Plumber's Putty is a Hoax By Big Plumbing to sell more Plumb

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR Summary

No seriously, plumber's putty DOES NOT WORK.

This is the second time in a month I've tried to replace a drain. First, the shower drain in my old house, and now the kitchen sink drain in my new house. They just leak like a sieve.

The shower is acrylic. The sink is sheet stainless steel.

As instructed, I put a bead of putty down around the perimeter about a 1/2" from the drain hole, then put the drain in and tighten the nut from below. No matter how much or how little putty I use, no matter how much or how little I torque the nut on, it leaks.

I don't know how it can not leak. It is inevitable - the pan of the shower and the pan of the sink are slightly flexible. Any weight will distort the pan and break the seal.

This is bad design. Or at least archaic. Going to try silicon seal. If that fails I'm bowing to The Man and calling a plumber.

 

[jack action]

I don't have acrylic components, but the few times I've done it (cast iron bathtub & porcelain bathroom sink), I used 100% silicon caulk without issue. My friend used to paint bathtubs professionally and always used 100% silicon caulk to reinstall the drain.

 

[marcusl]

I’ve installed 7 sinks using putty without a single leak over the span of 35 years, but they’ve been ceramic and cast iron/porcelain so maybe your flimsy sheet metal sink is to blame.

Plastic shower pans are suppposed to ve installed over wet concrete or mortar for support. As a trick, you can put the wet concrete inside a black garbage bag so the pan can be removed one day without destroying the subfloor. The pan in my home is solid as a rock—literally.

 

[jedishrfu]

I guess its better to call an expert that can plumb the depths of the problem and not putty around it.

Its also a good to time close this thread before the plumbers union comes looking for our leaks.