Leaking shower drain

[Greg F]

Hi Everyone,

I am attempting to fix a plumbing issue I’ve encountered. My shower drain is leaking into the basement. I’ve traced the source of the leak back to the shower drain. The water is leaking from the outside ring part of the flange (see pics). My question is, how do I remove the flange? I was able to remove the inside ring part using a screwdriver on the notches. I’m guessing that it’s screwed in.. I was too afraid to apply pressure prying it up with a screwdriver.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Dj2]

You have to remove the black gasket around the drain pipe, either from above or from the basement ceiling.
Once you removed it, get a new gasket (avail at HD), and install it, flash to the flange, not deeper. This new gasket will provide a tight seal around the drain pipe.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Greg F]

You have to remove the black gasket around the drain pipe, either from above or from the basement ceiling.
Once you removed it, get a new gasket (avail at HD), and install it, flash to the flange, not deeper. This new gasket will provide a tight seal around the drain pipe.

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it. Could the leak have been caused by the gasket dropping as deep down as it did? I’m confused because the leak isn’t actually coming from where the gasket is around the drain pipe. It leaks around the outer edge of the flange itself. Does that make sense? Sorry, my plumbing experience is zero..

 

[Dj2]

If you have a shower base, and you see a leak coming from under the flange and the nut, this could mean that the putty under the flange is worn out and is no longer stopping the water.
You will need a helper to undue the nut, clean, put a fresh bead of plumber's putty and re-install the nut from under the base.

 

[Flotsam]

Let me tag onto this thread as I have an identical problem on a pre-fab shower with a leaking shower flange. I have attached two pictures which show the access underneath to this flange and a water droplet leaking from the flange.

I am planning on removing this pre-fab shower next year and replacing with a new shower pan and tile shower. But for now i want to replace this old shower flange with a new one. How does this come out? The second picture actually shows the flange collar and a small water droplet (the leak!); my question is does this collar thread on and off?

The pictures i have are all from the lower bathroom which is getting redone and i can't seal that wall until i get this water leak problem resolved.

 

[Terry]

I normally cut out the p-trap if needed. Sometimes I can cut above the trap and couple it up afterwards. Maybe. They do make a Mission style coupling that converts from copper to plastic sizing.
With a fiberglass pan like this, I install a new drain with Silicone. So many old drains done with plumbers putty are now leaking.
My favorite drains for that use a ring with screws that allow tightening with a screw driver. It's pretty darn hard snugging those up with pliers once the shower has been dropped into place.

Or check out this link
https://www.wingtite.com/fix-leaky-shower/

 

[Flotsam]

Thank you so much for the reply Terry. You said two things that I wanted to make sure I understood.

Here is a picture of that full wall in downstairs bathroom that shows that trap for the shower above and where i am tying into house drain and stack. (I had posted in another thread about replacing the cast iron and this is the successful result) So my plan was to drop the trap a few inches and tie into the new PVC pipe. The new wall will cover all this up then. That's why i wanted to replace the coupling above now. I will also replace that copper shown in the picture and put in a new drain for the toilet which is above and to the left but only accessible from the top. The connections for both the toilet and shower drain were only done in 1 1/2" copper which I think is undersize per current code (should be 2" correct?).

That picture you show above of jack rabbit shower drain, is that the same way I will be able to remove the threaded collar from old fixture? That is definitely the type of drain fixture i will get but in PVC. Thanks!