Reworking shower drain

[Buzzards27]

Long time looker, first time posting. This forum and John Bridge's tile forum are some of the best online.

I'm getting ready to rework a mucked up shower drain that was modified when they went from tub to shower.

Home is 55 years old, 3" copper main, with 1 1/2" copper drain to tub that was "extended" for shower. Because of accessibility issues they cobbled 4 PVC elbows together to get from the trap to the existing 1 1/2" line. That line ties into 3" stack with a 3x3x1 1/2" brass wye.

My first option is to cut the stack and sweat out the wye. Then fit up a 3x3x2 PC wye attached with Fernco's top and bottom.

Fall back plan is leaving the 3x3x1 1/2 brass wye in place (with a 1 1/2" Fernco cap) and build with PVC just below it. I do have 10' ceilings.

First question, are the cheap rubber and hose clamp Ferncos approved for this use? Copper to PVC? Do I need speciality Ferncos, such as 3001-33?

Is it worth sweating the copper wye out? Is capping the wye acceptable?

There is no way to unstack this and build it right, Ferncos and modest gaps are my only option.

I have no real reason to do the job other than it is a shower base on a 1 1/2" line. That and the four PVC fittings look ridiculous.

 

[Buzzards27]

 

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[Buzzards27]

 

[wwhitney]

IPC (used in Ohio) allows a shower (up to 5.7 gpm of showerheads) on a 1-1/2" drain line. So if both the copper and PVC are 1-1/2", and everything is working fine, I'd suggest leave it as is.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Buzzards27]

IPC (used in Ohio) allows a shower (up to 5.7 gpm of showerheads) on a 1-1/2" drain line. So if both the copper and PVC are 1-1/2", and everything is working fine, I'd suggest leave it as is.

Cheers, Wayne

Thanks Wayne,

I hear you, but I am going to tackle it in a few days. I cannot cover this over and forget what's up there.

This spring I'm having the hvac reworked, new insulated multi zone trunks with electronic dampers. Don't want them seeing sub par work.

As soon as I pick up a fresh jug of gasket lub I'm going for it. I'm going to take the brass wye out and use ck33's.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Assuming you've got an 1 1/2 santee in the joist bay for a vent just cut that copper out and and use a 3 x3 x2 wye 2 inch 45 and a 2 x1 1/2x2 santee shoot down same joist bay and use only 2 45s ( I see no need for that mess of fittings) if there isn't a santee then you've got some kinda backward plumbing going on

 

[Buzzards27]

assuming youve got an 1 1/2 santee in the joist bay for a vent just cut that copper out and and use a 3 x3 x2 wye 2 inch 45 and a 2 x1 1/2x2 santee shoot down same joist bay and use ony 2 45s ( I see no need for that mess of fittings) if there isnt a santee then youve got some kinda backward plumbing going on

Yes, there is a 1 1/2 vent above the 1 1/2 copper line that I'll bring into the next bay and drop into the 2" pvc.

That outer bay also has the toilet supply and HAD a 6" heat duct the "remodelers" disconnected.

That bay is pretty jambed up. That's the other reason I wanted get the 1 1/2 drain out of that bay.

 

[Jeff H Young]

technically the 3001 33 is made for cast iron to copper. fit up might not look so good

 

[Buzzards27]

technically the 3001 33 is made for cast iron to copper. fit up might not look so good

3007-33 instead?

 

[Buzzards27]

technically the 3001 33 is made for cast iron to copper. fit up might not look so good

3007-33 instead?

 

[Jeff H Young]

Yep that's it I looked yesterday didn't see that one

 

[Buzzards27]

Was able to break wye loose with mapp gas.

Based on the gunk in the 1 1/2" drain this rework was warranted. It appears that there may have been past blockage that lead to back flow into the vent (some traces of scum on the lower 1/3 of the vent). Vent is open and snake comes back clean. Anything else I should do before closing it up?

 

[Jeff H Young]

Not that I can think of, look on track to me!

 

[Buzzards27]

Job done. For some reason I cannot upload the photos I took without cropping them a lot...