Tile shower floor drain

[AngelM]

Was removing grout around my shower floor to repair the grout, and found that there is about 3" of standing water under the tile. The water should be draining out of the drains weep holes, bit it doesn't appear to be draining (at least not very well...). I've been watching the water level for half a day and water level hasn't moved any...drain pipe is damp so it might be seeping out veeery slowly. I got out an endoscope and took the pic attached.

It appears that they put the liner over the weep holes ( the pic is inside the drain, you can see the toward the bottom the threads for the drain... and the red looks like the liner to me.) I'm not a pro, but this looks wrong. I thought the liner was supposed to be under the weep hole piece, not over it. Isn't this wrong.. haven't the basically sealed the weep holes?

Follow up question... to repair i would remove tile around drain, remove mortar, remove drain, put drain back in with liner underneath, re-mortar, re-tile. Right?

how do i remove the mortar without damaging the liner?

 

[Dj2]

The picture is not clear at all.

Generally, any demolition work, even the tiniest job, can damage the moisture barrier regardless of kind.
I've seen jobs that eventually needed new floors.
Don't do a job that later will have to be removed.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Cacher_Chick]

There is no sure fix to a liner floor pan that is already installed. There should not be any measurable air/water space below the tile, so if you are measuring inches, the water is probably leaking through into the ground.
The fix is a new shower pan.

 

[Jadnashua]

A very common problem with building showers is to install the liner flat on the floor. Code requires the waterproofing layer (the liner) to be sloped to the drain. Then, you have to keep the weepholes clear for it to function. Some studies indicate that over 75% of the showers built do not meet industry standards...sounds like you're in the majority, unfortunately. One flat on the floor doesn't mean it is going to leak, but you can accumulate a swamp underneath the tile if it is flat, especially if the weepholes are clogged. There should only be sealant underneath the liner on the bottom of the clamping drain. Then, something around the weepholes to help ensure they remain clear. So, the stackup would be bottom of the liner, sealant on the lower half of the drain, liner, top of clamping drain.

IMHO, the best way to build a shower today is with a surface applied sheet membrane (Schluter's Kerdi or Laticrete's Hydroban), then, you have a preslope, the waterproofing sheet, then the tile so there's very little volume that can accumulate water. This also requires a different type of drain assembly, but there are conversion drains (from Schluter) to handle that. The existing drain must be installed quite plumb, though, as the new drain is quite large in diameter so any error gets amplified at the edge.