I am planning to install one of those retrofit shower bases in place of my old tub and I have read that the drain for a shower is 1/2" larger than a tub drain. Is that a job that requires the slab being jackhammered to remove the pipe and replace it or is there an easy conversion from a 1 1/2 " to 2" drain or do these shower bases fit whatever size drain pipe you already have in the floor?
Changing drain size
- Thread starter tdsmith
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Gary Swart
In the Trades
Showers do require a 2" drain. It is quite probable that some concrete breaking is in you future. You need to have 2" all the way to the larger drain line. Don't forget you need to trap and vent the drain.
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Geniescience
Homeowner
your last question is funny. But I think it can be made all right.tdsmith said:
Tubs (whether plain old bathtubs or "tub-showers") all have a 1.5" size diameter drainpipe. That size is the internal diameter. By the way, drain pipes are round.
Decades ago, showers used the same size diameter round drain pipe as tub-showers and plain old tubs. Then, one day the Code was improved, and a larger size diameter pipe then became the new norm -- to be installed in all new construction! This allowed bigger houses to have longer drainpipes, and it allowed more wiggle room for the builder's employees and plumbers in case they might not have calculated the slope of the drainpipe perfectly. Slope matters. Slope is everything.
In the existing houses, all the old showers still worked. They still drained water as well as ever. Those old houses with the 1.5" size pipe, worked as well as ever. In other words, without a problem.
If your tub drains well now, and if you put another "device" on that drain pipe, and if you don't lengthen the pipe, and if you don't change the slope of its almost-horizontal run, then it will drain well too, with any "new" shower base. That includes the type you bought or any other base.
However, Code today calls for a 2" pipe, so nobody will publish overtly that their shower base could be attached to a 1.5" pipe. Only a plumber can tell you that.
If you know what a reducer is, you don't need to be told.
David
hj
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However, Code today calls for a 2" pipe, so nobody will publish overtly that their shower base could be attached to a 1.5" pipe. Only a plumber can tell you that.
And why would we tell them that and then have a hassle on our hands when they shower and are standing in an inch or more of water.
However, Code today calls for a 2" pipe, so nobody will publish overtly that their shower base could be attached to a 1.5" pipe. Only a plumber can tell you that.
And why would we tell them that and then have a hassle on our hands when they shower and are standing in an inch or more of water.
