought I
noticed some water around the drain nut. So, I stopped up the drain with a
2" test plug, filled the shower and it did leak. More of a seep, but close
to dripping slowly. This was with my wife wading through the water in the
shower. It did seep without her in it also. The drain nut marks indicated
that the nut had NOT moved.

Called plumbing company, so they sent over a very experienced plumber to
look at it. He cut the PVC and pulled the drain out. Replaced the drain with
the same style, and used one of those no-hub connectors, it did have the
stainless steel jacket. Before he did that, we both looked for any cracks in
the fiberglass around the drain. We couldn't find any. I saw that he put a
good amount of putty around the flange before he wrenched the drain nut
down. We tested it, no leaks. I marked the drain nut again. Later that
night, I did the test plug deal again with my wife, no leaks.

This brings me to last night which was about 2 weeks since the last plumber.
I tested it again, because I was going to re-drywall. I did the test plug
deal again, and it leaked/seeped like the first time. THe drain nut marks
again indicated that the nut had NOT moved.

Now to today. Before I loosened the drain nut, I checked to see how tight it
was. I felt right at the line of snug. I loosened the drain nut, and
loosened the no-hub, pulled the drain up. I looked for an hour with a
magnifier and bright light, and could find no cracks at all. In fact the
drain part of the base looked in excellent condition. So, I installed a
brass drain like this one:

http://www.oatey.com/apps/catalog/sh...&prodgrpid=118

I used a good amount of putty, and tightened down the drain nut, reconnected
the no-hub. It is not leaking at the moment. I do have a very good
fiberglass guy coming to look at it next week. Just in case I missed
something with the fiberglass part. I can't help thinking this drain will
start leaking in a week or two. All of the leaking that I have noticed with
this drain seems to be coming from between the shower stall and the rubber
gasket, bottom side of shower. So, my questions a

1. How tight should a shower drain nut be?

2. I know this is out there, but I have to ask. Do these drains have issues
with expansion/contractions problems, at least when they are first
installed?

3. Could the putty settle more in a week or two?

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,

John

"JJ" wrote in newsaSdnTttGKUvYfXcRVn-
:

Any insight is appreciated.

Since you have the underside exposed, have your wife walk around in the
shower while you are looking at the underside. The drain seal may be
failing because of too much flexing of the shower base. If it's flexing,
then you will need to support the underside better (expanding foam usually
works well for this).

"JJ" wrote in message

3. Could the putty settle more in a week or two?

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,

John

I'm guessing that over a week's time, the base of the shower if flexing and
damaging the seal. Can you better support the base? Instead of putty,
perhaps silicone caulk would be better.
Ed

If memory serves, the products that the shower is made from exhibit what is
called 'cold flow'. i.e., when you tighten a not/bolt configuration around
this material the pressure will cause it to migrate out/away from the
pressure.

As such, the primary sealing in this joint needs to come from some sort of
bonding agent. I think the post above re silicone caulk is on the right
track.

It seems like there should be easy answers to this since there is nothing
unusual about your configuration. It seems like the culprit would have to
be the shower base being too flexible which does lead to the issue of
whether there are already small cracks that you haven't yet dicovered that
either (or both) resulted from too much flex or even contribute to too much
flex.

In my town, the Home Depot I go to has an ex-plumber in the plumbing
department that I can pose questions to. If you know of a plumbing supply
house, you can go ther and ask but the best time to go is about 9:30-10AM.
Don't go there when there are a lot of licensed plumbers around (like the
first part of the day when they are there getting materials for their trucks
or their first call). The staff will sometimes be a little heinky about
helping you much in front of them. OTOH, sometimes the people around will
overhear and toss out suggestions. I think some of it depends on how strong
unions are where you live.

I thought the idea of a hard polyurethane foam was an interesting idea (and
possibly the only 'effective' one for flex) but that tends to make any of
your solutions **extremely** difficult to revisit and given that you have
drywall underneath you'd probably have to be putting in some sort of
(removeable) cross-member between the two relevant joists that you'd need to
have not be flush with the drywall (to accommodate flex in this member and
avoid it popping your new ceiling drywall joints). blah-blah-blah...

G*d*mn I hate plastic things - especially in plumbing. With the exception
of PVC tubing/piping, it always fails. I have not even used PVC on supply
lines because I am suspicious of it. I am still using steel and copper for
that. I would feel comfortable with PVC supply lines only after seeing this
stuff in service for another 30 years or so. It is amazing that there is
nothing in plumbing (or many other disciplines) that some *ssw*pe won't try
to make out of plastic.

