I'm redoing our master bath which is > 40 years old (leaks ruined the subflooring). This had a shower base make of cement and cast iron drain pipe.

I succeeded in breaking up the old base into pieces, but now I'm having trouble with the old drain. It looks to be cross-threaded onto the drain pipe, and I can't get it off with a pipe wrench.

The drain itself is not lead, although it may have a lead sleeve inside. Cutting it down to the threads will be very difficult due to limited clearance.

Before going any further and possibly making things worse, I though I'd ask for suggestions here.

Thanks.

Sounds like you have a flange type cast iron drain that's secured by a lead and oakum joint. (The lead ring). First you must remove the bolts securing the top flange and drain. Pull the top flange and drain up and you will be left with the bottom half of the flange. Now take a 3/8" drill bit and drill down past the lead ring into the oakum. Now go in with a screwdriver and lever the ring up so you can peel it out. Pick out the oakum and pull the bottom flange off the cast iron stub up. Good luck, Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jerry

Tom,

I looked more closely at it, and there are no screws (at least that I can find).

I'll try to get a picture of it in the morning. But if you have any other suggestions, I'm open!

Here's a picture of the drain.


It looks to me like it might just screw off, but moderate pressure with a pipe wrench didn't budge it. I didn't want to put too much pressure on the wrench for fear of breaking something.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but if you look closely, it looks like the drain is cross-threaded onto the pipe, sloping down from lower left to upper right in the picture.

Does this help? I'm about ready to just stuff a stick of dynamite down the drain and run! But my wife won't let me :)

Thanks again for the help.

Hey Jerry,

I had thought you had a liner but I see you have a caulk on strainer. Tale your knife and scrape the ring under the drain. You should see a ring of lead. This is a poured and caulked lead joint. To remove a poured joint take a 3/8" drill bit and drill down past the lead and into the oakum.. Push a screwdriver under the leadring and lever it up. Once it's free you can began to peel the lead ring out. Now pick out the oakum and pull the drain assembly up and clear. Good luck. Tom

Speedball.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but this whole thing got put on hold - wife was in the hospital. She's doing better now so I'm back on it.

I worked on this for a couple of hours. Never did get the durn thing off. I could see the ring, etc. But just couldn't hold my tongue right or something. Of course it would have helped to have known what I was doing :-).

Anyway - I got a bigger pipe wrench and the whole thing came out. Turns out it's a 2" reducer to 1-1/2" pipe. Just replaced the reducer also and everything is better.

Thanks again for the help.