Well if it's not one thing it's another :o We just discovered a leak with our shower drain gasket and not sure how to either tighten or replace it without having to cut a hole in the ceiling area right next to the rear wheels or take the whole shower out! Help!! Thanks in advance ;) Faith
If the shower drain is built like a house type you can remove the strainer, partially unscrew the basket, pull the gasket out and replace it with a new gasket. I would suggest you talk to local plumber and show him a photo. He can tell you a fix. Our bathtub in the house has had two gaskets in 40 years.
Gary B
I will take a stab at that question. I am sure the drain is the same as a residential one so you can unscrew the fitting. Remove the top chrome drain cover and there may be a 4 slot fitting there to put a tool in so you can unscrew it. Also at the base af the cabinet in bedroom at rear of shower wall there is a vent, take it off and that is access to the fitting too. If it has a "nut" collar on it you can also unscrew that. If it comes apart clean all surfaces well and put a bead of caulking around the sealing surface.
I will look later at ours and see if I am correct. You should be able to take apart and put back. Just may be a bit awkward.
John H
We can barely get under the shower through the vent in the bedroom and we were able to tighten the nut on the drain gasket which was loose but what a bear of a job. Is there any other access to that area that we are not aware of? The only other way that we can figure out to access the area is outside on the underside of the floor by the rear wheels and then we would need to cut out a hole. That just seems like a terrible way to seal off an important area. Anyway, thanks for the advice:) Faith
That vent access is what it is for to tighten that drain. If you can slacken it off some then put some caulking in there and tighten it up!!. Another thing that is worth looking at, why not open that vent up to a bigger size to make it easier then just buy a bigger cover.
A drastic option is to cut a hole in the front of the shower pan and then fit a vent cover over that. I would do that before cutting into the floor under it.
A mickey mouse way to fix it till another time is really clean the drain area, let it dry then coat the whole pipe and connection under chrome cover in silicone so water is restricted to going straight down.
Not the best idea but should get you by
John
I would not use silicon caulk. I like Lexel caulk for applications like this.
Lexel® - The superior alternative to silicone. (http://www.sashco.com/hi/lexel.html)
My reason for using the silicone is that he should remove it and fix properly asap and the silicone is only a temp fix so has to come out. I do not like silicone as it can be removed easily, and that is why I suggested it!!
John H
Are you sure it's your shower drain leaking because on my 96 I developed a leak,thought it was the shower drain and turned out to be the PVC pipe were the shower drain runs into the sink drain
Bob,
I don't know which floor plan you have but we have a '97 CSGI and you can access the drain off the shower/tub by removing the floor of our closet. The closet that is in the bedroom shares the same bulkhead as the shower and there is access in this area. This will not be of use if you have another floor plan.
Pamela & Mike
We found the drain is leaking where it tightens to the shower pan. The connection between the drain and drain pipe is leak free. There is no easy access to the large nut that requires tightening to stop this leak but we were able to access the space through the bedroom vanity cabinet. So with that in mind we have some possible options. One is to remove the drain and install a wingtite drain. The other is to find a pin wrench that we can get into the space to tighten the existing drain nut. Has anyone used this replacement drain or even heard of it? Remove and Replace Leaking Shower Drain | Install Replacement Shower Drain | Fix (http://www.wingtite.com/) Faith
We have a layer of silicone around the shower drain to seal drain to shower floor. Seems like a better fix than trying to replace or tighten drain.
Just looked at the site and watched the installation video for the Wingtite drain, and it seems like a pretty good solution. I would use it if we had a leaking drain. Thanks for the link!
I too looked at the site andif there is a leak around the sealing face to base this would also leak like the present one. I have reservations on the O ring as the ad shows him sanding vertically the pipe and that you do not do with O rings as you may have created a fine line for water to pass. Sand it in a circular motion and gently. Here in Canada we glue our 2" coupling to the pipe once it is fitted to base so this would not work.
I think if you can get to the nut to slacken it off after removing the compression nut and seal, take it apart ,clean and re caulk it all back and tighten nut. The seal to me has a better clamping effect. The other thing you can do is go buy a new unit and fit that on using the original nut under of course. This would give you a new seal.
John H
I haven't done it, looks good though. Here is a link to a youtube video that shows how it is used. Perhaps you can use.
WingTite Installation Demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfr659ThrRg#)
I thought it looked worthwhile.
Charles
Just a thought about using the emmory cloth. I thought he was getting rid of any sharp edge at he top of the pipe rather than trying to smooth the whole side of the pipe. This would make more sense for the O-ring seal.
Thanks for all the good advice. Bob was able to jimmy rig a pin wrench using a bar and allen wrench. He slid the pin into the opening on the nut "wings" (for lack of a better term) and was able to get it tightened. This old coach continues to challenge us but we love her:) Thanks again for the help!! Faith
I did at first think that he was just breaking the edge but the more I looked at it his fingers are definitly vertical and he did make mention of smoothing the surface, NOT the cut edge.
John H
Not a bad idea, but, I would definitly buy a new fitting and do what I earlier mentioned as the original shape of seal has more surface contact than the O ring, and, it can be compressed for tighter grip around pipe.
IMHO
Nice jury rigged tool! My palm reading guide tells me that you have a knack for ingenuity. :))
Found the drain weeping again :( That's enough of that. Two hours later the WingTite is in. End of leak drama :)