NAXJA Home Improvement Center

[yardape]

OK, let's try this one. A previous owner of my house had installed a prefab shower in my basement. The drain usually smelled like sewage so I ripped out the shower since it was tacky and I never used it anyway. what I found was that someone had installed the drainage pipe after the original cement basement floor was poured. In other words, you can see where the cement had been chipped out and repoured. My assumption is that they never installed a trap into the system. It looks like with minimal cement removal I can install a bell trap in the floor and be done with it. I was hoping that if I wanted to in the future install a shower there I could do so without redigging everything up. Unfortunatley I have not been able to find any shower drains that also act as a trap that could be installed directly to a shower pan. Am I missing something? Are there any alternatives? Thanks in advance.

[RichP]

A trap is a trap, just a U shaped piece of pipe that will hold water in the bottom and provide a seal against gases getting back in. The only provision is that the drain from the shower is higher than the drain going out of the house.

[Sarge]

Build your own. Use a 90 and two st (street) 90's. Basically the st 90's have a bell on one and the other end will slip into a bell on another pipe. Make sure the pipe to the sewer line has a drop, no less than 1/8" per foot, if possible 1/4" per foot. Altho if it's a shorter run the 1/8" will work fine.

Also, how far is the shower from the main stack (a 3 or 4 inch pipe going all the wall up thru the roof) or another stack? If it's too far it will need a vent or it may bubble sewer gas back thru the trap anyway. Also way more likely to back up more often.

Sarge

[HaleYes]

Build your own. Use a 90 and two st (street) 90's. Basically the st 90's have a bell on one and the other end will slip into a bell on another pipe. Make sure the pipe to the sewer line has a drop, no less than 1/8" per foot, if possible 1/4" per foot. Altho if it's a shorter run the 1/8" will work fine.

Also, how far is the shower from the main stack (a 3 or 4 inch pipe going all the wall up thru the roof) or another stack? If it's too far it will need a vent or it may bubble sewer gas back thru the trap anyway. Also way more likely to back up more often.

Sarge

Just out of curiosity, How far is too far?

[jeepdude10000]

goto a wholesale store and they will have many traps for the basement that most people dont know about.

[old_man]

A commonly overlooked reason a shower in a basement stinks is that if it does not get used often, the water in the p-trap will evaporate and as such, the p-trap no longer blocks the gasses.

We have a drain in the floor of the laundry room that I have to pour a cup of water in every month or two. An old plumber's trick is to mix some vegatable oil such as Wesson oil in the water, It will form a film over the water and keep it from evaporating so quickly.

[Sarge]

Just out of curiosity, How far is too far?

Depends on the code there, pipe size used and such. Usually safe to stay within 5 foot. Homeowners tend to add loop vents which may or maynot be legal by code.

Sarge

[yardape]

Welll,.... I'm embarrassed plus pleased to report that Old Man was right. The trap had dried up which was the source of the odors. Sometimes you get lucky. Thanks for all the responses.

[RichP]

Yea, I like that veggie oil trick, need to remember that. Of course in 4 years when I need it I'll *$#$%$ forget it or shoot wide awake in the middle of the nite shouting 'wesson' 'wesson' and then beat up by my wife after she comes down off the ceiling :D :D :D