"mini remodel" of 50's bath/shower

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BeautyFish

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I need to spiff up our 1950's brick home enough so that potential buyers aren't scared away. Two of the three baths have had gut remodels, but the tiny master hasn't had much done to it. It has a small tiled shower with 4x4 wall tile, and the shower floor has 3/4 square tile that has been "repaired" with a line of plastic/vinyl caulk and was laid poorly anyway. It doesn't look original to me. I don't have the money for another gut job, so I would like to replace the door with a new glass one, have the walls epoxied white, and change the fixtures. The only real issue is the shower floor, which is just bad with a bad repair. Can I have the floor, pan, and drain replaced without losing the walls? Even if I lose the bottom row of wall tiles, I don't care, since I'm going to have the whole thing epoxied anyway. I could have any reasonably close 4x4 tiles put in and it would be okay in the end.

Will a tile/bath remodel guy work with me on a project like this? I have to imagine it's going to be cheaper than tearing down the shower and retiling the whole thing. I can paint, replace the fixtures, put in new lighting and a medicine cabinet myself for not too much money. It's the darn shower that is making this difficult.

Thanks,

Jim
 

Cacher_Chick

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There is no "right way" to put anything over the top of tile in a shower. Any such method would only be an improper way to make something look better, leaving the future owner to deal with the problems that come with it.
 

BeautyFish

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I am not looking to do anything OVER tile. Please re-read the original post. I want to remove the shower pan and original tile and replace them while keeping the wall tile. I am not looking to "get over" on the future owner of the house or cause them any problems.
 

Jadnashua

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To replace a pan, you need to tear out the pan, curb, and more than 3" above the top of the curb so that you can get the liner properly placed - the liner MUST go a minimum of 3"+ above the top of the curb, since you need to fasten it, and there can be no fasteners below 3"... then, you need to put in some new cement board, and that needs at least some fasteners above to hold it in place. Depending on the height of the curb, that could be a minimum of 2, and maybe 3 or even 4 rows of tile. By then, you're near a full gut as the most expensive part of a shower is in the pan...straight tiling up the walls is pretty easy and fast, so it depends on the cost of the tile - the labor to finish the rest isn't all that great, relative to redoing the pan alone.

Personally, I'd think what you're talking about would not increase the selling price - the new owner would likely tear it out, and it would be money wasted. I'd either redo it 'right', or lower my expectations, as a home inspector would probably ding it if just 'patched'.
 

JohnfrWhipple

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I am not looking to do anything OVER tile. Please re-read the original post. I want to remove the shower pan and original tile and replace them while keeping the wall tile. I am not looking to "get over" on the future owner of the house or cause them any problems.


Chances are the old shower has no waterproofing on the walls at all.

You could carefully remove the old wall board and tile a few inches above the curb. Install a new shower pan (or fiber-glass base) and tie the shower pan into the old walls.

I find that adding blocking for this stage is key. Then using a 1/4" backer board on the walls.

Something like Ardex 8+9 works well for this step.

If you find that their is some poly behind the backer board then this should be lapped over the lip of the new shower pan (Fiber-glass).

The question of the day is weather or not there is poly behind your backer board. The presence of it will define the repair route.

You could let the shower completely dry out and tile over the old tile....

Again something like Ardex 8+9 would help with this step.

JW
 
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