Friend Asked My Advice On Their Shower

[Koa]

My friends had someone install a small corner shower bench about 3-4 years ago when they bought the condo. The condo was built in 1990 and the shower is original. About a year ago I was asked to take a look at the shower bench since it was separating from the wall along the grout line. I advised them it needed to be redone but the husband decided to just caulk around it. I told them that would not work. Now, a year later, the adjacent corner of the shower was developing a brown stain. I said I thought the shower pan might be leaking and the bench should be removed. So the other day I removed the bench while my friends were on the mainland. As I suspected it was pretty pathetic as you can see from the photos. On the right side you can see a crack developing parallel to the wall. I suspect the brown stain was coming from the bench area and migrating under the tile to the left corner. My recommendation is the shower needs to be completely rebuilt. Although I'm capable of doing this I would not be able to do it in a timely manner so will also recommend they find a professional. So, does anyone think there's any other fix to this other than a complete rebuild? You're going to love the craftsmanship of the bench.

 

[Jadnashua]

Were there any penetrations into the wall when the bench was installed? If not, with some cleaners, you can probably get the existing tile to clean up. If it is glazed, it may have faded a bit. If you're going to cover it up again, it isn't an issue. Unless there are other issues with the shower, instead of tearing out the shower...there are lots of ways to build a 'monolithic' bench, and, I've had good experience using a Better Bench http://innoviscorp.com/better-bench which can be installed on top of the existing tile. Or, one of the solid foam benches could be installed then tiled.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Koa]

There's 4 plastic anchors in the grout lines. Also, if you look, you can see a crack through most of the tiles along the wall. Some of the cracks in the corner on the floor where the bench was, are wide enough for a utility knife blade to fit in. This is in a high end condo the floors are concrete, two of the shower walls (back and right side) are outside concrete walls.

 

[Jadnashua]

You won't know for sure unless you do tear out. Don't like the cracks in the tiles, either, unless those are stains (looks like cracks in the picture though).

Over a slab, there is no good reason you should ever have movement that can crack floor tile in a shower. But, those are pretty large tile. Does it drain to a linear drain? If not, my guess is inadequate coverage of mortar underneath. It's really hard to get large tile to conform to a center drain, bowl-shaped shower pan without some significant lippage, or poor coverage underneath. It can be done, but not likely on a square layout - a diagonal layout where the pan is carefully prepared with four flat planes, it's possible.