The Drain Game

We knew moving the shower drain would be difficult, but this was one of our biggest challenges. Usually when people move a drain, they only move it a few inches. We needed to move it a few feet. It’s time to crack through some concrete!

This was our first attempt. It took several hours breaking the surface, and the chisel just wasn’t cutting it. You can tell Joe was getting frustrated. The air compressor chisel is fine for small projects, but we needed to upgrade to a mini jackhammer. Ear plugs defnitely came in handy!

Rerouting the Shower Drain

Here’s the full process. We got all the old plumbing outta there, then put in new pvc pipe. It was a big job that took a couple days. We used Oatey primer and pipe cement to glue the new plumbing together. We 360 leveled the drain head along the way, making sure it would be flush to the floor. We tested the pipe with water to make sure there’d be no leaks, then we packed the trench in with dirt and dumped some concrete on top and let it dry for a few days.

First we dug up the laminate flooring, and determined where we wanted our shower head to be in relation to the shower entrance. Once we got that mapped out, we dug a direct route from the existing shower drain to the new location.

Before

Where that rag is was the location of the old shower drain. Where it says “Shower”, that’s where we want to dig. Point A to Point B. Simple enough, right?

So we started with the chisel and got this far.

And after we rented the mini jackhammer we were able to make a sizable dent. Oh P.S. that’s the tile we’re using for the shower! And we picked up a drain cap to see how it would look.

After all this drilling, we were left with a mighty big pile of rocks and dirt. I felt like we were tunneling out of jail! How deep do you drill? Deep enough to get new pipe in with a little extra room.

We spent some time in the plumbing aisle of the hardware store and used our measurements from Point A to Point B to get the correct length of pvc piping. There are some elbows in there for the angles, and that takes a little time to fit just right. Always better to grab extra pieces to play with and return the ones you don’t need.

After letting the pipe glue setup to dry, we took a cup of water and flushed the plumbing with it, checking for any leaks. It was leak-free. Whew. Then we mixed up a couple bags of concrete and started plopping that right on top.

Keep the drain clear by stuffing it with a rag or covering it. And make sure the dirt below the concrete is packed nice and tight.

Almost done.

And that’s about it! The plumbing to the shower drain is successfully connected. We still have to connect water to the shower head and jets, but that’s for another day.

As you can see, we’ve got some new 2×4’s in place for the new shower walls. It’s really starting to look like a new room now.

Outtakes

As you can see, that mini chisel was getting us nowhere fast. Just so you get a taste of that wonderful noise!

We’re onto framing, electrical, exhaust fan, and most of our lights are in.