Our master shower was built by a guy who knows how to do bathrooms except he didn’t. He’s not coming back on the property and we’re cutting our losses. Water pools everywhere around the drain which sits 1/8" higher than the surrounding tile. Standing water is now starting to leak around the drain and dripping through the unfinished ceiling of my basement gym.
Should I:
A) Tear up the shower floor, regrade it properly and tile it myself (I’ve never done tile but I’m generally good with DIY projects and have the materials and tools)
B) Epoxy over the tile floor to seal and grade it properly
C) Buy custom fit shower pan to install over existing tile and grade properly beneath it
D) Other
I am not hiring another bathroom guy. You would not believe how hard it is to find competent contractors around here.
If it’s already a shit show, then I’d probably give it a try myself. You can find out how to do almost anything on YouTube these days, and tile itself isn’t that hard. Not sure how hard it would be to grade it properly.
A is the correct answer, imo…but what a pain in the ass.
I’ve done one tile job, and I swore I would never do another again. Per usual, it is all in the prep. Once you get to the actual tiling part, most of the hard work is done.
Even tearing it up will suck, and I would worry that you are going to get into this and find other problems.
How and why is it leaking? I get that the water is pooling, but the shower should not leak, even with pooling water. Is the shower water tight? If not, it sounds like you’ve got more to do than just regrade and tile.
You could probably find a forum for DIY work and get some good advice there. I would lean towards B, and then A if that didn’t work. Just be sure to use something with some texture so your feet don’t slip.
This is what I was thinking of. It’s rectangular, don’t know the dimensions but I’m sure I can buy one that fits to spec. Center drain. Only question is how to prep the surface so that it actually sits flush on the floor and drains properly, which I assume will still require regrading to some degree?
The idea of leveling epoxy on top of the existing tile is appealing. If done properly shouldn’t that plug any leaks, which according to the plumber who came out yesterday appears to be around the rim of the drain.
So I’m super handy and decided to do ours myself. My wife picked a very small tile that came in 1’ sheets but each tile piece was like 1/2" in size and held together by a backing.
I thought, no big deal, put down some Shluter to waterproof, mortar, grout, done. The tiles were taking forever to dray and we waited almost a week. A few days later while taking a shower i realize the tiles were moving and the mortar wasn’t dry. I use pre-mixed mortat and don’t know if it was too wet or I had a bad batch.
I got to tear all of that out, and did it again with 1’ x 2’ tiles and it all went well. Looks great and functions properly.
So for what it’s worth, the larger tiles went way better for me.
Borrow or get a tile cutter. I got a pretty cheap one at Lowes. It’s fine for an occasional job. I also got a tile wheel for my 4" grinder which is nice to have.
If water is dripping into the room below, not only did he fuck up the slope of the shower pan, but he also fucked up the waterproofing of everything. Based on that, I think you really need to rip it out and start over. You may get successful results with the epoxy, but you may not. I’ve done a couple shower installs and if you’re careful and pretty handy you can learn how to do it yourself. It’s amazing what you can find online, Youtube in particular. I’m a fan of the Schluter Kerdi system, but there are plenty of other options that you can use.
A is the best option here especially since it’s already leaking. Anything installed over the existing tile has a higher chance of leaking. When you stack on top of the existing tile, you end up with adapters for drains and all that since most of those items are designed for rough in.
A long time ago, I tiled over tile in a shower since it was just for cosmetics and original pan/tile was in good shape. It worked fine for over 10 years until we gutted and redid bathroom last year. But had to get a drain adapter and also your shower floor to threshold distance decreases.
Tile isn’t hard, it’s the waterproofing of pan and building correct slope that will be hard. Also getting the drain sealed is critical which obviously didn’t happen with your contractor.
I flipped a few houses. I learned how to build showers from YouTube.
I permitted my first flip and the city inspector complemented my shower pan.
If you have some DIY skills, you’ll do at least as good as many handymen you could hire.
Unfortunately, you do have to tear it out and start over. If it doesn’t drain correctly, I’d be concerned about the walls leaking.
Schluter has a great system that is pricy but will give you a watertight substrate.
A tile contractor took us to Denver for Great American Beer Festival. Schluter picked up some of the cost and we had to sit through a presentation. The system is easy and eliminates potential leak issues.
I agree completely. Even if the slope was done poorly, if the shower pan was waterproofed properly you could fill the pan with water and it shouldn’t leak through. Because there is leaking, I’d have serious doubts about everything the guy did. I’d start over.
I wouldn’t put anything over the existing, but I’d tear out the existing and put a shower pan in. Tiling a shower floor is difficult if you have never done it before, specifically because of the slope. However, you can get kits, if you really want tile, like the Kerdi systems which really make them a lot easier.
If you try to go over existing, there may be other issues hiding underneath that won’t show until you are done. Then you’re starting all over again.
