Ask Me Help Desk - Shower pan weep holes

We are redoing our shower, the contractor walked out on us after three days. Then found out his license had expired in 2007... wonderful! Bad experience from the get go, should have relied on my gut instincts instead of giving him a second chance on the very first day!

So we are finishing it ourselves. Had a plumber come in first and he put a new 2 piece PVC drain so it was ready for the contractor. The contractor mudded the pan, put the vinyl liner (blue) down and placed the first part of the drain over it. So the first stage of the pan was done. I am assuming the contractor did not plug up the weep holes during this process.

My husband and I laid the second layer of mud on top of the liner and sloped etc. Now I read about the weep holes and keeping them open. I saw in some videos as well as read about a clear plastic disk was put around the drain before the final layer of mud is put down?

We didn't put down that clear plastic disk... is this a must or just something some do?

Help!

Here is a picture of the floor before we put the second layer of mud on it. Brown water proof paper is taped down to protect the vinyl liner in this photo so you can't see the ring at the bottom of the drain.

Please if anyone could advise me here if we messed up, it would be greatly appreciated...

Just found another picture on the web where the guy use spacers around the drain prior to the final layer of mud. We are going to have to rip the floor out around the drain aren't we?

Looking at the strainer in pic #3, it doesn't look like the right type of drain to me...

I am enclosing photo of the correct drain for your application. Please, confirm this type of drain was used.

Picture #3 isn't our drain, it is one I found on the web.

Our drain Picture #2 is a two part PVC drain. The bottom part of the drain was already secured down over the vinyl liner by the contractor.

I didn't know about the weep holes prior to us putting down the final layer of mud ourselves. Now I am afraid we forgot a step in the second layer of mud to keep the weep holes open.

As seen in #3 that guy used spacers under his second layer of mud?

Sorry, I cannot read the drain from the pic in your original post. For some reason, it seems to me it is a regular garden drain with brass cover.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milo Dolezal

Sorry, I cannot read the drain from the pic in your original post. For some reason, it seems to me it is a regular garden drain with brass cover.

I got out the plumber's parts list, it says:

AB&A #5008 2" PVC EZE-Test Drain

Thank you Milo for trying to help me out.

Yesterday went to the plumbing supply story and got a scale picture of the drain assembly. I now know the exact location of the three weep holes.

Today going to drill a hole where each of the weep holes are in the drain... clean out the holes, cover them with something and then remud those three drilling points.

Wish me luck that this works so I don't have to like cut out all the mud around the drain!

Use bread to temporarily plug the weep holes. Or you can also use toilet paper. Both bread and toilet paper will dissolve in water and flush out the weep holes once covered.

Good luck with your project and don't forget to give us progress report. Milo

Wow great idea Milo! Bread or toilet paper, never thought about that as an option and a dam good one at that! I was sitting here thinking what I was going to use to keep from plugging them up again. Thank you so much for your input!

Was reading about mastic vs thin-set... now I am reeling on that one.

A friend came in to help us the day the contractor walked out. He put up 5 rows of tile (4"x4"), on the shower head wall, above the shampoo shelf and up to the ceiling using mastic. Now I read you aren't suppose to use mastic! The rest of the shower tile is thin-set.

Jeez, I don't want to be taking tile down now too!

Then my husband used the mastic to put down three sheets (out of 6 needed) of our 1"x1" floor tile.

Quote:

Use bread to temporarily plug the weep holes. Or you can also use toilet paper. Both bread and toilet paper will dissolve in water and flush out the weep holes once covered.

They also make plastic weep hole covers that remain on the installation. Good luck, Tom

Yes Tom I saw those, the plastic weep hole covers would have been great if we had know about it in the first place. What happened is my husband and I had watched a video on the plastic slope rod kit, we saw it there and thought it was just for those kits. But something kept nagging me, so I went searching for more info, of course after my husband had put down the final layer of mud. It took me quite a bit of time to get my husband to believe me that there were weep holes and we messed up. When I showed him the picture of our drain I brought home yesterday, he finally said "Ok, your right"...

So in order to use the weep hole circle cover we would have to rip out a large area around the drain to get one in. I came up with the idea of drilling three holes to get to and open up the weep holes with hopes that would work.

If it doesn't, I guess we have to make a bigger hole!

Now here is a thought I had, if the weep holes are working and I dump water around the drain but not in the drain... should I see water coming out of the weep holes into the drain? The vinyl liner has not been cut out of the drain yet and would collect there I would think.

How long does it take for water (and what amount of water is needed) to go through the mud base before it leaks into the drain?

If you have floated walls or concrete backing board, you have to use Thin Set. If you have green-board, use mastic. Floor is concrete than use Thin set. I don't even think mastic will adhere to cementous base.

UPDATE: Well all went well yesterday!

I made a paper pattern out of the drain copy the plumbing supply store made for me to locate the weep holes around the drain. The white of the weep holes is where I cut out the square and marked the pan for their location. Of course the weep holes were like a 1/4" from the rim of the drain pipe which meant we were going to have to drill at a slight angle in order to hit the weep holes and not damage the PVC pipe.

We used a 1/2" bit with tape around it to mark how far down the weep holes were. Slowly drilling and using a vacuum to clean it out as we go so when we saw the white of the drain we could stop. There it WAS! First shot and perfectly centered over the square! Took a screwdriver the same size as the weep hole square (about a 1/4") and just gently pushed the mud through being careful not to damage the liner! It fell into the liner covered drain! The other two holes went just as easily!

We then flushed the holes out with water, and yep they were clear!

We used Homepride wheat bread, no crust... HeHe... to cover the hole so mud didn't pack back in there. I mixed up the mud 5:1 (one tablespoon of portland to 5 tablespoons of sand).

I feel so much better now that the weep hole issue has been resolved! Thank you so much for your help and support getting through this blunder!

As for the mastic vs thin-set... Kinda funny, I belong to a classic fiberglass boat website and the mastic vs thin-set debate reminds me of the resin vs epoxy debates when working on our 1950's & 60's boats. I opted for resin when I replace the floor in my boat.

We have floated walls and 30 of the wall tiles, on the shower head wall at the top, were put on with mastic instead of thin-set. Also as I said before, 3 sheets of the 1x1 floor tile (out of 6 sheets) mastic was used. They appear to be very well secured to the wall and when the grout is applied I am assuming they will hold up well. YES?

Update: Spent the day removing the shower floor tile and the mastic. The mastic was desolving with the water test I did to see if it held, which it didn't. Really glad I tested it instead of finding out later!

Thank you for the tips which lead me to research more and avoid disaster!