I am replacing a shower in the basement of a house that has cast iron floor drains. I have removed the old showers and shower pans but can not remove the drain and riser from the pans. What is the best way to remove the old shower drains? What do I use to marry the cast iron floor drain to the PVC piping that is available today?

Thanks
Rick Casey

Was it plastic shower pan or custom built pan ?

If you have cast iron drainage and a shower pan then you have a lead and oakum poured and caulked joint with one of these drains,(see images). The lead joint will have to be rremoved . To remove a poured lead and oakum joint take a 3/8" drill bit and drill a few holes down past the lead and into the oakum.. Push a screwdriver under the lead ring and lever it up. Once it's free you can began to peel the lead ring out. Now pick out the oakum and you can pull the joint apart.


What do I use to marry the cast iron floor drain to the PVC piping that is available today? I would use a shilded coupling, (see image) to connect the two. Good luck, Tom

Was it plastic shower pan or custom built pan ?

The shower pan was cement and ceramic tiles, it looked like it was custom built. I am replacing it with a fiberglass shower drain and shower unit.

Ok, than it should be Cast Iron shower drain. That shower drain consists of 2 pieces . Those two pieces are attached together with 3 s.s. bolts. Unscrew the bolts. Lift the upper portion of drain. ( you will have some resistance here since the upper piece was put onto hot tar. ). Once off, look at the bottom part of the drain. If it has another 3 s.s. bolts than remove them and drain is free to be lifted. If it has no bolts than it can be screwed onto the pipe. It is very hard to unscrew. The best way to remove it is to carefully break it piece by piece. Once you crack the threaded area, it will get loose.

Plastic shower base uses different type of drains. First, Dry Fit. Lay shower pan over the hole and measure how much pipe you will need to penetrate base drain opening. Then cut piece of pipe and install onto old pipe.

You will need some support for the new base. Use light weight mortar. Mix it up thin, put under the base in several small blobs and set base into it. Make sure the pan will go all the way down and now is touching the concrete floor. Step inside if you have to and gently "dance" inside until there is no gap between lip of the base and floor.

Now, install upper part of new drain. Since you are using Plastic Pan you won't use drain heads as posted by Tom. Those are for custom shower pans. The actual drain should come with your shower pan kit. If not. There should be instructions which one to get. But Home Depot carries quiet a large selection of such a drains.

Good luck... and let us know how you did... Milo