[alchent]

I noticed that a small amount of water had leaked from the fiberglass shower pan in the 2nd floor bath to the 1st floor ceiling. The location of the leak seems directly from the drainage area. The shower installation is about 10 year old. It has steam feature but is not used often.
I have a few questions which needs help:
1) How can I test the lead to see if the leak if from the rubber gasket that seals the plastic drain body of Oatey’s “No-Calk Shower Base Drain” to the 2” drain pipe; or leak between the drain body (drain lip) and shower pan base?
2) If the leak is from the rubber gasket, what kind of tool I need to use to take out the gasket? I can unskew the caulking nut that tights up the rubber gasket, but don’t know how to take out gasket to replace it.
3) If the leak is from drain lip, how can I tight it up without opening up my ceiling? Can I use silicon jel to caulk the drain lip from top? What type of selicon shoud I use and what is the life of this type of caulking we can roughly expected?

[massplumber2008]

Hey alchent:

First thing we do when we get a call like this is to remove the shower valve handle and the finish trim... then run the shower and using a flashlight look in behind the wall and make sure that the issue is not related to the shower valve OR the shower arm above the valve.

If no leak associated with the water/shower valve then need to know if there is any FLEX in this fiberglass shower base... any give/creeking at the shower floor when you step into shower? If so...issue probably at the seal like you suggest.

A proper installation of base pan should include setting base in a mortar base or similar.

In this case, I would remove the nut and then I would use a screw gun to actually SCREW a few 2" or 3" screws into the seal (about 1" deep... no deeper. So if doesn't work easily can take time to review options. Any deeper will go through seal) ) and then I would pull up on the screws to dislodge rubber. Then I would clean everything up to/and including deep into well of base and make final clean with isopropyl alcohol. Then install a new seal.

What I just suggested does not always work by the way... :( But give it a shot as presented and may pull it out without opening ceiling... *we hope*.

If any movement at the shower strainer itself... any movement, like shifting it and seeing stuff SPIT from underneath the drain... may be issue with the "lip" of the shower strainer... let us know... this can be a bit more involved.Let us know what you think... MARK

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