I'm removing a crummy old fiberglass shower pan and came to find that metal was on the inside of the drain once I got the cover off. I was expecting something I could drill through and remove but think I got cast iron.
2 questions:Q1) How do I remove the pan without buggering up the drain?
Q2) How am I gonna turn this into a working drain for a tile floor?
Thanks for your comment,
Can you get underneath the drain to get a clear idea of what is going on?
If it's in a slab, then I guess not, but just about any other installation should allow for access, even if you need to open a ceiling. I'm not saying you should do that at this point, but it may be an option.
Why do you think you think you'll ruin the drain if you remove the pan?
That is something we can't answer before we know a whole lot more.
BTW...a picture is worth a thousand words.
You're welcome!
I have done both bathrooms in this house and both were cast iron drain systems.
You can just get medieval on the pan if you are replacing it. Cut around the drain and take out the rest, then work on the part around the drain. Mine was on a slab in both cases. After being very careful to get everything apart surgically, the plumber who was advising me said to just cut it back to a convenient spot, put a "no hub" connector and plumb it back in PVC so the drain would be easier to set.
See above.
Wait...I don't recall seeing you in my basement bathroom.
That is exactly what I went through. After breaking up the slab and exposing the cast iron hub, I paid an "advisor" $25 look down into the hole. He basically told me exactly what he told you.
Was your advisor an old Italian plumber? ;-)
That $25 was well worth it. By the time I did my upstairs bathroom, I had learned enough to do it on my own.
If you are not getting sewer gas smells with the pan removed, there is prob ably a trap located somewhere downstream from where you are working. So, y ou just need to get a reasonably clean connection to the drain below the pa n.
Since you will not be flushing any solids down, you have a little less stri ngent demands on your connections. Since the volume of water is relativel y slow and steady when someone is using the shower, if it was my shower pan , I would use PVC pipe and lots of glue and silicone rubber to get a waterp roof connection. If there are bends and twists in the PVC pipe to get the connection, I would not be too worried because of the kind of use.
Never smelled a whiff of sewer there. It makes me wonder how deep the main drain is going out to the street. Maybe I should look for cleanouts to figure it out.
Good points. This might be the easiest thing to plumb in a house.
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