I’m trying to coordinate a repair from a far distance - overseas. I am told the shower drain leaks because the fiberglass showerpan flexes (it was likely not bedded properly, installed by amateur house flippers that did not know what they were doing). A plumber came and replaced the drain pipe for a rediculously high cost. Did not fix the problem. They abandoned me.

One option is to remodel… tear out the showerpan and redo the subfloor which is likely rotton wood (guessing). But I really want to avoid crazy costs. It seems to me like there should be a way to do some perhaps unconventional plumbing. A crawl space is below the shower.

I hate accordian drain pipes. Probably no self-respecting pro plumber would install one. But in the case at hand, it seems like it would solve the moving drain pipe issue.

Another thought, and what I hope someone can advise on: What about a short rigid drain pipe that goes into a rubber gasket-like fitting (e.g. like that in the attached pic), which then goes into a bigger pipe? Wouldn’t that tolerate a slight amount of vertical movement as the showerpan flexes? Note: the pic shows an accordian pipe going into the rubber fitting – that is not what I mean. I consider the accordian pipe a competing option. I want to know if a rigid pipe can be inserted into a rubber gasket fitting.

Fiberglass is a bad choice, no?

If I do bite the bullet and install a new showerpan, fiberglass seems like a bad choice. Why is that still being used? In fact, I think enabled metal showerpans are an older technology, but they seem more robust. I have one in a bathroom which is bedded on air (i.e. just the perimeter of the showerpan is supported). But the thing seems bomb-proof. It will never flex.

Why is plastic and fiberglass used? They require proper bedding, and the bedding can always fail later on. I’ve seen videos were ppl have to later on drill holes in the shower pan to inject expansion foam to add support after support is mysteriously lost. Fuck that. Is it that plastic and fiberglass are not as cold feeling when you first step on them? I cannot think of any other advantage.

  • Sunsofold@lemmings.world
    3·
    3 days ago

    You can re-putty the drain fitting for a better seal but the flex will require some kind of support or it will work itself loose again given time, even with a flexible coupling. Moving parts tend to get looser over time.

    If it’s a broad drain, you could probably try to remove it, use the gap to add something underneath the pan and then close it back up? Or if the crawlspace has better access, you could try to do the same from below? You need to get a peek under the pan to know how easy/hard to fix it might be. Empty space could be fillable. Extant but soft bedding would have to be removed before adding something solid.

    • diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      well, not sure how that helps. When the showerpan flexes, the drain still moves. And if the drain is an elbow fitting, I would think it’s harder to manage the movement when it’s a horizontal pipe moving vertically. The accordian pipe should work with that, but if the drain is vertical then I think i have a choice between accordian piping or rigid.

      Nonetheless, thanks for the suggestion.

      (update) someone mentioned that the drain is probably not moving only vertically… it would be moving outward, both vertically and horizontally. So apparently a hack would need to use an accordian style pipe.