The problem is what people consider to be 'serviceable lifetime'.
'Contractors/remodelers/investors' only need 6 months to a year to get the
unit sold. Even homeowners don't need long because nobody seems to live
anywhere for longer than 5 years. My house is 85 years old and I am
planning/hoping to live here at least another 30 years. I want my repairs
to **last**.

What a PITA problem! Good luck. Let us know what eventually works.

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 03:10:58 -0600, "JJ" wrote:

I am not a plumber, but I am mechanically pretty good. I have a situation
with my shower drain that has me stumped, so I am turing to this newsgroup.
The shower in question is a fiberglass Aquaglass shower stall, 1 piece. The
base is solid. Here's the story: snip

My two cents: Ultraviolet light is pretty good for highlighting
cracks in fiberglass and acrylic showers. They glow.

Good luck.

I had the same problem with a shower stall that I was fixing for a friend
except I was so confident that my work would hold that I put the drywall
back in. It didn't. What I finally did was use silicone seal instead of
putty. I found that the movement of the shower floor caused the putty to
work loose. Hasn't leaked in over a year.

Comments about the possibility of the shower base flexing being the primary
source of the problem is very likely. The leaking drain might actually be a
"result", not a primary.cause of the leak. As suggested, get a can of foam
and get it under your base to take up any and all spaces. Let it expand out
and when cured trim as necessary. Foam was recommended by the Shower
manufacturer that I have and solidified a flexing shower pan.
MLD
"JJ" wrote in message
news
I am not a plumber, but I am mechanically pretty good. I have a situation
with my shower drain that has me stumped, so I am turing to this
newsgroup.
The shower in question is a fiberglass Aquaglass shower stall, 1 piece.
The
base is solid. Here's the story:

THe shower drain started leaking. The drywall below the shower was
damaged,
so I cut out the drywall and found that 4 years ago when the house was
built, the plumber did not glue the drain to the PVC pipe. The drain is
similiar to this one:


http://www.oatey.com/apps/catalog/sh...&prodgrpid=113

Obviously a little luck, and the tapered fitting must have made it last 4
years.


I called a local plumbing company (good reputation) and the plumber that
arrived took the drain apart and glued it like it should have been. I
wanted
to give it a little time before I re-drywalled just to make sure it was
not
going to leak anymore. I also marked the drain nut (the nut that holds the
drain to the shower base) to see if it was going to back off. He tested
the
drain before he left and it did not leak. About a week later, I thought I
noticed some water around the drain nut. So, I stopped up the drain with a
2" test plug, filled the shower and it did leak. More of a seep, but close
to dripping slowly. This was with my wife wading through the water in the
shower. It did seep without her in it also. The drain nut marks indicated
that the nut had NOT moved.

Called plumbing company, so they sent over a very experienced plumber to
look at it. He cut the PVC and pulled the drain out. Replaced the drain
with
the same style, and used one of those no-hub connectors, it did have the
stainless steel jacket. Before he did that, we both looked for any cracks
in
the fiberglass around the drain. We couldn't find any. I saw that he put a
good amount of putty around the flange before he wrenched the drain nut
down. We tested it, no leaks. I marked the drain nut again. Later that
night, I did the test plug deal again with my wife, no leaks.

This brings me to last night which was about 2 weeks since the last
plumber.
I tested it again, because I was going to re-drywall. I did the test plug
deal again, and it leaked/seeped like the first time. THe drain nut marks
again indicated that the nut had NOT moved.

Now to today. Before I loosened the drain nut, I checked to see how tight
it
was. I felt right at the line of snug. I loosened the drain nut, and
loosened the no-hub, pulled the drain up. I looked for an hour with a
magnifier and bright light, and could find no cracks at all. In fact the
drain part of the base looked in excellent condition. So, I installed a
brass drain like this one:


http://www.oatey.com/apps/catalog/sh...&prodgrpid=118

I used a good amount of putty, and tightened down the drain nut,
reconnected
the no-hub. It is not leaking at the moment. I do have a very good
fiberglass guy coming to look at it next week. Just in case I missed
something with the fiberglass part. I can't help thinking this drain will
start leaking in a week or two. All of the leaking that I have noticed
with
this drain seems to be coming from between the shower stall and the rubber
gasket, bottom side of shower. So, my questions a

1. How tight should a shower drain nut be?

2. I know this is out there, but I have to ask. Do these drains have
issues
with expansion/contractions problems, at least when they are first
installed?

3. Could the putty settle more in a week or two?

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,

John