Is this shower drain bad?

[TacoFan]

Hi all, my wife and I recently bought a house. The inspection report said the primary shower leaks pretty badly, so we haven’t used it yet.

The grout is cracked, so I started removing the grout to regrout it.

When removing grout, I removed the shower drain cover to clear out a ton of hair. I found the metal piece that the drain cover screws into has a hole maybe the size of a dime or nickel.

Is that hole supposed to be there? Is it for overflow or something?

If the hole is not supposed to be there, is it a problem? Would it cause leaks? I’m trying to determine if I need to make a fix to this metal piece, and if so, what to do.

Thanks for any advice. Pics below

 

[TacoFan]

I did a little more digging online and think the hole may be a weep hole? If so I guess it’s a good thing.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

Any tile mudset shower uses a liner under the tile and under the mortar that the tile is set atop to create its actual seal. The tile and grout are only water resistant but ultimately porous. The strainer is typically an adjustable neck that threads into a clamp which bolts down to the drain body. The sealing surface is clamped and sealed to that drain body. Your picture may be the adjustable strainer top and below that is the cast iron drain body.

Most likely you're looking at a complete new tile job if any of the tile shower is leaking through. And if its been that way for a while, there may be some rotten wood framing members too.

 

[TacoFan]

Any tile mudset shower uses a liner under the tile and under the mortar that the tile is set atop to create its actual seal. The tile and grout are only water resistant but ultimately porous. The strainer is typically an adjustable neck that threads into a clamp which bolts down to the drain body. The sealing surface is clamped and sealed to that drain body. Your picture may be the adjustable strainer top and below that is the cast iron drain body.

Most likely you're looking at a complete new tile job if any of the tile shower is leaking through. And if its been that way for a while, there may be some rotten wood framing members too.

Thanks, and yeah, I agree most likely the long term fix is to redo the whole shower.

With this shower, I can see some tiles cracked, grout missing and poorly installed, and caulk on the glass/metal parts are not well sealed.

I’m going to fix up the grout/tile/caulk around where the shower glass/metal meets the tile, and if that fixes it I can at least use the shower in the short term.

If it doesn’t fix it, then I’ll see about longer term fixes