Slight Leak From Shower Floor Drain

[NYC_Sport]

Hi all. Our master shower leaks slightly -- a few drips, but the drips still materialize a day or two after it was last used. The drip is immediately surrounding the drain. Fortuitously right above a ceiling speaker, so above and below pictures attached. Marble tile floor, over full copper shower pan.

There clearly are some grout repairs needed, and I am prepared to regrout the entire floor this weekend if that makes sense. But I often read here and elsewhere that a shower should be waterproof regardless of grout, so is the problem elsewhere? Is this drain removable and does it have plumber's putty/seals where it meets the pan? Don't want to spend 3 days regrouting if the tiles need to come out.

Thanks very much for any thoughts or suggestions. Much appreciated!!!

 

[Terry]

Who installed the drain? That looks to be a clamping style drain for a vinyl liner but I could be wrong.
And why the nails near the drain?
With most drains, I would expect to see a gap between the it and the wood cutout.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[NYC_Sport]

Thanks Terry. The house was built 10 years ago. This is the first issue with the shower, so the drain is what was installed when we had the house built. There are 3 other showers with similar (looking) drains. I was guessing that the nails were some sort of flashing (they are fairly think nails, and fairly evenly spaced around the drain), but have no idea. If a clamping style, does that mean that the top unscrews? It is not obvious from the picture, but the flange visible from below actually sits on top of the wood subfloor. In fact, it may be recessed into the subfloor as the edge of the floor around the drain is fairly thin.

Very much appreciate your views. Have a good weekend

 

[Jadnashua]

FWIW, if your pan is sitting flat on the floor, it does not meet the plumbing code as they require the waterproofing (that's not the tile!) to be sloped to the drain. Over a wooden subfloor, normally, that presloped layer would be made out of a sand:cement mix, and needs to be in the order of at least an inch thick around the drain (manufacturer's call for it to be a minimum of 1-1/4" thick, but people tend to cheat that a bit, and generally, it works), so the connection to the pan would not be able to be on the subflooring. While you could, in theory, make a solid, sloped surface for your pan out of something other than deck mud, deck mud is cheap and works, so it is the more normal method. You just have to use the materials properly.

Again, a shower pan, flat on the floor, should never happen. There are lots of places that overlook that and only look to verify that it doesn't leak when built. Working properly, long-term, should be the goal, and the industry guidelines list numerous methods, but you still have to follow them and meet the building code as well.

Note that the leak may not actually be at the drain...water will flow and take the path of least resistance...there could be a fault in the curb. It's harder to make copper fit over the curb and be waterproof. It's very tempting to just put a few nails into it to hold it in place. A bit of silicone over them might work for awhile.