Whats the best way to fix this concrete shower floor?

[Jeff Jot]

Well this is a recently vacated small rental, and its vital to paying the bills so I need to get it rented.
Unfortunately as I checked out the shower, I found that the previous owner had put down vinyl tiles and glued them to the concrete floor of the shower (its a concrete slab square) and these were coming up and loose. They then had used clear silicone caulk all around the edges. The result was an awful mess after someone was in there using the shower for a year. The silicone was coming off, water was getting under the loose tiles, and this was just not going to work.
I pulled the tile off pretty easily, and found this concrete floor. But what is the smartest way to fix it?
My initial thought was to find one large, solid piece of vinyl flooring, the size of the entire floor and then glue it down, instead of the jigsaw puzzle.... with what, mastik? A layer of silicone caulk? Certainly not liquid nails.
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Another option would be to seal the concrete and paint it, but I'm seeing people online saying vinyl flooring is the way to go. It protects the floor from damage, and whatever paint or epoxy you use, some say, is sure to flake off eventually.
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Does everybody agree? And would you agree to replace this with one solid sheet of vinyl flooring, and what glue would you use to glue it to the concrete. I'm just wanting the most durable, problem free solution.
Thanks for advice and experiences.

 

[CENTRALFL]

I'm going to be honest. I'm not sure what I'm looking at. What material is that wall on the left? Is it painted drywall or painted concrete? Is that wood on the bottom? Both of those are not acceptable in a shower. Was the left wall maybe covered in some plastic enclosure that tied into the tile?

Is the shower floor sloped at all towards the drain? Is it possible that the floor is a mud bed instead of concrete? The drain looks like it might be a clamping style used when you have a PVC liner sandwiched between two layer of a mud bed.

I'm guessing a demo and renovation is not in the books? Have you checked the walls (from the other side) to see if there's evidence of any water intrusion?

Is an acrylic shower enclosure a possibility?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jeff Jot]

Oh my. Yes the pictures can be deceiving.
The first picture is a solid concrete shower pad. Its in excellent shape, no problems at all. It just has some crud on it because some fool tried to glue vinyl squares down to make it look better. Water got between the cracks, and the glue started coming unstuck.
I pulled the vinyl squares out- they were mostly loose, and reconstructed an approximation in the 2nd photo, on a perfectly good floor elsewhere in the bathroom.
So no I'm most certainly not going to demo and build a new bathroom just because I have a concrete shower pad I want to seal for use.
My question is: What is the best way to seal this concrete shower pad for use?
Obviously what was done was not correct.
Heavens, this has to be a common question. After all concrete shower pads dont' come finished. Not all of them have plastic enclosures over them. How are concrete shower pads correctly prepared for showering.

 

[Fitter30]

Epoxy floor coating made for shower. I'd talk with the manufacturer to see what prep you should use.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PW4K66F/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams

 

[GReynolds929]

A concrete/mortar pan usually has a rubber liner under the concrete. The top is usually covered with tile and grout.

 

[John Gayewski]

Either tile and grout or epoxy. Epoxy properly done shouldn't ever in your lifetime come off. But you have to prepare the concrete.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

As long as the base is still solid to the floor it should work ok

Clean and extra dry the concrete base....

Lay tile strips down.... they come in 12x12 pads. with each tile about an inch square
all glued to a back pad.....
I would probably use about 6 tubes of clear water proof silicone and
a tile grout tool with edges in it and spread the silicone out in a nice thick pattern
and lay the square 12x12 tiles in the silicone....... wait for it to dry overnight
and then use tile grout and a grout tool to push the grout down into the cracks
clean it up and you should be as good as you are gonna get


I dont think it would look any worse that the shitty mess you took up and
the tiles are much safer for the renters so they dont slip and fall on wet vinyl flooring

I would probably tear it all out and start over because
you are putting lipstick on a pig,

.....but its your pig....


good luck

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

That looks like a 30x30 or a 32x32 shower base and they dont make anything decent
any longer in those sizes.... Their are some shitty
units that come in a box that normally are installed in basement areas
something like a slop shower.

I went through the same trouble in my personal home back in 2005 and you cannot
find any breakdown shower that will go back into the same small spot...

A 36x36 sterling fiberglass shower was the only thing even close to what I needed but I was going
to have to tear the hell out of the bathroom walls just to install it.....

when it was all said and done, I ended up re-modeling the whole bathroom