Can I reliably patch old PVC joint gone bad?

[Rob Redden]

I am heartbroken. I have been remodeling my downstairs bathroom, which sits immediately under the upstairs bathroom. We developed a leak from above, and about half of the new bathroom ceiling was seriously soaked before I could figure out where the leak was coming from.

It took a bit of playing around to figure out that it had to be coming from the upstairs tub drain. Once I was confident of that, I took down the ceiling immediately below it and found a very obvious leak between the tub drain and the PVC pipe connecting it to the nearby trap. This is a joint that had held up fine for the twenty years I've been in the house and I don't know how long before that, so I am very surprised to have it suddenly develop such a significant leak. I don't know if there are any implications to that having happened.

It is not that the entire joint has given way, and I cannot readily pull the pipe out of the drain. Given that the leaky joint is basically chemically welded to the tub, I am afraid that if there is not some sort of reliable patch, I'll have to replace the whole tub and the drain pipe connections to it! Of course I'd prefer not to do that if it is not necessary, but I also don't want to do a repair that is slipshod and unlikely to hold up after I repair the damaged ceiling below. Is there some material that will make a reliable seal in this context, or is there some other, better way to deal with it?

Thanks in advance for assistance and consideration.

 

[MACPLUMB]

To fix old pvc joint's ! !

OTHER THEN CUTTING OUT AND REPLACING, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN SUGGEST

http://www.tchristy.com/SpecSheets/slick-wrap.pdf POST SOME PICTURES TO GET

OTHER SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO FIX OR REPLACE THE PROBLEM

 

[Sponsor]

 

[TedL]

Not that it's impossible, but for the drain/overflow assembly to be solvent welded to the tub would be highly unusual. You should be able to disassemble them from the tub by turning the crossbars in the drain (plier handles down, pipe wrench on the plier jaws) and removing the screw(s) on the overflow plate.

 

[Rob Redden]

Thanks for the response. I was in such a panic yesterday over this I didn't think to look further before throwing the question up, but today I found a site that made clear the joint is not likely glued. I will get out the pliers and the pipe wrench and get to work. Thanks, again.