How is trap fixed in shower tray?

[David W.E. Roberts]

Hi,

just removing an old foam filled shower tray which has started to crumble internally.

I have a whole world of grief waiting anyway because all the drainage is solvent welded together and comes out of a hole cut in the side of the tray. It also disappears into a wall and is located so there is no room to get behind it. Yecht!

However my first problem is to undo the shower trap which will in turn (after some butchery) allow me to lift the remains of the old shower tray out.

Does anyone know how these traps are usually fixed?

I have probed down the centre and there is no sign of a retaining screw.

I have tried a bit of uncsrewing but nothing seems to want to move.

I have a vague hope that if I can get the trap apart I can fit the new tray over the old pipework, so I want to get the trap apart without breaking anything.

Any information gratefully received.

Dave R

[David WE Roberts]

Just answered my own question - trap is fixed from below with a screw collar (much like sink and bath fittings).

This means that the installation I have just dismantled had the trap and under pipe work fitted with a stub out of the side of the shower tray, and then the tray was fitted. After that the whole shooting match was joined to the external pipe works by a number of solvent weld bends with minimal pipe work between them and so no chance of cutting off a joint and having enough pipe left to fit a new joint. The pipe work disappeared under the tiles presumably to get round the edge of the bath panel. Talk about putting something in you can't get out again!

How did I get it out? I realised that I was not trying to preserve the shower tray and so I cut it up with a power saw, cutting round the trap so I could lift the tray out and leave the trap behind. Underneath I found the only screw up compression joint in the pipework joining onto the trap where I couldn't get to it.

The shower tray was well and truly shagged - the particle board under the plastic and inside the foam was completely waterlogged and smelt strongly of mushrooms. I have photos of what happens when a shower tray goes bad - I may get round to posting them. Meanwhile we wait for everything to dry out before fitting the new hard tray - which has to be on a plinth because the old shower tray was very deep and we don't want to move the shower cubicle (hang on - we probably could.....perhaps not...ummmm) but anyway on something of a plinth to allow the pipework to exit using the old route.

We'll just stay down wind of people for a couple of days :-)

Cheers

Dave R

[The Wanderer]

I guess it rather depends on the make, mine is a MacAlpine.

from the top down....

First there is a simple grid at the very top. This is held in place with a series of grooves at the top of the body and just lifts out.

Next there is a removeable seal. This has a single cross piece at the top, and you have to grip this and turn anticlockwise, then the whole thing lifts out.

Put the top grid back in place, and locate the removeable seal over the top of the grid using notches on the bottom of the seal. Then use the seal tube as a spanner to undo the flange.

Have a look at the illustrations on the product page and you can see the grooves for seating the grid and the notches at the bottom of the seal.

Be warned, though. If you've got years of crud built up around the flange, there's a very real risk you're going to bugger the trap anyway.

[John Rumm]

That might be your answer - if you raise the plinth on some 4x2" or similar, then you could leave yourself access under the base board to do up the waste fitting.

Up wind might be better ;-)

[David WE Roberts]

On general principles I would prefer a shower trap where you pulled it up with a central screw instead of pulling it down with a collar - because it should be easy to put the tray in and take it out without resorting to raised paltforms etc.

In this particular case I am planning to have a plinth of 2 * 4 (or even more) and ply to support the tray and bring it up to the original tile and shower enclosure level to avoid having to do any major alterations, extra tiling etc.

I think I will include ventilation under this plinth so that if there are any minor leaks in future the floor does not get waterlogged (as it is at the moment). This would also allow me to have a large enough aperture to have a screw up fitting to release the last run of pipe.

At the moment we are waiting to see how long it takes for the floor to dry out and are also checking that the wet has not caused any major damage.

This could mean several days of avoiding anyone with a keen sense of smell ;-)

[Chris Bartram]

I was goint to suggest that :-)

[Rick Hughes]

Fitted 2 new cast stone bases in my build ... pre-built 100x50 support frame with 20mm ply on top. I used HepVo traps as they are perfect for under showers ... no S/U or P bend to worry about. (they also serve as AAVs)

I bedded the trays down on a 4:1 semi-dry cement mix.

The shower waste outlets were proper shower ones ... i.e. the centre lifts out and has a 'hair' trap for stopping bits going going pipework.