Shower Waste joints not accessible ?

[Madrab]

All you can do with this or any other waste system fit is use the best bits and then wet test. If it passes the test then you have to have confidence that as long as the components are fitted stress free that they will stay leak free.

Nothing in the plumbing game, that channels water, is 100% guaranteed to stay dry for ever but as long as it's prepped well and fitted properly then it minimises the chance that it will ever leak.

 

[SproutsDad]

All you can do with this or any other waste system fit is use the best bits and then wet test. If it passes the test then you have to have confidence that as long as the components are fitted stress free that they will stay leak free.

Thanks, you're so right I'm sure. What concerned me with this one was that the compression fittings locked away forever, and not behind plasterboard, but a very permanent floor.

But I suppose I should take comfort from other installations I can access that have remained trouble-free for decades.

I occasionally remove a bath front panel and note that the many compression fittings installed 30 years ago are all still bone dry, as well as the polythene sheet I laid there as a 'just in case!'
Thanks again.

 

[dilalio]

OP are you an ex-engineer by any chance?

 

[RobTi]

Or just fit an access panel like a carpet well at a front door, trim round the edges and tiled on top then cover with a shower mat or if you prefer a wooden board

 

[SproutsDad]

OP are you an ex-engineer by any chance?

Yes I am one (automotive) not ex! Is that an advantage or a handicap?

 

[dilalio]

Yes I am one (automotive) not ex! Is that an advantage or a handicap?

Depends if you're on the tools or on the keyboard!

 

[SproutsDad]

Or just fit an access panel like a carpet well at a front door, trim round the edges and tiled on top then cover with a shower mat or if you prefer a wooden board

Thanks, a good suggestion to incorporate that while doing all this work. One of the first replies to this was to build in access if at all possible, but I couldn't see exactly how at the time I could do that.
Access panels in homes are often on vertical walls, unless large floor ones in commercial situations, whereas this would be on a small bathroom floor, a potentially wet one at that. So it would need to seal itself, otherwise it could become the source of leaking into the void underneath and become a drain - thereby solving one problem and creating another.
But I'm sure I could find a way that works. I assume you mean something like the attached sketch?
Much appreciated. Lots of good advice from everyone, better I feel to have consulted you guys, than to just blast in to it.

t.

 

[SproutsDad]

Depends if you're on the tools or on the keyboard!

Many years of both, there shouldn't be any boundaries, they complement each other and these days you can't easily do one without the other.

 

[dilalio]

Many years of both, there shouldn't be any boundaries, they complement each other and these days you can't easily do one without the other.

Education seems to disagree with that.
Which disappoints me