Pico’s Projects: @#$% Plumbing Leaks
It starts with a single word…@#$%. A homeowner quickly learns that the most damaging thing to your home is water. It can hit you in two ways. The drip is the first way water hurts you. A dripping faucet, a toilet tank running, and all of a sudden you have an oversized water bill. The second way water hurts you is the leak. Water runs down pipes, down the walls, through the floors, down the hallway and settles in the lowest possible place. Soggy carpets, rotten cardboard, rotten cabinets, rotten drywall are what await you after the first assault of water. In the battle that ensues there will be multiple sorties to the hardware store, breathing toxic sewer gas and cancer causing chemicals from the solvents and adhesives. Once you survive the battles, you find that you still have a leak. Plumbing follows the goldilocks principle: not too loose, not too tight, you need it just right otherwise it leaks.
Let me tell you a story, one day, I noticed a stain on the ceiling. Wishfully, I hoped that it was an old stain as this is a “new to us” house. The spot had never gotten worse and seemed dry to the touch. Then it happened… I heard the one sound that a homeowner dreads above all others, “drip… drip… drip”. @#$%. The shower was roped off with police tape and put off limits. My plumber has a $170 service call just to show up to take a look at what is going on. That is a fair price considering he has a mortgage, insurance, and groceries to pay for, but I only want to pay expert prices if the work requires an expert (I’ll tell you about replacing the seals in my other shower one day).
I put off the repair because I really didn’t want to cut a hole in the ceiling. Besides plumbing, repairing drywall is my least favorite task. Anyway, a couple of weekends ago I got started. I tried to figure out what was going on and how to attack the problem. I’ve replaced a few sink drains so I thought the concept had to be the same. Looking at the top of the drain, I noticed two things.
- That drain is not centered (more on this later)
- It looks like those divots in the side would accept a tool to twist out the drain.
That was going to be my attempt: Twist out the drain and then I can twist a new one back in.
“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” is what the robot would be yelling, if I had a robot. I was looking at this tool, the No-Calk Shower Drain Wrench (and it is caulk, not calk [which should’ve been my first warning]) and it looked like it would fit those divots in the top of the drain. Let’s give it a try, I thought. I had used something similar on a tub drain before. I tried to get an idea of what the process would be like, so I read reviews on the tool and watched some YouTube videos. It was suspicious that no one was attempting the repair the way I was going to. Pretending like I was playing “Who Want to be A Millionaire”, I used the phone-a-friend option and I am glad that I did.
I was put in touch with an old acquaintance that has quite a bit of plumbing experience and I started explaining what I was going to do. He started yelling, “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” It turns out that you should NOT put any torque on the PVC pipes as they will crack where you cannot see it. He told me to cut out my ceiling to replace the drain. I still really really didn’t want to cut out my ceiling. So, he offered me another technique and recommended the Wingtite Shower Drain . He used this drain to repair his shower that was over a fancy room with the extra tall ceilings that would’ve required scaffolding to reach and a tough drywall repair to match the textured ceilings. Hot damn! I was going to give it a try. The new drain was only $80, which is $90 less than calling my plumber just to take a look. I drove (trip #1) to the hardware and bought the drain. Who is not going to cut into their ceiling? This guy right here.
The process looks easy enough, you very carefully cut out the existing drain. The nut that was securing the drain to the shower floor falls down into the darkness of the joists. Slide the new drain on. A little 100% silicone (not calk) and tighten a few screws and Bob’s your uncle.
Now, let me tell you my experience. I carefully cut out the existing drain with a dremel. Worked great! This is going to be easy! I’ll be done before dinner. Hunh, I just noticed my drain wasn’t like those in the pictures… see more instructions online. Following the instructions online, I learned I get to purchase a new tool! Enter the Internal Diameter PVC Pipe Cutter. I’m sure this will be a joy to use. I took a trip to pick up the tool (trip #2), but I was fortunate to be able to borrow one instead of buying one. Well, that was enough work for this week, after all this isn’t my day job.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to this Saturday, where I have been spending a lot of time avoiding finishing the project because I would rather be doing anything else (except drywall). Ok, I’m going to use the Internal Diameter PVC Pipe Cutter to cut off the head of the drain.. It isn’t working great. I expected the cutter to go through the pipe like butter, but it kicked around and had a hard time biting in. “Plunk.” @#$%. The cutter bit came loose and dropped straight down into the P-trap and the old gross drain water. Since this isn’t my first rodeo, I saved myself a trip to the hardware to buy a magnet on an extensible stick as I already had one in the toolbox. I crossed my fingers that the cutter was magnetic. Huzzah! Very carefully, I was able to extract the cutter from the drain. I cleaned it off and kept cutting. “Plunk” @#$%. Rinse and repeat. I cut all the way through and “Clonk”, the drain pipe falls away while the old drain is hung up on the floorboard. Looking down the hole, I can see that the pipe has dropped about 4 inches and I cannot get the drain head out of the way. Guess who is cutting into their ceiling even though they really really really don’t want to? This guy right here.
One saving grace about cutting into my ceiling is I have the right tool for the job. The Harbor Freight Oscillating Tool. The cutter head on this makes tidy fast cuts. Suck it, drywall! Quickly, I had a patch cut out of the ceiling to take a better look at what was going on. The first problem I noticed is that the drain pipe fell away because the pipe was not supported. I hope I didn’t get a stress crack somewhere down the line. I didn’t have any strapping, so I had to go to the store (trip #3).
After securing the pipe, I’m looking down through the shower at the pipe… that isn’t centered at all. I started looking at how I could get this centered and then like detective Hecule Piorot on The Orient Express the clues started coming together. Let me explain what I think happened.
- The original installer cut the pipe too short. They looked down the drain and said… that has to be longer.
- They added an extension to the drain line. You can see it in the picture where there is a small little coupling before entering the p-trap.
- They looked down the drain and said… that has to be shorter.
- They swore @#$%, as the pipe was too long. They noticed this as they were installing the drain. Because the pipe was not supported it looked like it was in the correct position. However, when the drain was pushed up it followed the path of an arc and reached out a little too far.
- They said @#$% it and made it work. That is why the drain was not centered, that is why it was cockeyed, that is why it leaked, and that is why I had to cut a @#$%ing hole in my ceiling that I really really really really didn’t want to do.
Always, dry fit your PVC pipes before cementing them together, my darlings. Make little marks on them to record their orientations so while you’re panicking cementing the parts in place they do not seize up in the wrong position.
I felt a little broken and I wanted to push off this project another week, but my woman said that next weekend I had to get the taxes done, so I should finish this job. She’s not wrong, but that didn’t stop me from giving her a look. Well, I took a trip to the hardware (trip #4) to get another coupling so I could make the pipe a little shorter and stick it back together. I came home, cut through the pipe with a hacksaw, and proceeded to get a shower of old nasty drain water out of the p-trap because I didn’t have it balanced. That is one of the grosser experiences I’ve had. At least, my woman got to witness it and laugh. Now that the p-trap was removed the sewer gas was coming out which wasn’t much fun either.
Honestly, it wasn’t too bad after that. Having everything disassembled makes it way easier to work with. I cut the pieces to length using my miter saw which makes nice clean fast cuts. Dry fit all the pieces together and marked their positions. Took the pieces outside to use the primer and then cement them together. Did the final cementing into place. Put 100% silicon on the bottom of the new drain and a little dish soap on the rubber O-ring and pushed it into position and tightened the screws. One shower drain repaired. Now, I just have to check for leaks.
