Suggestions to replace tile shower floor in small stall

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gonehikingva

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I have a very small shower stall (36" x 36") that had a tile floor. I replaced all of the wall tile with simple ceramic tile. I also tore up the tile floor and chiseled out all the mortar in the pan, so I'm down to just the pan. Can we install some other kind of shower floor/base than tile? Can a single piece shower base mate with the tile walls with no leaks? What is the easiest way to accomplish that? Or would putting down a new tile floor be the easiest way to go. Priorities -> no leaks, straightforward installation.
 

Jadnashua

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Not sure exactly what you have left. By code, in a conventional shower pan with liner, the liner must extend up the wall a minimum of 2" above the top of the curb, so if you have new wall tile on already, sorry, it won't work!

So, you need to backup and provide more details of what's there and how it was built, and if it had failed, how and where.
 

gonehikingva

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It was originally built with the liner extending up above the top of the curb and behind the special wall board that you can tile over. I did not tear out the liner or the pan. I just chiseled the tile off of the shower floor and then chiseled the mortar out of the pan. What I have left is the original shower pan and liner, which does extend above the top of the curb.
 

Jadnashua

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Is the liner flat on the floor, or is it installed on a preslope? If not on a preslope, you should tear it out and start over. The liner is the waterproof part, not the finished tile, and code requires that to be sloped to the drain. It's really easy to damage the liner when hammering and chiseling stuff, so assuming it is sloped, now is the time to perform a flood test to verify it is still okay. Corners, around the curb, and at the drain (plus, possibly a seam) are your most likely points of leaks unless you've poked a hole as well.
 

gonehikingva

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Is the liner flat on the floor, or is it installed on a preslope? If not on a preslope, you should tear it out and start over. The liner is the waterproof part, not the finished tile, and code requires that to be sloped to the drain. It's really easy to damage the liner when hammering and chiseling stuff, so assuming it is sloped, now is the time to perform a flood test to verify it is still okay. Corners, around the curb, and at the drain (plus, possibly a seam) are your most likely points of leaks unless you've poked a hole as well.
 

gonehikingva

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Yes, the liner got damaged from my chiseling. And there is no pre-slope, so the builder of the house neglected to do that. Right now I'm thinking of doing another tile shower floor and having a professional do it. But I usually don't trust "professionals" to do stuff that ends up being hidden, like the liner of a shower floor. As I mentioned, the home builder took a shortcut--not surprising.
 

Jadnashua

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TO successfully replace a shower liner, you have to remove at least some wall tiles and all of the stuff on the curb. Since you'll probably never find matching wall tiles, most people, faced with a leaking shower pan, end up tearing it all out and starting over. Code requires no fasteners in the liner 2" above the top of the curb (implying that it goes higher than that so it CAN be fastened). So, take that distance, the height of your curb, and add a little bit for reattaching some cbu and fixing any vapor barrier behind the cbu (if there isn't any, that's another issue!), and as you can see, it gets even more problematic with not much left.

Lots of ways to do it right, but all it takes is one mistake, and it can fail. Building a shower is not particularly difficult, but it is VERY detail oriented. Course, getting it to look good and done in a timely manner certainly helps to have experience!

A properly built shower should not leak or be damaged by water even BEFORE the tile is installed.
 
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