How do I remove this drain part?

6 years ago

See picture.

I have removed a one-piece three-wall-plus-pan (acrylic?) shower insert. I had to tear it into bits to remove it from the drain because I can't figure out how to remove the drain from the waste plumbing below it. There *is* a huge pvc hex nut underneath it, that I assume tightened up the drain to the shower, but it's bigger than any wrench I have and almost inaccessible. The house was built in 1997.

Anyone familiar with this design and can tell me what to do next?

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

User
6 years ago
Call the plumber. And the tile pro. You need professionals if you lack the tools to address the problem.
formulaross20
6 years ago
The nut you speak of probably does clamp the drain to the bottom of the shower. Don't worry about that since the shower is now missing! The drain looks to be plastic which means that, likely the drain body has been glued into the abs drain piping below; you will need to cut it out. But, before cutting have a plan in place, in other words, have things completely figured out as to what parts you will buy (have them bought and in your hands for examination!) and how you will reassemble the shower drain. That way you can make judicious cuts and minimize what further repair work you have to do to the subfloor plumbing. If you are planning to reinstall another acrylic/fiberglass enclosure, you may want to use what I did installing our showers. The link below shows the drains I used. Look at section 2 and you will see a rubber gasket that is driven downward around the drain pipe between the drain pipe and shower drain. To install to a shower, the drain pipe is left extending up above the subfloor an appropriate distance. Then, the drain is installed onto the bottom of the shower and the shower unit placed into the alcove and over the drain pipe. Then from above, the rubber gasket is driven into place. Simple, easy and it works! There are other similar drains suitable for tile installations as well.

https://www.us.kohler.com/webassets/kpna/catalog/pdf/en/1114755_2.pdf
Greg Wellman thanked formulaross20
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Greg Wellman
Original Author
6 years ago
For anyone who stumbles across this later, that drain flange was completely glued to the drain pipe, so the solution was to cut it off (which can be done with a drill or dremel attachment) and glue in a new ABS coupling and a few more inches of ABS pipe to bring the pipe back up to the necessary height for the new pan.
Stax
6 years ago
Thanks for coming back, Greg!
weedmeister
6 years ago
There are inside cutters that can cut the pipe. I've also seen guys use a chisel/flat screwdriver and a hammer to break off the flange around the circumference. Not sure if enough of the pipe remains to glue to, but it would be a start.