Hi,

I am trying to remove this old shower pan without damaging the drain. I can not tell from looking at it how it is fastened to the pan or to the floor beneath the pan. When I pry up the pan a little bit, the drain seems to move with it. However, I didn't want to go too far for fear of messing up the drain.

Can someone tell me how to remove this pan without messing up the drain?

It appears that your shower base is made of concrete, if that is true with a hammer and a cold chisel bust up the concrete 4 to 6 inches around the drain!
Good luck

The more I look at that pan I don't think this is concrete. Tap on it with a hammer and I'll bet its really bad fiber glass or acrylic. You are trying to install a new shower pan and think you can save the old drain, I would not bother. You next shower pan will likely install much different than that old iron drain line. Tell us what you have planned and maybe we can help you as you get further into this project. I'd actually pick out the new pan now and see how it is supposed to be installed and connected to a drain.

Hi there Firsttimerfixer, have bad news : That drain is incorrect for your installation. Cut it off right below the head and install the correct drain designed for hot mop installation. If you leave it and reinstall new pan - you may be redoing it two years later again.

Hmmm... thanks for the advice. I'm starting to think this might not be a job for a "firsttimefixer!"

This is the type of drain you need. It has 3 openings that allow condensation from under the concrete base to drain into the drain. Good luck. Milo

Did we ever really establish that this is a mud pan, looks like terrible fiber glass to me.

From Photo #1 it appears to me it is a sub-floor with residue of asphalt paper or asphalt coating - after the pan was removed...

But of course, we will never find out unless the poster comes back and tells us... :D

You could be roght too. I did ask in post #3 for him to confirm.

Hi again. The pan was actually made of some sort of lead or something strange like that. I was able to get most of it out using a reciprocating saw. There is a subfloor, with tar paper on top of that, then this weird lead shower pan thing. I some updated pictures, but I'm not sure if I can post them. I can't figure out how the rest of this pan is connected to this drain, but it seems to be permanently affixed to the drain.

Here are the pictures... you can see how thick this pan is, made of some sort of metal.

Sorry to say that... but if you plan on re-building your shower than that drain has to go... no way around it

Thanks... I'm actually not trying to save the drain. When I said not damage the drain, I should have said, "not damage the pipes."

A couple of questions:

How do I get rid of the drain? Just cut it right under shower pan where it meets that black pipe? What do I cut it with?

To rebuild the shower, I see there are generally two options. You use use a pre-formed shower pan or you can use the liner/membrane, mortar mix, build the curb, etc. Which route should I go?