leak in shower drain on second floor condo

[yankeelover]

I live in a 3 story condo on the second floor and my neighbor is complaining of a leak. He cut out part of his ceiling to see if he could determine where it was coming from, and it is coming from my drain. I took off the drain cover and there is water sitting in the drain at the first turn, (elbow), I am wandering what, if anything, can be done to fix the leak without ripping my shower out and without replacing his ceiling.

[LazyPup]

The water that you are seeing at the first elbow is most likely the water in the trap under the shower. If so, that water is required to be there.

In order to help you identify your problem we would need a bit more information.

You stated that this is a condo but you did not mention the approximate age of the structure. By knowing the approximate age we may be able to identify problems from vintage plumbing systems as opposed to what is state of the art.

Is this shower a commercially manufactured drop in unit or is it a site built shower pan and wall assembly?

Do you have PVC or ABS plastic drain lines or are they metal pipe?

[yankeelover]

The drain pipe is PVC I think. The shower is a commercially manufactured 1 piece drop in unit, no tub. The structure was built in 2001 and will be five years old in Oct.

[LazyPup]

This should prove to be a very simple and inexpensive fix.

You stated that you think you have PVC pipe. As a rule if you have white plastic pipe it is sched. 40 PVC while ABS pipe would be black. (In the past they did make some black sched. 40 PVC but that is extremely rare.)

A shower is required to have a 2" diameter drain line and they do not make slip joint traps for 2" pipe so we can be sure that the joints are glued.

While we refer to PVC or ABS joints as being glued, in truth that is a mis-nomer. Glue fills the gap between to pieces of material and adheres to the surface. Technically speaking the glue joints on PVC or ABS is a chemical welding process where the glue actually fuses the two pieces together therefore the likelyhood of a properly glued PVC or ABS pipe joint developing a leak is slim to none.

You have a one piece molded fiberglass shower unit so we can rule out leaking grout lines or caulked seams.

This only leaves us with the actual drain to shower pan connection.

If you will refer to the attached illustration you will see that the drain opening is inserted down through the shower pan from the top and a locknut is tightened on the underside to hold it in place.

Some shower drains use a rubber gasket on the upper side as illustrated while others may have a bead of clear silicone caulking sealant or plumbers putty on the underside of the drain assembly where it meets the upper side of the shower pan, then they will have both a rubber gasket and fiber anti friction gasket on the underside between the underside of the shower pan and the lock nut.

In the case of fiberglass tubs and showers there are two problems commonly associated with the use of plumbers putty. Fiberglass is somewhat flexible and as it flexes from continued use some of the plumbers putty is pressed out or the putty dries and cracks from the flexing action. In either case it results in a leak such as you report.

In order to repair this problem you will need a helper and you will need to make a small access opening in the ceiling directly under the drain fitting.

The drain pipe is glued into the drain fitting so you will not be able to lift the drain fitting out. Instead you will unscrew the locknut and let is drop down to the trap, then have a helper push upwards on the pipe from below while you use a rag to clean the underside of the flange and shower pan mating surface from above. Once that is done you can run a bead of clear silicone sealer under the flange and let the flange back down against the shower pan, then from underneath you can slide the lockring up and screw it tightly in place. Allow the silicone about 24hours to cure and you should have the problem solved.

While you have access to the underside of the shower pan feel the shower pan carefully to see if there is any indication of water on the underside of the pan from the outer edge on the side where the mixer control is. It is possible that you have a slight leak at the shower mixer stems and the water is running down the outside of the shower stall by surface tension then dripping off givng the false impression that it is a drain leak.

[yankeelover]

Many thanks!