Hello,

I am replacing my shower floor and walls with new tile. The home was built in 1977 and the concrete sub floor is in good shape and can be worked with. I will be laying in a new pan membrane, wonder board, and mortar bed accordingly. My concern is the floor drain. I am not sure what it is but am assuming that I will need to replace it with a 2 part PVC drain to accommodate my new floor. I am not sure what I have, PVC or iron, but the drain has the usual strainer screwed in to what looks like a molded brass flange, very smooth and going down in to the drain pipe, no seams or screws. There is a stainless type of O ring looking thing on top of the drain and underneath the strainer that is close and tight under the existing grout line by the drain. What do I do to replace it and how do I get it out? Do I have to chip out the concrete around it to get it out? How will I create a leak free union to what may be iron with new PVC in a close quarter’s embedded type of environment?

Any words of wisdom appreciated. Thank you.

Brian

If it is a typical mud set shower drain with an intact clamping ring, you can remove the clamping ring (there are usually three bolts holding the clamping ring to the drain body), clean up the old membrane material and re-use it.

Yea, what growler said.

Thanks for the responses guys, but this may not be what I have. It is mud set etc. but after pulling the stainless ring out this morning (I had to chip tile out around it and it just lifted out), I think I have an iron drain flange going in to PVC. There is no way to get the iron flange out to expose any clamping ring. It appears to be screwed or glued in to the drain. There are no screws exposed of any type. I am thinking that I may have to cut in to the flange with a sawsall in two spots and then pinch it out. I will try to post a picture later.

What do you think I should do?

Thanks again. Any help greatly appreciated.

If it is cast iron on pvc it is probably a slip on with the rubber gasket. Just get the pvc tile drain and maybe a coupling and just glue the new one in and cement the floor to secure it. Make sure the flange is level or 1/4" below the floor before you mud the original floor back in.