H.O.NotAPro
New Member
Construction was new in 2004, custom shower floor pan. Based on my inspection (and conjectures in italics of what I did not directly observe): 2” cast iron P trap, 2” ABS tailpipe, Plumbing Products Company 2” Glue-on 501SA ABS shower drain (bottom & top piece sandwich hop mop in between – website model number matches company name and design on cover grate.) Plywood subfloor, mortar pre-slope bed, hot mop (observed end result, not application), mud base, thinset, tile.
After second clog in 20 years, removed grate, augered out hair clog, scrubbed interior clean, now drains well. I have never seen any water staining of drywall ceiling below shower.
See photos. There is a thin white perhaps 1/16” thick stiff but flexible plastic feeling tab-like segment of a sheet of something projecting inward just above the top of the ABS tailpipe where the tailpipe is presumably cemented into the bottom of the shower drain. It extends about ¼” past the inner pipe wall on one side. Pushing on it firmly causes it to slightly bend and spring back into position, but does not dislodge it.
The 5/16” long inner lining of the lower piece of the ABS shower drain just above the insertion of the black ABS tailpipe is a semi-opaque white color, reminiscent of a high density polyethylene (HPDE) cutting board, with patches of black that appear to overlay this, but appear to have been scraped off in other places, and the black appears scraped off just above the aforementioned plastic tab where the tab would prevent my auger from scraping it. Seen from above, there is a faint circular rim about ¼” outside the inner edge of this opaque white ring-like structure where I would expect to find only the black ABS injection moulding of the lower piece of the shower drain assembly. Only the innermost 2”id surface is white, the top surface looking down is grey-black as is the wider 3”id cup above the taper.
Our local California hot mop construction code calls for four layers of liquid melted asphalt tar around three layers of 15 weight asphalt roofing felt. Online references suggest this results in a 1/8” to ¾” layer, most often ¾” on the horizontal shower pan floor. Online videos of hot mop applications show that the hole in the felt for the drain may be cut just outside the bolts to connect the top and bottom flanges of the shower drain. My shower drain top and bottom where the flanges would be expected to sandwich the hot mop layer appear to be separated by approximately ½”. Photos of the inside of the drain show this layer to be black as expected toward one side, but more of a two tone tan some of which has the textural appearance of mortar on the other side.
Questions:
1.) What is the white tab projecting into the inner diameter just above the tailpipe (seen best in third photo)?
2.) Why does the inner lining of the bottom piece of the shower drain just above the tailpipe not look like it is made of black ABS (third photo between red and green arrows)?
3.) Would it be unusual for the hot mop layer not to appear uniformly black all the way around the circumference(second photo)? (The top and bottom flanges of the shower drain are meant to be bolted against the sandwiched hot mop layer to provide the waterproof seal, however I imagine there is the potential for pre-slope mortar before application of the hot mop layer to be deposited along the inner circumference of the drain, as well as tiling mud after the hot mop layer to enter any remaining voids via the shower drain top piece weep holes.)
4.) Are any of these of future risk or concern?
Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
After second clog in 20 years, removed grate, augered out hair clog, scrubbed interior clean, now drains well. I have never seen any water staining of drywall ceiling below shower.
See photos. There is a thin white perhaps 1/16” thick stiff but flexible plastic feeling tab-like segment of a sheet of something projecting inward just above the top of the ABS tailpipe where the tailpipe is presumably cemented into the bottom of the shower drain. It extends about ¼” past the inner pipe wall on one side. Pushing on it firmly causes it to slightly bend and spring back into position, but does not dislodge it.
The 5/16” long inner lining of the lower piece of the ABS shower drain just above the insertion of the black ABS tailpipe is a semi-opaque white color, reminiscent of a high density polyethylene (HPDE) cutting board, with patches of black that appear to overlay this, but appear to have been scraped off in other places, and the black appears scraped off just above the aforementioned plastic tab where the tab would prevent my auger from scraping it. Seen from above, there is a faint circular rim about ¼” outside the inner edge of this opaque white ring-like structure where I would expect to find only the black ABS injection moulding of the lower piece of the shower drain assembly. Only the innermost 2”id surface is white, the top surface looking down is grey-black as is the wider 3”id cup above the taper.
Our local California hot mop construction code calls for four layers of liquid melted asphalt tar around three layers of 15 weight asphalt roofing felt. Online references suggest this results in a 1/8” to ¾” layer, most often ¾” on the horizontal shower pan floor. Online videos of hot mop applications show that the hole in the felt for the drain may be cut just outside the bolts to connect the top and bottom flanges of the shower drain. My shower drain top and bottom where the flanges would be expected to sandwich the hot mop layer appear to be separated by approximately ½”. Photos of the inside of the drain show this layer to be black as expected toward one side, but more of a two tone tan some of which has the textural appearance of mortar on the other side.
Questions:
1.) What is the white tab projecting into the inner diameter just above the tailpipe (seen best in third photo)?
2.) Why does the inner lining of the bottom piece of the shower drain just above the tailpipe not look like it is made of black ABS (third photo between red and green arrows)?
3.) Would it be unusual for the hot mop layer not to appear uniformly black all the way around the circumference(second photo)? (The top and bottom flanges of the shower drain are meant to be bolted against the sandwiched hot mop layer to provide the waterproof seal, however I imagine there is the potential for pre-slope mortar before application of the hot mop layer to be deposited along the inner circumference of the drain, as well as tiling mud after the hot mop layer to enter any remaining voids via the shower drain top piece weep holes.)
4.) Are any of these of future risk or concern?
Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
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