Where can I purchase a shower drain dam?
Thank you,
Professional Equipment… http://www.professionalequipment.com/bathtub-shower-drain-stopper-144/plumbing-accessories/
Thanks! I had search on the Professional Equip web site and it didn’t come up.
I used mine Saturday on a 5,000 SF, $500K home. Leaking shower pan in custom bathroom. Glad I won’t be paying for it!
FYI. I do not specify in my reports how the leak was discovered.
Risky business, being the last person to let 5 or 10 g of water go into the structural framing of the home. Assuming wood framed floor in SC.
“FYI. I do not specify in my reports how the leak was discovered.”
Then how do you explain the big wet spot on the ceiling below if that is a 2nd flr shower?
Drain dams are stupid to use.
I agree. So is not finding a leak that reveals itself later and your client want’s to sue YOU.
Like this: “The master bathroom stall shower leaks through the shower walls or floors. The shower pan is apparently absent, improperly installed, cracked or otherwise damaged. Note that this is not a simple repair and will require completely rebuilding the shower. Significant water damage or mold may exist behind or beneath the shower that was not visible to us. We recommend an evaluation and service as deemed necessary by a competent, licensed contractor.”
My clients LOVE me because I find the stuff other inspectors don’t bother looking for.
Check this out. Fast, easy, cheap
Good luck with that court suit Richard.
Any tool outside the the scope of a basic home inspection would be stupid.
Shower dams are dumber, though.
Intentionally stopping the flow of water into a drain that is designed to remain open … to see if it might send water into wall cavities and cascading into areas of living space below it … is about as dumb as it gets. To think that there is actually a market for a tool to do something like that with is amazing.
To me, this equates to setting the building on fire to see if the smoke detectors work.
J.B if there is an issue with it that matters the stain in the Kitchen ceiling or the mushy drywall outside the stall should tell the story and not you telling the seller it failed under testing as a B.S way out.
I leave things the way I found them and the closest I come to doing anything close to this is by leaning my 205 body mass into a pull on guardrails meant to prevent harm.
200 lbs horizontal pull is code.(yeah yeah I know but this is not a report)
LOL 
My clients prefer to know their defect before buying the house not after. Do you operate garage doors? Do you flush toilets? All of these things can cause damage as well if used and they fail.
Just different ways of doing business. I have used this tool 1000 times and when a shower leaks I have never ever been asked to fix the damage and go figure my clients are pretty happy I found the defect.
Just different ways of doing things and a business decision. It works well for me and my area.
Well Russell there are those HI’s that came from a desk job wuz someones secretary and have not performed enough inspections to know the difference between a real inspection or a walk thru. I also use very successfully that very same stopper and have had some very happy clients because of it
I agree.
Any home seller reading this thread should know that he can and should recover his damages from any inspector who intentionally damages his home by creating an unnatural condition such as this. Any real estate salesman reading this thread should advise the seller he represents, accordingly.
As you pointed out, if it was a problem BEFORE the inspector created it — there will be evidence of it to be observed and reported. By the way, I don’t throw a rock through the window to test the safety glass, either.
I like the code, I do a lot of new home construction inspections here.
The 200# horizontal pull, is this in the IRC ? I have the 2006 and in sections 311 and 312, I couldnt find it. Is it in another section? Or different year?
Thanks.
Guardrails and handrails shall be designed to support a single 200 pound concentrated load applied in any direction at any point along the top.
This is to be sure it can support the loads of people running or leaning into it.
Residential decks
Permit and Construction Guidelines
under the 2003 IRC
Johnson County Contractor Licensing Program (PDF) page 13
As is that statement.
If you had not noticed, most tools (outside of normal home inspection) are for “non-destructive testing” purposes.
So you don’t use a moisture meter, GFCI tester, Water pressure, thermometer to take delta-t :twisted:, bino’s so you don’t have to wreck the roof conducting a “basic” walk on the roof inspection?
Some things cause damage, some prevent them.
Quit hiding behind your “Generalist-Basic” Home inspections and serve your clients interests (safely and not damaging someone else’s property).
I think those dam’s should be cut down so they just flood the bottom of the shower. We don’t need to test the 4" rule. But if someone dropped something across the drain for a minute and water came up to the wall level and leaked… they need to know that.
Charley uses IR and doesn’t have to flood 10 gallons of water and see where it visually comes out…
I don’t test for this, but I have had a mad friend that I did an inspection for that had to rip the shower out.
That was no fun either.
Use some common sense with what your do.
Well put.