Leaking Shower Drain

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slangivar

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We had a major leak from the mains supply to our shower room. A few moths after everything but the floor covering was repaired we started using the shower on a more than occasional basis. We then spotted a new damp patch on the ceiling below.

On taking up the floor again we discovered a small drip coming from the shower drain which is unfortunately very flat. The leak is coming from this joint:

2018-05-29 08.20.00.jpg

What would be your advice for fixing this pipe?

I can't see anything comparable to the flexible park in my local B&Q and although I have used a handful of compression waste fittings over the years I have never used solvent waste fittings. I don't even know if it's a pipe which would take solvent fittings.

The other end of the flexible pipe goes into a flatish section of 4" pipe just after the next joist:

2018-05-29 08.20.13.jpg

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

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I’d be taking all of that out and replacing with rigid pipe (ABS) and solvent weld fittings, including the strap on boss at the 4” which I’d try and replace with a solvent weld bossed coupling.
 
As above - bodge job of the highest order.

Rip it all out and solvent weld. £30 or so for everything you need and a couple of hours of a plumbers time i’d imagine.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. It hugely appreciated. I assume it was installed by the same person whose joint burst open causing the original flood.

How flexible is 40mm pipe, I assume it will have enough flex to fit without bother?

Can you tell from the markings if the left hand pipe is suitable for solvent weld fittings? Replacing it would require taking the shower tray out which I want to avoid.

Is there a compelling reason to replace the boss? It has been welded to the 4" pipe so I would need to replace a section of that which feels far riskier than reusing the boss.
 
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There’s a bit of flex in it - not huge amounts - but it’s the way to go with this.

If you’re comfortable with the boss and it’s giving you no issues then go nuts. Best practice would update - but if you feel you’ll get away with it then it’s your call as the worker i guess. If there’s a decent fall on the waste then you’ll ‘probably’ be fine - but bearing in mind what would happen if you’re relying on gravity to take the water away, what happens should there be a blockage and it’s relying on a worn inner. Potentially could have an issue in the future. Just something to bear in mind.


Your call - hard to give a definite answer from this viewpoint.
 
Rigid pipe is marked PP, which I'd imagine is Polypropylene, cant solvent weld that. If you really cant get to it to replace it from the shower, then use a quality compression coupling and go from there in solvent weld.

Solvent is fairly easy to use, assemble dry first to check everything fits, once glued its staying there! Mark positions is necessary to get joints in the right place when assembling. Make sure both mating surfaces are clean, apply adhesive to both surfaces, make joint, and wipe off any surplus adhesive. Just be aware, the joint will make in seconds, you need to get it in the right position first time. There is no scope for altering afterwards!
 
Thanks, I think I'll go for the compression joint option just now and look at getting a plumber to redo the lot if we replace the shower. Anything will be better than what's there at the moment.

Edit: I've just taken it apart and the joint from rigid to flex is "made" with silicone and ptfe tape. The other end is solvent and ptfe tape, although neither pipe seems to have reacted to the solvent.
 
Cant really tell by looking at the photos but i would have of thought the leaking flexi spigot would be more closer to 40mm,not pushed into a known 40mm pp pipe.:sick:
 
Flexi pipe will probably be polypropylene too, solvent weld only works with certain types of plastic, i.e. ABS and uPVC. Polypropylene uses compression or push fit joints, ugly and stand more chance of coming apart if the pipework isn't installed properly.

The boss fitting is push fit, they shouldn't have used solvent weld to try and make the joint, although looking at the way that flexi waste has been bodged in, anything is possible....
 
It’s your house @slangivar and your choice... as a tradesman, if I put something like that in for a customer (which I wouldn’t), I’d deserved all the sh!t thrown at me if they then posted photos of it on a forum such as this... and that’s even if it didn’t leak!
 
It's the stuff of nightmares. the flex spigots are around 34mm (1 and 1/3 inches). How the manufacturers expected the joint to be made was clearly not passed onto the installers.

Upstream it looks like this, including a silicone dam which keeps the silicone submerged. There even appears to be a little dry solvent in there too.

2018-06-06 10.30.24.jpg


down stream they didn't bother adding silicone:

2018-06-06 10.31.09.jpg


The only part which seems to be a good join is the push fit into the 4" pipe. I'm away at the weekend but will report back once I have the new parts in place. I assume I should steer clear of a push fit joint between sections of the 40mm pipe as there will be no maintenance access once the flooring is down.
 
Not really fair to blame the manufacturers, if people are going to insist on trying to bodge together stuff that's never been designed to go together, nobody can legislate for that.

Ideally you need to replace as much as you can with solvent welded pipework, make sure its adequately supported, and test thoroughly before replacing the flooring.
 
Like I said... solvent throughout if you’re never gonna be able to access it again... without considerable anguish!
 
Sorry I wasn't trying to blame the manufacturer. It's definitely the installation which is the issue here.

The boss is definitely 40mm. The flex goes into a short length of 40mm pipe where it enters the boss.

dilalio, I agree with what you are saying and on my head be it if it goes wrong. However the anguish of removing the shower tray and cutting the 4" pipe is far greater than having to lift the flooring again if another damp patch appears on the ceiling at an unspecified date in the future.
 
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