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help shower leaked and I have tile questions

16 years ago

I need some feed back...bought this house in sept. and just noticed the "master bath" shower stall which is all tile floor to ceiling even the ceiling is tiled...(drain is not centered in the shower floor, not to mention the shower stall area is 48 wide and 30 deep so the perfab shower liner things will not work... since noticing the wet carpet in the closet which is next to the shower stall, oh and my house is on a slab) lowes said to remove the floor tiles in the shower stall and check the membrane for cracks and such...lol...I took up the tiles which most popped right out... and there was what looked like wet sand under the tiles...I'm now wondering how do I go about removing the sandy mortor, and if I find the membrane has failed which I'm sure it has, will I have to gut the entire shower? someone said I might have to just go up the wall about 3 or 4 tiles to put a new membrane in the house was built in 1964...I know I will not be able to match this tile and the entire bathroom is covered in this tile so there is the idea that I could use a contrasting tile...another question pertaining to that are... could I also take out a row or two further up on the walls to match the tiles I have to use to replace the ones I take out around the base of the shower? I'm not sure if this even makes any sence? HELP! I need some feed back be for go any further!!

Comment (1)

bill_vincent
16 years ago
Okay. First, I'll tell you right now, that pan definitely has to come out. As you were told, you don't have to take the entire walls out, although I have a feeling you may want to once you start. The reason is that bathrooms installed back in the mid sisties were installed with one of two things-- either thickbed mortar (mud job), or mastic over sheetrock.

Now, the mastic used back then isn't like the mastic used today. It was solvent based, and believe me when I till you, it could hold train cars together. The problem was it didn't do anything to help the sheetrock, and as a result, if this is how your shower was put together, there's a chance the only thing holding the tile up is the grout.

If it's thickbed mortar, 9 times out of 10, it would take a stick of dynamite to pull the shower apart, and it's usually just easier to take whole wall sections out, rather than trying to "surgically remove" sections without hurting the remaining sections.

See what you have. Once you get into it, you'll have a better idea of what kind of shape it's in, and how far you need to go. But be prepared, just in case.

I just redid one two weeks ago, and what started out as just the pan and 2 courses esnded up as a full gut and replacement.
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