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So my grandpa ran into a plumbing issue today and I'm suspicious it's pretty bad. He's the kind of guy that just want to ghetto rig everything.

I'm a plumbers apprentice so I said all this crap isn't going to work and went and purchased an entire brand new 1 1/2in drain kit so everything down there is new. After getting it all installed it isn't leaking at the joints for the seals but it is however leaking up from the ground itself.

So I pulled the pipe coming from the ground out and found some shoddy work had been done. It seems to me instead of using a coupler they j.b. welded 2 pieces together the pipe that drops into the ground where the drain Assembly attaches. I literally found the piece of jb weld that was fitting perfectly around the pipe. So I'm led to believe I'm going to have to dig it out around 12 inches to get to the pipe underneath hopefully not having to tap into the slab being it's a very small little cubby with a spring loaded door for access to the shower drain.

Anyone ever had this issue I triple checked all the new stuff installed and I'm literally watching the water come up out the ground around the pipe not at any joints with seals. So now I'm kind of at a loss as to what I need to do here I'm going to yank the drain Assembly back out in the morning along with the pipe that drops into the ground to see if there actually a coupler down there or if my suspicion is correct about the j.b. weld holding the 2 pipes together.

I'm an apprentice of almost a year in plumbing now I am no journeyman but any input would be well appreciated I'm thinking I'm going to have to dig it out and see what's going on because of this weird inconvenient location of the leak I'll be keeping my eye on this post so any input would be appreciated

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    I'm only a DIY plumber, but it sounds to me like you're on the right track and know what needs to be done... I've seen & fixed plenty of that kind of previous "work" in renovations I've done.
    – brhans
    Apr 30, 2022 at 5:57
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    If it's leaking back up from down there, I'm going to suspect a clog/blockage, since otherwise even with a leaky joint there the water would go down the drain if the drain was clear, rather than rising back up 12" as reported... Could you edit to add some pictures?
    – Ecnerwal
    Apr 30, 2022 at 13:53
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    Welcome! Have you consulted with some of your work comrades, they may help as well.
    – Gil
    Apr 30, 2022 at 16:02
  • I just want to see your grandpa face and him saying "I told you so"
    – asinine
    Jun 6, 2022 at 23:53

1 Answer 1

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Rent or buy a Drain camera endoscope (sometimes called Borescope) and investigate without digging.

scope

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