Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause problems later if the tub is replaced?

wrote:
Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the
slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the
slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no
access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to
investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard
enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause
problems later if the tub is replaced?

Coarse stainless steel wool scrubbing pads . Hard on their little teeth ,
harder on their digestion if they swallow it .

--
Snag

On Sat, 19 Mar 2016 15:51:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause problems later if the tub is replaced?

Define "gophers". They could range from a chipmunk to a land tortoise.
Depends on where you live.

On Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 5:25:33 PM UTC-7, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 19 Mar 2016 15:51:09 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause problems later if the tub is replaced?

Define "gophers". They could range from a chipmunk to a land tortoise.
Depends on where you live.

Pocket gophers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher

stainless steel wool is effective against them, but I'm concerned about being able to access the area around the tub drain well enough to pack it in. I expect there's not much clearance. That's why I was thinking maybe a thinly mixed concrete, or polymer: something I could pour, w/o needing to reach all the way around the tub.

wrote:
Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the
slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the
slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no
access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to
investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard
enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause
problems later if the tub is replaced?

How did you get gaps? Pipes - including drains - are placed before the slab
is poured.

On Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 7:42:55 AM UTC-4, dadiOH wrote:
wrote:
Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the
slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the
slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no
access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to
investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard
enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause
problems later if the tub is replaced?

How did you get gaps? Pipes - including drains - are placed before the slab
is poured.

Not clear what's going on here, is this a pipe coming out of a slab,
that is the waster drain for some tub? I don't see why some cement or
concrete patch, etc can't be put around it. Agree with you that normally
those pipes are in place and then the slab is poured around them.

On Sun, 20 Mar 2016 07:42:39 -0400, "dadiOH" wrote:

wrote:
Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the
slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the
slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no
access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to
investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard
enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause
problems later if the tub is replaced?

How did you get gaps? Pipes - including drains - are placed before the slab
is poured.


I was wondering the same thing. But either way, I'd just put concrete
around it. I'd wrap several layers of tar paper around the pipe(s)
before the concrete is applied. That way of the concrete heaves from
freezing soil it wont break off pipes because the concrete can slide the
tar paper rather than put force on the pipes. And if the pipes are
metallic, concrete in direct contact can cause corrosion too.

Just wrap 3 or 4 layers of tar paper around the pipes, come ABOVE the
finished concrete, duct tape around the tar paper to keep it in place.

I would not worry about future tub changes. Concrete can be broken if
needed at a later date. You dont want gophers coming in, because next it
will be rats, and they are a lot worse than gophers.

On 3/19/2016 3:51 PM, wrote:
Gophers appear to be getting into our walls through the hole in the slab for the tub drain. Its less than two feet from the edge of the slab, and gophers will burrow much farther than that. There's no access panel on the tub, so I'm going to have to cut one to investigate.

What would be a good material to close the gaps? It needs to be hard enough to stop the gophers. If I use concrete, is it going to cause problems later if the tub is replaced?


Up here at Sunset Chateau, I make gopher shisk-ka-bob with them little
varmints.