My upstairs shower drain leaks such that if I use it, water comes out of a can light in my living room.

The shower base is a mustee. The drain is molded into the base and the pipe was held in by a rubber doughnut (compression fit). Not being able to find a new doughnut at the home depot and not knowing much about shower drains (at the time) I called a plumber. He said he had never seen such a shower base and recommended I replace it.

He put in the temporary fix of removing the doughnut and replacing it with a plastic fitting which he fastened to the pipe with the purple primer and glue... then ran a bead of caulk to try and seal it off. That fix has prevented the pipe from falling out of the shower base, but has not stopped the leak. I have since tried removing his caulk and filling the entire gap between the added fitting and shower base with silicone. This has also failed to stop the leak.

Does anyone have any advice short of replacing the shower pan with one of the screw-in drain variety?

QUOTE=rsouder]My upstairs shower drain leaks such that if I use it, water comes out of a can light in my living room.

The shower base is a mustee. The drain is molded into the base and the pipe was held in by a rubber doughnut (compression fit). Not being able to find a new doughnut at the home depot and not knowing much about shower drains (at the time) I called a plumber. He said he had never seen such a shower base and recommended I replace it.

He put in the temporary fix of removing the doughnut and replacing it with a plastic fitting which he fastened to the pipe with the purple primer and glue... then ran a bead of caulk to try and seal it off. That fix has prevented the pipe from falling out of the shower base, but has not stopped the leak. I have since tried removing his caulk and filling the entire gap between the added fitting and shower base with silicone. This has also failed to stop the leak.

Does anyone have any advice short of replacing the shower pan with one of the screw-in drain variety?[/QUOTE]

Your plumber should have ordered out a replacement drain seal, (doughnut) for the drain. Since you failed to provide me with details on pipe materal I'll give you the Drain seal order numbers for both.
Drain Seal Part# 32.405 for 1/1/2" PVC or ABS
Drain Seal Part# 32.404 for 2" copper
Contact Mustee and order the seal that you need and call your plumber back. There should be no charge for the call back as he didn't fix it the first time. Good luck, Tom

Quick question...

Short of getting the plumber back, how can I separate the fitting which the plumber attached to the waste pipe (pvc) with glue... or can I? The shower is in a second story bathroom and I'm trying to avoid having to cut into my living room ceiling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsouder

Quick question....

Short of getting the plumber back, how can i separate the fitting which the plumber attached to the waste pipe (pvc) with glue... or can I? The shower is in a second story bathroom and I'm trying to avoid having to cut into my living room ceiling.

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The only way to undo a PVC glue joint is to cut it out. However, I might have a easy out for you if you can get to the leak. There's a product on the market called Pow-R-Wrap
This is a tape made especially for problems such as yours. Check it out at;
http://www.wired-2-shop.com/joneakes...geID=&CatID=10
Let me know how you make out. Good luck, Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by speedball1

The only way to undo a PVC glue joint is to cut it out.

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That's what I was afraid of. I think, I'm probably going to wind up having to cut my ceiling. I was trying to avoid cutting the ceiling because it was clearly done with some pattern tool which I don't have.

The tape looks like it could be useful once I get access to the bottom of the shower.