To Repair or To Replace: That Is the Question

You’ve just noticed that water spot on your ceiling or the wet carpet just on the other side of the shower wall. Finally, that shower the builder put in or the last homeowner DIYed is leaking. Maybe it was inevitable, but the timing is horrible. So you weren’t looking to drop $10,000 or more on a new shower, so what do you do? Add more caulk? Just replace the tiles that are loose and molded? Replace the whole pan? There seem to be many options, but in reality, there are only two. Let’s get into it.

New Caulk and a Few Tiles?

Adding caulk is most often the homeowner’s first line of attack. Unfortunately, this is an ineffective tactic. Contrary to common thought, nothing that you see in a tiled shower is there for the purpose of waterproofing. Everything you see is porous to some degree and water gets through it all. It may seem logical that caulk is in the corners to keep water from getting behind the tile, but the truth is that corners receive caulk because grout in the corners will crack, and that’s ugly. It is true that a crack in the corner is water’s easiest entry into the materials behind the tile, and while adding or replacing caulk can slow this down, it will be a short-lived band-aid.

If you have loose tiles or areas of grout that have molded and the mold keeps coming back, then the problem is more involved than the tiles or grout that you see. If the tiles are loose, this means that the substrate to which the tile is bonded has become so degraded by water contact that its lost its constitution and is no longer functioning as a solid substrate. If areas of grout are molded, you clean it, and the mold just returns, then the mold you see is just the tip of the iceberg. This fungus has its tentacles far down into the mortar bed under the tile. Traditional mortar beds function by becoming saturated. This continual saturation has become a ready food supply for this mold. In this case, there is no solution apart from removing the mold source, and that involves removing the whole shower pan.

Just the Pan?

So we’ve concluded that just adding caulk or even replacing a couple of tiles is not going to fix your leak, your loose tile or your incessant mold. Is it possible to only replace the pan? The short answer is no. The way a traditional pan is constructed, the pan liner, which is the only waterproofing material in the system wraps over the curb and goes up the wall about three inches above the height of the curb. If you have a leak, its because the pan liner has been punctured. This puncture happened at installation, but it takes time for the nail or screw to rust out and leave you with a hole. If you have persistent moldy grout, this is the sad reality of a traditionally built pan that is not constructed correctly. Saturated material will ultimately lead to mold. If you have loose tiles on the wall near the pan, water has been wicking up the wall behind the tile and has destroyed the material to which the tile was bonded. Considering all of this, the minimum that must be replaced for any shower pan repair is the entire pan structure, plus all of the wall tile covering the existing pan liner. If your first course, or row, of tile is 12” x 12”, then you could likely get away with just replacing the first course, plus the entire pan.

Why not the whole thing?

Well, obviously, money. While budget is a primary consideration, lets look at some reasons a repair might be a undesired option. A majority of the cost in a new shower build, both in labor and material, is in the lower first foot of the shower. So, in doing a repair, you are over half way to a beautiful new shower. There are two problems with doing a repair. First, unless you have a lot of tile left over from the builder, the chance of finding a new tile that is a perfect match to the old is incredibly unlikely. This means the repair will look like a repair, even to the untrained eye.

Secondly, a repair necessitates a marriage of new and old, not just of material, but of method. Sadly, most builders do not employ proper industry approved methods of installation. While this is obvious since the shower is failed, it goes beyond what we’ve discussed so far. In order for the new tile to join up with the existing tile with no lippage at the grout line, the repair section may be required to stop short of proper installation technique. For instance, builder’s rarely use enough thinset mortar behind the tile. Also, walls are never flattened as industry standards dictate, meaning the repair section must also not flatten the wall. These are cosmetic compromises that will not affect future functionality, but this usually results in a finish product that is below the quality standard desired by Charash Renovations.

Conclusion

While the desire may be for a brand new shower, the reality of our budget-crunched lives may beg otherwise. Satisfaction originates from fair and proper expectations. As long as there is understanding up front that the final product will not be the cosmetic beauty of a fully new shower, then a shower pan repair may be the best way to return the shower to reliable functionality. The best place to start is with an onsite inspection by Charash Renovations to evaluate the extent of the problem and to discuss all of the available options.