Remove Shower Drain - No Rubber Gasket

[Aaron Zimmerman]

Hi All,

I'm trying to take out a shower pan from my master bath. I believe it was installed in the mid 80s.

Everything I read says there should be a rubber gasket that I have to drill into and shimmy out, but my drain has no such rubber gasket. Iinstead, where I'd expect to find it is a soft metal, perhaps lead, holding the drain against the pvc piping. See below.

Does anyone know what this is? How do I remove it?

Thanks!

Aaron Zimmerman

 

[chopnhack]

Hi Aaron, it is very odd that you would have lead surrounding that PVC pipe... They used to pack the hub around the pipe with oakum and pour molten lead to seal the joint - that is pretty old school. The fact that you have a pvc pipe makes it very doubtful that they would have poured lead next to it - the pipe would probably have melted away. Very interesting. If it is metallic, drill it out in a series of tightly spaced holes around the perimeter and use and old screwdriver to pry out the pieces. If it was lead, the upper part of the drain should be able to lift off. Let us know how you make progress.