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How to replace non-standard sized shower floor grate?

Hi there,

We recently bought an early '90s house in Brisbane and the plastic shower drain grate is broken. It doesn't seem to be a "standard" size however, being about 11cm. The shower floor grates I've looked at on the bunnings website and elsewhere online appear to be 10cm for the actual 'grate' part and the outside fitting with the tail is approx 11cm. That would be fine, however the floor drain itself slopes inward and therefore the tail part of the fitting won't fit inside the existing drain pipe.

Is there a solution for this that doesn't involve replacing the whole thing, ie. getting a plumber out to remove the old floor drain and putting in a new one? Would like to avoid that if possible as we've had them out to do so many things recently and I'm a bit over it to be honest!! At the moment we're just keeping a silicone one on top of it so that we don't have to see it...

I've attached a couple of pictures. Apologies in advance for the grossness - hope nobody is eating!

I hope I've been clear enough about what I'm asking - I'm not great with the correct terminology for all of this stuff so please let me know if I need to explain anything more clearly!

Thanks in advance for any advice! 🙂

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EricL

Hello @krunchfrog

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about your shower waste.

That particular waste fitting was very popular back in the '90s. Due to its age, it's now very difficult to get spares. I recommend bringing the top cover to the store and try to match it with the Kinetic 100mm Chrome Plated Round Floor Grate. The grate cover is very close in size to the plastic cover but is not a perfect match. It's an option that lets you keep using the shower without having to take the shower waste apart.

One other method to duplicate the cover is to use a Holman 100mm DWV PVC Round Floor Grate. You'll have to modify the grate using a grinder to remove the excess plastic. But once you have the correct shape it should fit in neatly.

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your shower waste repaired.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

krunchfrog

Hello Eric, thank you very much for your reply! I like the sound of your second suggestion - I could get one of the chrome-plated brass covers that is the same diameter as the old grate - the drain pipe thing the grate sits on tapers in quite a bit so it won't fit depth-wise, but I could get my husband to grind the tail down until it fits. Would that work do you think?

Thank you very much!

EricL

Hello @krunchfrog

At this stage of the repair, I recommend giving it a go. If you can grind the tail down and make it fit, you won't have to worry about breaking the shower grate cover for a long while.

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your grate cover repaired.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

JEM1

We had that problem too in our old house. I went online to Amazon.com.au and we bought a few on there. They came from the US. They fitted perfectly. And good quality. Shipping is free if you have Prime.

EricL

Hello @JEM1

Welcome to the Bunnings Worskhop community. Thanks for joining the discussion.

Thank you for sharing that option of repairing the shower grate. Do you have any D.I.Y. projects currently in progress? Any updates you can provide would be most appreciated. If you have any questions we can help out with, please let us know. Our members would be more than happy to provide advice and information.

Eric

krunchfrog

Thank you Eric, we will give it a go!

Thanks again!

krunchfrog

Thank you for the tip! I have looked a bit on ebay etc but I'll check Amazon again as I've now got prime..

VirginiaLawn

Hi there — we have the exact same problem at our place! How did you go in the end replacing the floor waste cap?

Jason

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @VirginiaLawn. We're pleased to have you join us.

If you could provide the dimensions of your cap, I'm sure our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. expert @EricL would be happy to suggest a replacement for you.

Thanks,

Jason

EricL

Hello @VirginiaLawn

Let me tag @krunchfrog to make them aware of your question. It would be nice to find out which solution they went with. If you have the exact same type of waste cover and you're not keen on breaking the tiles and concrete, I suggest thinking about using a chrome coated brass waste cover such as the Kinetic 100mm Chrome Brass Square Floor Grate.

The top piece can be grinded down to the same diameter as your old plastic cover. The bottom fittings will need to grinded away as well, but other than that once you have the correct size it should fit in nicely into the old plastic housing. There is no need to use the square chrome housing as you only need the top cover.

I recommend bringing the old waste cover to the store so that you can compare it with the chrome sets available. This will give you a very good idea of which one is close to the size that you need.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

krunchfrog

@VirginiaLawn

Hello there! I ended up buying a stainless steel drain cover the same diameter as the old one from somewhere online - I think it was from aliexpress!

I hope you're able to find something for yours too.

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