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Let me begin by stating that I am not a pro, I’m not even much of a DIY’er, just trying to solve this problem before spending more money. That said, please forgive my ignorance of proper terms and part names.
SWMBO and I just bought our first house and we’re quickly realizing that the second floor was banged together in a hurry (most likely by the previous home owner – evidently not a pro or much of a DIY’er himself) in an effort to sell the house quickly (was originally a one bedroom cape w/unfinished second level). For the most part we’re simply annoyed by the shoddy craftsmanship (read tubes and tubes of caulk), but we’ve come across our first real problem.
The shower drain in the second floor bathroom began leaking into the first floor bathroom. Called a plumber out (new to this town, so just pulled out the yellow pages and picked one). He confirmed my suspicions that whoever installed the shower had no idea what he was doing and basically just “did it wrong”. So, he pulled the old drain out and replaced it (yes, replaced it, not just fixed the improper installation). So, $250 later…all set, right? Wrong.
This was quite a leak and the sheet rock in the first floor bathroom had been pretty severely damaged so I had it pulled out before the plumber even showed up. While sizing up the situation and getting ready to re hang the sheet rock, I noticed that the trap on the new shower drain was hanging too far below the joists to allow me to put the ceiling back up. Tried paging the plumber for two hours with no response, so I just left him a message. He came out the next day (a bit annoyed I might add) and raised the trap enough to accommodate the sheet rock. All set, right? Wrong.
Now the drain is leaking again. Thankfully I hadn’t put the sheet rock back up. Another call to the plumber. Says he’ll be out tomorrow… doesn’t show up for two days. Now he’s really annoyed. He puts a wrench to it and gives it a crank. “Just needed to be tightened” he says. All set, right? Wrong.
Drain is still leaking!! So, I’m to the point where I’m not calling this guy again because a: he doesn’t seem able to fix the problem, and b: he gets more annoyed every time he has to come back (my wife has been the only one home each time he’s visited and this last time he was downright abrasive and rude to her).
Anyway, my complaints about the plumber aside, here’s what I can see on close observation of the drain (this is the part where you have to forgive me for using terms like “the thingy” and the “whatsits”). Looking at the drain from below (remember the 1st floor ceiling is still out) I can see a brass(?) threaded fitting coming out of the bottom of the shower (I’m assuming this is the actual drain) onto which is threaded a brass(?) ring which tightens up to the bottom of the shower(this is the ring he put the wrench on and gave a crank to). Between the bottom of the shower and this threaded ring there appears to be two gaskets, one rubber and one paper (rubber gasket against the shower, then paper gasket, then threaded ring). This is where the leak seems to be coming from. If I run the water and watch closely, a drip will form exactly where the gaskets are. Also when I touch the gaskets, the paper one is soaked. As I said, I’m no pro but it seems that the paper gasket shouldn’t even be there…it seems to be causing all the problems.
Anyway, any suggestions before I call a different plumber and spend more money? If you need more details let me know. Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.
Replies
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Let me begin by stating that I am not a pro, I'm not even much of a DIY'er, just trying to solve this problem before spending more money. That said, please forgive my ignorance of proper terms and part names.
SWMBO and I just bought our first house and we're quickly realizing that the second floor was banged together in a hurry (most likely by the previous home owner - evidently not a pro or much of a DIY'er himself) in an effort to sell the house quickly (was originally a one bedroom cape w/unfinished second level). For the most part we're simply annoyed by the shoddy craftsmanship (read tubes and tubes of caulk), but we've come across our first real problem.
The shower drain in the second floor bathroom began leaking into the first floor bathroom. Called a plumber out (new to this town, so just pulled out the yellow pages and picked one). He confirmed my suspicions that whoever installed the shower had no idea what he was doing and basically just "did it wrong". So, he pulled the old drain out and replaced it (yes, replaced it, not just fixed the improper installation). So, $250 later...all set, right? Wrong.
This was quite a leak and the sheet rock in the first floor bathroom had been pretty severely damaged so I had it pulled out before the plumber even showed up. While sizing up the situation and getting ready to re hang the sheet rock, I noticed that the trap on the new shower drain was hanging too far below the joists to allow me to put the ceiling back up. Tried paging the plumber for two hours with no response, so I just left him a message. He came out the next day (a bit annoyed I might add) and raised the trap enough to accommodate the sheet rock. All set, right? Wrong.
Now the drain is leaking again. Thankfully I hadn't put the sheet rock back up. Another call to the plumber. Says he'll be out tomorrow... doesn't show up for two days. Now he's really annoyed. He puts a wrench to it and gives it a crank. "Just needed to be tightened" he says. All set, right? Wrong.
Drain is still leaking!! So, I'm to the point where I'm not calling this guy again because a: he doesn't seem able to fix the problem, and b: he gets more annoyed every time he has to come back (my wife has been the only one home each time he's visited and this last time he was downright abrasive and rude to her).
Anyway, my complaints about the plumber aside, here's what I can see on close observation of the drain (this is the part where you have to forgive me for using terms like "the thingy" and the "whatsits"). Looking at the drain from below (remember the 1st floor ceiling is still out) I can see a brass(?) threaded fitting coming out of the bottom of the shower (I'm assuming this is the actual drain) onto which is threaded a brass(?) ring which tightens up to the bottom of the shower(this is the ring he put the wrench on and gave a crank to). Between the bottom of the shower and this threaded ring there appears to be two gaskets, one rubber and one paper (rubber gasket against the shower, then paper gasket, then threaded ring). This is where the leak seems to be coming from. If I run the water and watch closely, a drip will form exactly where the gaskets are. Also when I touch the gaskets, the paper one is soaked. As I said, I'm no pro but it seems that the paper gasket shouldn't even be there...it seems to be causing all the problems.
Anyway, any suggestions before I call a different plumber and spend more money? If you need more details let me know. Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.