# MacGyver'd shower pan test.



## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

What to do when yer test ball is blown out or just absent ...


----------



## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Shower pan liner install is clean and neat looking. Complete with dam corners. 


Nice improvisation with your drain plug.


In our code, to be technical, the pan liner has to be sloped to the drain in order to pass the 2nd rough inspection. But not all inspectors enforce it.


Once, I had the inspector make me take the test ball out and there was some puddling left over so he failed it. I had to take the liner out, the GC sloped the floor, then I re-installed the liner to pass the inspection.


----------



## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

I did the slope to drain like I do on them all. The only appearance of puddling was due to wrinkling in the liner near the front edge that I couldn't get out. Unfortunately that's what happens near the end of the roll of liner. The water did eventually make it around those wrinkles and to the drain.

Didn't think to keep recording since the water going down the drain wasn't the point of the video. Don't even know why I recorded as long as I did.


----------



## Debo22 (Feb 15, 2015)

Great job on the ingenuity. A lot of people nowadays just say I can’t do it my test ball is popped. Or, I looked up how to improvise on the internet and didn’t find anything so I’m calling it a day with a failed inspection. 

Glad to see some thinking on how to make it work.


----------



## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

I just pack a small towel in the drain and it holds good...and if it slipped in its easy to get, I saw you fishing a little for the bottle top, if it went down past finger grip that would be a pita to try and catch with something to get it out,,


----------



## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

I cut the bottle top at the first seam. It ended up kinda wedged under the clamp ring, next one will be a tad shorter making easier to grab. There's no way it can slip past finger grip, it's against the drain. Notice it didn't suck into the pipe when i took the strainer and pvc out.

Ps. Will the towel hold a test over night?


----------



## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

It's the first time I hear a plumber install the surroundings of a shower drain aka shower pan. We supply the drain to the appropriate contractor and he puts it in. All we have to do it it tie it in when its done.

It's something I have to knowledge on how to do it.


----------



## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

chonkie said:


> I cut the bottle top at the first seam. It ended up kinda wedged under the clamp ring, next one will be a tad shorter making easier to grab. There's no way it can slip past finger grip, it's against the drain. Notice it didn't suck into the pipe when i took the strainer and pvc out.
> 
> Ps. Will the towel hold a test over night?


I let it sit for 4 hours or so as I do other work, the only spot it will leak other than a hole in the liner is around the strainer for the drain, ill check below and if no leaks call it good, havent had a leak yet in hundreds done( except if the tile guy or contractor puts a nail or hole in it after I test it)...the corners are all folded up so no glued seams to leak...and so far none of the municipalities require to witness a water test on shower pans...


----------



## DrWhite (Dec 21, 2017)

Tango said:


> It's the first time I hear a plumber install the surroundings of a shower drain aka shower pan. We supply the drain to the appropriate contractor and he puts it in. All we have to do it it tie it in when its done.
> 
> It's something I have to knowledge on how to do it.


Same here. This is how we do it in Kentucky. Most of the time it goes on the tile man's shoulders. Sometimes we supply the liner but never install it.

Sent from my KYOCERA-E6560 using Tapatalk


----------



## exclamation (Mar 11, 2013)

Well same here but that’s really just to have the tile guy be responsible for the pan if he puts holes in it - pita to install a pan and have someone else work on it after and make a leak and argue about weather or not it leaked when you left it etc


----------



## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

exclamation said:


> Well same here but that’s really just to have the tile guy be responsible for the pan if he puts holes in it - pita to install a pan and have someone else work on it after and make a leak and argue about weather or not it leaked when you left it etc



every pan I do I have the contractor or home owner witness it doesnt leak, I show them the ceiling below with the pan full of water and show them how it drains, then they sign the contract or separate company invoice, so down the line if the tile guy or sheet rocker fks it up or cleans his grout pail in the drain and stops up the trap I have proof...but its funny how much more car they take when they have to sign for something..and that has resolved some issues in the past.....like I posted in another thread the a$$hole tile guy that nailed his wire mesh right through the lead pan with hundreds of nails...that one was more than self explanatory on where the leak came from...


----------



## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> every pan I do I have the contractor or home owner witness it doesnt leak, I show them the ceiling below with the pan full of water and show them how it drains, then they sign the contract or separate company invoice, so down the line if the tile guy or sheet rocker fks it up or cleans his grout pail in the drain and stops up the trap I have proof...but its funny how much more car they take when they have to sign for something..and that has resolved some issues in the past.....like I posted in another thread the a$$hole tile guy that nailed his wire mesh right through the lead pan with hundreds of nails...that one was more than self explanatory on where the leak came from...
























We learn after the burn......


I did a re-model on a condo a while back. Stinking tile guy washed his grout bucket down the shower drain.
Now I now full well that the drain was working fine when I roughed-in the shower pan because that is the one where the inspector made me pull the plug and we both stood there and watched it drain. I had puddling {GC wouldn't listen to me when I said the base had to be sloped BEFORE the pan liner inspection} so after re-installing the shower pan liner, again the inspector and I stood there and watched all the water go down the drain.


Anyway, while setting fixtures, I noticed the water not draining in that shower. So, like an a$$hole, I cleared the stoppage with my K-50 without speaking to the owner. And I know it was grout because for one thing, no one lived there, so it couldn't have stopped up by normal means, 2nd, I broke my drop head trying to fight through the stoppage. So I know it was grout. Of course the owner isn't going to pay, and the prick tile company never paid.


I will never do that ever again. I'm a bit smarter now at {51} years; not much smarter, but a little.......LOL. 


I like your idea of making them sign. 


I was burned once; it'll never happen again.


----------



## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

having people sign for all sorts of things, like change orders or witnessing tubs and fixtures are not scratched or chipped through the years has saved untold hardships on my part, when you pull out the signed paper when there is an issue and the people se that they signed for it, problem of blame solved quickly, and if it ever ended up in court those signed documents make great evidence to back up your claim, so for the few extra minutes it takes to do its worth it a 100x over in the end...


----------

