excess mineral buildup in shower drain from mud base?

[Malena]

Hi! Total noob here who has never built a shower. Please forgive my lack of proper terminology!

About 6 years ago I had an addition to my house--kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen is fine, the bathroom sink is fine, the old part of the house is fine (so it's not my water supply), but the tiled shower with a mud (? mortar?) base has a constant mineral buildup in the drain. It's white and crunchy and weird and chunks will quickly dissolve in vinegar.

I don't have complete faith in my former GC. Is it possible that the wrong material was used for the base and it's precipitating out or something?

Any ideas on what could be causing it would be greatly appreciated, even if I can't do anything about it. I just hate not knowing WHY!

(Anything I should do other than chip it out every few months?)

Thanks!

[cx]

Welcome back, Malena.

A geographic location in your User Profile might be helpful here, but a photo or two of your problem is gonna be necessary for our folks to get a good grasp of your problem.

[Malena]

Added a location.

I shall attempt to post a photo...down the drain shots aren't my forte though. This is after knocking a bunch loose. It isn't hard to remove. There is just SO much of it. It clogs the drain before kid hair gets a chance to clog it, and that's pretty scary.

Anything in particular useful to photograph?

Thanks!

[cx]

Is the white material hard or soft?

[ss3964spd]

Can you take another photo a little farther back, showing some of the floor tile around the drain, Malena?

[Malena]

The stuff is soft, but grainy. Crusty? I'm sure there's plenty of traditional soap scum and hair but it's mostly sandy.

This isn't very clean. Don't be grossed out. The white powdery stuff is just from sticking a barbed drain cleaner down and having it spatter a bit of white crud. Didn't get much hair. I think it has Bostik epoxy grout, if that matters.

[Gozo]

Any other drains in the house have similar? Most bathroom sinks have a pop up drain stopper; they’re fairly easy to remove (often from underneath). See if the underside of the stopper or down that drain has similar.

[Malena]

Nope--they're all fine, from the old part of the house (1950s) to the newer (which this is).

[ss3964spd]

Ew.

Whatever the grout is it doesn't appear to be deteriorating/washing out so that's not it. And since no other drains are exhibiting the same symptom that seems to exclude the water itself.

About 6 years ago - has it been doing this from new?

[Malena]

Hey it's a kid shower! Not my fault!

It has been doing it from new but it was pretty slow. In the past few years the shower has been getting a lot more use and the crud growth has accelerated.

It's not a huge problem because it's easy to remove but the mysteriousness of it mystifies me.

A lot of it does get knocked down the drain when I remove it, though. That can't be good can it? I'll snake a drain but I'm unwilling to work on a p-trap in that crawl space.

[jerrymlr1]

Maybe the installer used some type N mix or some other masonry mortar instead of portland cement for the floor mud mix...?? That's a lot of efflorescence

[Malena]

It is a lot. And that's after I cleared a bunch out before thinking I should take a picture. It was draining very slowly with very little hair (which is also pictured!) to slow it down.

[cx]

I'm thinking that's not efflorescence at all, Jerry. Wrong place.

Malena, if you're not experiencing that sort of build-up at all in any other drain in the house, my best guess is that it's coming from some product that's being used in the shower. A soap or shampoo or whatever a kid might put on his or herownself. Something that's not used above any other drain.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Malena]

Good guess but my kids don't use anything the rest of us don't use (elsewhere). And unfortunately, they use less of what we use.

It certainly has a mineral feel.

So um I guess this isn't super common? Haha. Well, I do appreciate y'all taking a look at it. Thanks!

[smifwal]

I had that in my shower but mine was hard as a rock. It was always around the top never made it down the pipe or in to the trap. I thought it was hard water because I was not using the other bathrooms that I rebuilt (to lazy to walk down the hall). My shower was poorly constructed as a part of a flip house, sheetrock on the walls no moisture barrier no waterproofing, pan liner on the floor no preslope. Drywall was wet up to the point where the liner was and when I tore it all out there was standing water in the liner and what should have been deck mud probably was not because it came out in big chunks. Also no weep hole protection which would be where my white stuff was forming. Tiles were also starting to fall of the wall. I thought it was the gypsum in the sheetrock getting in the under the tile and running over to the drain and getting hung up on the hair like a beaver dam.

I lost my sense of smell during the pandemic and when I came back and I could smell how bad it was before it was just a smell like any other one. I gutted that shower and am now walking down the hall. I have no problems with the ones I put together.

Any idea how your shower was put together?