shower drain weephole cleaning?

[luke]

I'm hoping someone can tell me how to clean out the weepholes in the floor drain on my shower.

It is a custom cultured marble floor in the shower, and I've discovered standing water between the liner (blue rubber) and the floor that isn't escaping. The water is the result of a long slow leak from caulk joints. Does the floor drain unscrew or pop out? Is there a special tool to unscrew it? (There's no where to "grip" it.) How do I know the weepholes are clear? Will I be able to see them draining?
Thanks!

Luke

 

[hj]

holes

The weep holes are on the perimeter of the floor drain clamping flange. They are seldom visible or accessible once the tile is installed. Depending on the actual drain make and model, you might be able to bend a screwdriver to dig the concrete out, but you would probably have to have a duplicate of the drain to see what would work and where to use it.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[luke]

thanks, hj. So sounds like the "clamping flange" is the uppermost part of the drain, and "snaps" into place to hold the liner? Does that mean I can't remove it?

Maybe I can try a bent coathanger to scrape under the flange, or will I damage the liner?

luke

 

[Jimbo]

Is this a one-piece cultured marble pan? If it is a pan, I don't know why it even has a liner. If is just a slab, then the problem may be lack of preslope. If the liner material is laid on a flat level substrate, then any water that does get through to the liner cannot drain....it just sits there and gets rotten. The liner should be placed on a presloped base material.

 

[luke]

Thanks, Jimbo. It is a one-piece cultured marble pan, and you may be right that the liner is laid flat. The marble is sitting on top of the liner. I guess I can fill the liner with water to see if it drains out the weepholes, and have my wet vac at the ready to remove water if it doesn't drain? If it is flat, and is only a "second line of defense," do you think it's necessary to rip out and re-do?

PS, Are you a Navy man? What's the story on your insignia? I work at Eglin AFB.

 

[Jadnashua]

As I understand it, a one-piece pan doesn't normally get a liner - the pan is designed to sit on a flat floor. In this case, there would be NO weep holes (or at least none that could be used) and the drain would be sealed to the pan.

If you have water in a liner and it is on the floor under the pan, then your drain is not sealed properly plus, you'll never normally get that water out of there - there is no path for it.

A tiled pan would have a preslope, a liner on top of it with the clamping drain, then a final slope, with tile on top of it.

When the walls are tiled with a preformed pan, the normal installation would be to have a barrier on the wall that overlaps the top lip of the pan to direct any moisture that gets through the tiled walls back into the pan, not down to a membrane under the pan.

My unprofessional opinion.