New shower in the basement

I pulled an ugly Pilot metal shower enclosure out of my basement bathroom and now wondering what I should do to replace it.

The shower area is quite small, 32" x 32" corner stall. I thought about using a Sterling CI2962A-32 Economy Corner Entry Shower Kit. The installation instructions say that the drain should be flush with the subfloor in order to place the shower pan.

My problem is that the drain pipe (galvanized) sticks above the concrete floor about an inch and a half.

Should I build up the floor with Durock or similar and put the floor pan on?
Should I bust out the concrete and lower the drain somehow? This option seems like a lot or work.
Should I consider a tile shower stall, also a lot of work?

Thanks for your ideas.

Do not raise the floor. This will never be satisfactory and you'll always regret it. If all you have to do is cut that steel pipe off flush with the floor, this can be done with a small grinder quite easily. You would need to file the burrs from the inside of the pipe after it's cut, being careful not to cut yourself on the sharp shards. A pro would use a pipe reamer, but a rat tail file will do it. Check the directions for installing the drain to see if it installs on the outside or inside of the pipe. If it is outside, then you will have to drill and chisel some concrete around the pipe to do this, but only enough for the drain to slip over the pipe. If it's an inside connection, then after the inside of the pipe is smoothed, you're good to go.

shower

Just to add to what Gary said, you might, if the pipe is an inch or so above the floor, take a hammer and wack the pipe on the top and on the side if there is room to do that. The plumber may also have wrapped that pipe with something to help it be removed easier.
The pipe was only screwed in hand tight and it may jar loose a tad.
Take your 18" or 2ft pipe wrench and close the jaws almost all the way down. And slip the jaws down over the 2" shower drain and bang the wrench handle in a counter clock direction.
You might find that you can turn that stub right out of the floor.

Thanks, but...

Thanks for the tips. On closer inspection, It looks like an S-pipe (2 90's), which, if I chisel out enough concrete, I can probably remove the S.

So now I have another problem. The specs for the shower call for the drain to be 15.75 inches o.c from both walls (at the stud). The drain center, as it sticks out of the concrete is 16.5 inches, and if I remove the S, the drain is off-center at 16.5" and 20".

Anything "simple" I can do to get the drain where it needs to be?

shower

What are those 2" ells going into?
Seems like you could dig those galv. ells out and take the drain anywhere with in your specs.

I would knock out more concrete, move the p-trap to where it belongs and come up with new pipe.

You can use a new fiberglass base, or a mudset tile base.

For tiling, you can check out
www.johnbridge.com

Bustin' out

I rekon the two ells are connected to the drain pipe, which I can only guess has a trap.

It sounds like I'll be busting out some concrete to put the drain where I need it to be.

I'll go to the other site for tile info, but just a quick question: Can you tile directly on the tile floor, or is more prep (pan) needed?

You can't tile on the concrete floor.

Concrete is pourous.

There will need to be a pvc liner that goes into a clamping drain with weep holes.

Another good reason for removing those ugly pipe fittngs, you can't put a snake down them.
Why bury problems when you are so close to getting it right.

In the end, you want only goodness.

ooooohhh yes! you need much more than just tile on the concrete floor: concrete is porous, so is the tile/grout. You need to build a curb, lay the proper shower membrane in place, do not puncture the membrane in any place where water/tile will be in contact, hospital corner the hell out of the edges, set the drain, water test the membrane, lay a little gravel around weep-holes in the drain body, pour about 2" of cement over the whole deal, and now we're ready for some tile... and that's the very extremely brief rundown, I believe the John Bridge forum has details on how to do this...?

www.johnbridge.com

Almost there...

Thanks, Terry.

So to sum things up, bust out the concrete, remove the ells and the p-trap and put in a new pvc p-trap and pipes connected to the old pipe with a no- hub coupling.
El Dorado


You got it!
Terry

kristi, nice posts on custom pan. just need to pitch some mud before the membrane so you dont have any "dead spots" were water could collect in a corner and grow mold which would work its way up to the tile. yuk! sorry a little anal also. (only when working)