The shower test plug online costs about $31 with shipping from tool experts. What is another effective method to block the drain? Or is is best to bite the bullet and get the expensive one?
This is what I use. Less than a dollar.
curious what you guys tell the seller when you damage some of their furniture or expensive rug under the bathroom after flood testing the shower? Yes, I know - it failed under testing but I don’t know of any SOP that says we should flood test the shower pans or otherwise damage a sellers home?
Oh, this issue comes up every 5 -10 years or so.
Should be interesting…
If you know what you’re doing. And pay attention to the level of the water in the shower pan. That is no issue.
If you follow the minimal SOPs you’re not going to give much of an inspection. I can’t imagine inspecting a home for somebody and not checking out something so simple, yet so critical. If I was buying a home, I’d want to know that somebody had checked the shower for leaks.
That’s nice Eric but you didn’t answer my question - what do you tell the seller after you have messed up their house? Now that you have caused the shower to leak, damaged the ceiling below, messed up their sofa, coffee table and carpeting or wood floors who is responsible? Do you honestly believe that explaining how you flood tested the shower to the seller will get you off the hook?
There should be telltale signs of a leaky shower pan without flood testing the shower pan if you know what you are looking for.
Those test plugs are designed for a extended length of time.
Yes, they are for a rough-in plumbing test, and you would have to remove the drain trim cover to insert the plug and possibly damage the trim cover.
You need to come down here and ride with me on a few inspections. The ropes are easy to overcome. If you know what you’re doing.
Your way over thinking this with a home inspection. It’s non-intrusive.
I’m not even going to comment on your post.
You’ve already stated that you’re not a home inspector. And your name isn’t even true.
I think I’ll light up another one of my Cuban cigars.
Well you just missed 420.
No sir our timezone is different. LOL
All I wanted to know was what the cheapest alternative was for a shower plug. If you don’t have an answer for my question, please don’t comment.
I’d go with Roy’s answer.
Oh my goodness! You agree with me.
That is a start. I hope we do this together for a while.
The cheapest solution is not to do a shower pan test. When testing plumbing, electric, HVAC or any appliance I just perform normal usage like any homeowner would normally do. If something happens the homeowner always wants to blame the inspector. Flooding the shower pan is not something most if any homeowner will ever do. For example the home owner has lived in the house for 10 years, takes a shower every day without incident. Here comes the home inspector and floods the shower pan up to a level that results in water leaking into the basement damaging the subfloor and ceiling drywall. Guess who’s going to win that battle in court? Operating the shower doors, checking the diverter on a bathtub and running water to see if the shower head and valves leak is reasonable and something the homeowner would typically do. The homeowner can’t make the claim your responsible and make it stick. A simple analogy would be a person drove his car everyday to work and never exceeded the speed limit and had no obvious problems. His neighbor borrows his car and goes 120 on the freeway and the engine blows up and he tells the owner the crank shaft was probably defective. Did his neighbor go beyond what is considered normal operating procedures and is responsible for the damage? If you were on the jury how would you judge the case, thumbs up or thumbs down?
I go above and beyond, I get in and take a quick shower to see how the entire system performs. This way I immediately capture the performance of the shower head, mixing valve, tile grout work, tile DCOF, the shower door or curtain, and the caulking under the weight of the occupant. A selfie goes in the report showing I have tested the shower.
Do you guys do this, too?