basement shower drain

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jale120962

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Six years ago my wife and I built a house and when we had the basement poured we had the plumbers install all the pipeworks and drains for putting in a bathroom down in the basement. They did so and covered the drains. Now I am ready to put in the bathroom and would like to open the drains and install a shower. How difficult is this and can you give advice on any prep that needs to be done. I am just installing a shower stall so I would like to do it myself if possible. Can I get a little direction?

Thanks! jalee120962
 

Kreemoweet

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How can anyone "give direction" if you give no details? What does it mean that the plumbers "covered the drains"? A shower stall can
be many different things, what did you have in mind? What does "prep" mean? What you are describing is all in a day's work (well, maybe
a week's work) for many of us, and quite beyond the skillset of others. Does that make it "difficult"? I dunno!
 

Jadnashua

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Without knowing more, it's really hard to say.

The size of the shower and the type of pan you choose will dicate where the drain needs to be. If you have to work backwards because the drain is in a specific place, that's harder and often doesn't work well The rough-in may or may not have included venting, which is required to make it all work. They may not have installed a trap. there may only be a thin skin of cement over where the riser for the trap will be. Often, you'd have to break that away, dig out some of the fill, and then decide how to install the trap so it will mate up with the shower pan. If doing a custom shower pan, it could be anywhere, but it always works out better if it is centered (using a traditionally shaped pan), or on an end, if doing a linear drain. The center the builder chose may be nowhere near where you want it to be, or the same size.

So, you'd have to provide more info.

Not only the drains need to be supplied along with the vents, but the water supply, which may be easier since it is usually built in behind the new walls. Depends on where it has to come from and where you want the 'wet' wall of the shower.
 

Terry

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If the drain has been covered over, you will be breaking out the concrete, locating the drain in the right position and then setting the stall over that.
And a few more steps. A bit of framing, and installation of a shower valve. New ones are pressure balanced.
 

hj

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When they are not going to be the ones installing the fixtures, some plumbers are not accomodating to make it easy for the person who does do it. You could have a major project to install the shower drain, or it could be easy, but without seeing what they did we cannot tell you which is your situation.
 
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