How to Repair and Replace the Shower Drain

A leak of any sort in any pipe can be extremely disastrous for your home. So repair any leak as soon as you locate it. At times shower drain may sustain leak and need immediate repair lest the water penetrates into the floor and makes it way down to the foundation and eventually damaging the home badly. You can remove and replace the shower drain yourself with some effort and beforehand knowledge. But if you are amateur to this work, it is suggested to hire a plumber to replace the shower drain as soon as possible to prevent severe damage to your home.

Required Items

- ABS cement
- Plumber's putty
- Basket wrench
- Utility knife
- Slip coupling
- PVC pipe
- Shower drain
- Philips screwdriver
- Handsaw

Directions

1. Before begin, block the water supply line, which supply water to the shower.

2. Locate the drain pipes. You might have to tear off the flooring to uncover the pipes and to have better access to them. If you have access from below, you can work from below the bathroom. It depends on the position of the pipes.

3. Take a hacksaw and cut the part of the drain pipe that is leak or damage. In addition to this, you need to cut along the pipe further to remove this entire part of the pipe.

4. Take the drain away by cutting the silicone putty holding the drain with utility knife. Now open the drain cover by unfastening the screws with the help of Philips screwdriver. After removing the cover, take a basket wrench and take the drain away by turning the wrench anti-clockwise.

5. Insert the new drain into the specific place. Secure the new drain with plumber's putty.

6. Using the ABS cement, attach the PVC pipe to the new drain. ABS cement is a substance used to give the waterproof connection to the pipe and drain. You can inspect the pipe as well for any possible leaks. Replace the pipe if you notice any leakage in the pipe. If no leak spotted, then use the same pipe.

7. Connect the end of the existing pipe with the end of the new installed pipe. To connect the old and the new pipes you need to have a slip coupling of exactly the same size of pipes.

8. To secure the coupling, add glue on its both sides and put pipes into it.

9. Allow the putty to dry for many hours. Till then don't use the shower.

Tips & Precautions

-The best time to replace the drain is night time. Install the new drain and it will be ready for use till morning.
-In case you are having problem in replacing the drain, contact a plumber to do a repair work for you.

How to Repair and Replace the Shower Drain

Plumbers Putty

How to Repair and Replace the Shower Drain

How to Repair and Replace the Shower Drain
How to Repair and Replace the Shower Drain

Plumbers Putty

Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project

Upgrading a bathroom is one of the more popular home improvement projects. Handling the plumbing for draining your shower can be exceedingly simple unless you go overboard.

Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project

Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project

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Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project

Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project

Whether you are a bathtub or shower person, most people look for shower only options when buying a home. This simple fact means more than a few homeowners spend a weekend upgrading or installing showers in their bathrooms. Fortunately for you, it is a fairly simple process.

A collector or pan refers to the horizontal surface located at the bottom of the shower. The collector typically consists of a non-slip surface slightly banked towards the center or wherever the drain is located. Combined with three to four inch walls around the side, the goal of your shower drainage plumbing is to get the water to flow to and down the drain.

You can physically build a collector for your new shower, but you really need to think about it. Do you really want to get into the complications of getting the sloping correct, not to mention making sure every aspect of it is waterproof? And I mean every aspect! It is much easier to simply buy a pre-cast collector online or at your local Lowes, Home Depot or hardware store. Building one might sound like a great idea, but you will probably feel differently after a couple of hours.

Regardless of how you go about getting a pan, you should make every effort to use one that has the drain located in the same spot as the original pan. Moving the drain pipes can be a task, particularly if the builder used a unique framing structure. If you are determined to move the drain, you are going to have to cut back the pipe or lengthen it, which may mean ripping up large chunks of the floor. Put another way, you are going to be looking at a multiple weekend project.

Assuming we have our drain lined up, the actual hook up is fairly simple. The drainage pipe should be facing vertical up to the collector. It will often look like a "U", which means it acts as a cleanout to keep nasty smells from coming back up from the drain. To connect the drain, you are going to create a water tight connection between a drain cap on the top of the pan and the drainage pipe. Systems vary, but you are typically going to do this by putting a coupling piece on the top of the drainage pipe. This is then covered with gaskets and literally screwed into the drain cap. The drain cap should act as a locknut, to wit, it screws directly onto the coupling.

The tricky part of this process is getting your drain cap to fit into a watertight position in the pan. This is accomplished by backing off the drain cap once you are sure everything fits together. At that point, you put plumbers putty around the underside of the cap and then screw it back on. The putty should form a tight seal between the cap and the shower pan, which keeps water from trickling under it and into the framing under the shower.

Obviously, bathroom showers come in a wide variety of styles these days. If you purchase a collector, they almost always come with plumbing instructions or the store can note anything unusual you should know. It sounds complex, but is typically pretty straight forward. Have fun!

Handling Your Own Shower Drain Installation Project