Upstairs tub drain leak

Hello All,

Glad I found this forum, seems like a great place to talk about the following issue that I having. Last night when my little one was taking a bath in the upstairs bathroom I happened to be in the downstairs laundry room (directly below the upstairs tub) when I heard a "pitter pater" sound coming directly7 above me, when I looked up I noticed that the paint was peeling. I knew at once that it was water so I pulled my pocket knife out and cut a small hole which immediately leaked water.

I emptied the bath tub quickly and set to work. Taking my drywall saw cut a 3 by 3 square in my ceiling to investigate further. This is what I found.



I could see the water leaking from around the pipe where it meets up with the tub, I went upstairs and unscrewed the draing for a closer inspection, the gasket looked fine, feeling around the drain hole I felt that the fiberglass was not smooth around the bottom of the tub. I figured this was my problem. I went downstairs and grabbed my grinder to smoothe out the fiberglass, it was difficult to grind it level and I ended up grinded to much I went down to the local home center and found a product that looked like playdoo but was an epoxy, when mixed by hand and water added to started getting very warm to the touch and after a few minutes got hard. The end result looked like this.



I tested the water this evening and found that it is still leaking, though in a different spot. It is now coming from the edge of the grey putty that I put in. You can see that there is quite a mess of fiberglass on the bottom of the tub. My next thought is to grind around the ring that I made and add more of the putty.

Two more items to add, the house is 18 yrs old and the leak occured with the drain plugged.

Since I have never ventured this for in the plumming world I thought that before I go farther I should ask individuals more experienced than I. Please let me know if I am on the right track or need to jump to another.

Dan

 

I think you might have screwed your self by grinding in the first place. may be time for a new tub. but first i would remove the putty you added and try the properly fiberglass with mat and resin

 

Thanks for everyones input, I think that it is to late though to remove the putty, it is an epoxy that dried like cement, its attached itself to the fiberglass really well. I am thinking that I need a stop-gap measure to hold me over till next year when I will be replacing the tub. I have had friends tell me that liquid nails would do the trick, what do you say? Is there a better substance to try and stop the drops from coming? I realize that I am not fixing the leak, only containing it.