Lois Lane
Member
I have a vintage blue tile 1958 full bath with separate shower stall. Someone over 30 years ago had painted the floor and bottom two layers of tile with what looks like an epoxy or butyl rubber paint. Otherwise the shower looks great. However about 20 years ago the shower started leaking. I have four full bathrooms in my house so I just started using another shower. Now I have decided to get to the bottom of things. I opened the soffit under the shower and saw that the cast iron p-trap was obviously leaking. A simple repair right? Shockingly, I was able to just twist off one end of the p-trap (as in no longer attached to the drain from the shower. But when I cut off the other end of the p-trap, I realized the galvanized pipe going to the main stack (not sure if this is the right word) was NO LONGER ATTACHED! So I opened up the rest of the soffit, to the main stack. What a mess. Many years ago I had some leaking around the toilet in this bathroom which I fixed with a new wax seal. The toilet is right above where these pictures are taken. I have not seen any water leaking since I stopped using the shower. No mold, no water damage, no odor, no slow draining. The sink and the bathtub are connected to a different stack I think. Should I just call the plumber now? Or can I just take care of the shower drain. I was really alarmed by the amount of calcium on the outside of the pipes. I am afraid it means it is leaking from somewhere really slowly over a long period of time. I was also SHOCKED at the catastrophic failure of the shower drain.
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