So we're at the hospital today inducing our 4th child. Naturally, at 9 o'clock last night we discovered wet carpet in our master closet. I wasn't sure at first if it was a slab leak or the shower pan. I'm pretty sure after letting it dry out and checking again this morning, it's the shower pan, although it had been 12 or so hours since our last shower and the carpet pad was soaked, so a little surprised.

I'm pretty comfortable with DIY, but I fill a little out of my depth on this one. I'd like any insight, things to check, etc. Should this be an easy fix? House was built in the early 90's and the shower/tub are original.



Long term, we wanted to remodel this shower/tub to look more like below. Slightly better use of the space and slightly bigger shower/smaller tub. The current tub has water jets, but none of the equipment is accessible. I can't decide yet if it would be a good time to go ahead with that reno, or if it'd be easy enough just to repair the tub drain for now. I haven't even ballparked what that this update would cost. Obviously if I could easily repair the pan, I think that's my preference.



Feedback appreciated.

Just to make sure there is no slab leak, go check your water meter to see if the dial is dead solid perfectly stopped. If so, it's not a slab leak!

I did that. Had a hard time at first when I thought everything was off, but forgot about the RO filter which pulled just a little bit of water. Checked again and it seemed to stop.

When we finally get back home, I was gonna double check just one more time just to be sure, and probably check the usage after an hour or two, but I think I'm in the clear on that. Timing could not have been worse.

Congrats on the baby!

Here is my thread from dealing with a broken shower pan on a cultured marble shower very similar to yours.

https://texags.com/forums/61/topics/3095603

Basically what happened is somewhere a seam failed or the drain weep holes failed. The vinyl pan started to fill with water and it failed causing the damage in the pics.

I did the demo myself and it was relatively easy. The new shower install cost about $3k. We just had to get it roughed in with green board, etc.

All in all, we paid around 8k but had a lot of extra work done to remove the wall paper, paint and texture ceilings and walls in the master bath.

Then I did the kids bathroom myself and I'll probably never pay someone to remove wall paper, texture and paint again. It's very simple to do.

Definitely appreciate the well wishes and feedback. Very helpful thread you shared SoulSlaveAg.

Looks like it's the shower pan for sure and thankfully not a slab leak. Not ideal, but we've got other showers in the house we can use for the time being. I've got a couple of tile guys coming to look at it this week. I'm mulling options, but I think I'm gonna end up demo-ing the shower and tub, reframing it, having someone else tile it for me, then doing the finishing work myself.

Glad it could help.

Easiest way I found to remove the cultured marble was to use my oscillating tool and just slide it in the seams and then use a pry bar to pull back.

It breaks real easily and is sharp a sharp as Hell.

Once you get to the solid walls, just a pry bar and hammer breaks it and it came off in big chunks.

It's happening!

I've got a design, and met with a tile guy. My next steps are to enclose the window and relocate the drains. Thankfully the window faces an enclosed dog run on the side of the house, so matching the brick is not a priority.

I've got a few details to work out regarding glass, and need to meet with my glass guy to finalize some of the dimensions before proceeding. Leaning towards this style glass enclosure:



Here's my anticipated layout:



Some notes on my next steps:

Congrats on the baby.

**** you 2020.

I'd welcome thoughts regarding plumbing - I was pretty set on placing the fixture for the shower on the right side from the entrance. This is an exterior wall. I would transition to PEX, but I'd hate to have it freeze, especially the valve body. Any thoughts/experience with routing plumbing inside an exterior wall.

I'm probably further North than most folks on this board, so we do see some cold.

I definitely earned my keep today.

Made some more progress in the last week. Feels good to get this milestone behind me. I get the tub in this week and will be starting the framing. If you look closely, you can see my layout on the ground.



I've been reading alot on mortar beds and gaining a lot of confidence in that area. That being said, there's not as much information out there on them as I'd hoped - if anyone has experience to add for setting a tub, I'd take it. In particular there are two things I'm still working through for the Kohler tub we bought (K-1848)

• Looks like the rim doesn't actually sit on the tub cradle. The installation calls for 1/8 shims to keep the rim from touching the deck. Since we're undermounting the tub, I really hope there's no flex on the rim. I bought the undermount "kit", which is really just an instruction manual and a template for the granite supplier to cut it. I'm hoping it'll have some additional information. Kinda peeves me that "kit" isn't just available for download.
• Kohler has two methods for setting the tub - mortar bed vs construction adhesive on the feet. I'm definitely in favor of setting on a mortar bed, but I'm curious if it would be a good idea to leave open "holes" in the mortar where the feet set, or if it would be better just to lay a blanket of mortar and let the feet make an impression in the mortar.

I did the second option, but I placed a lot of the mortar underneath the area in the center which was away from the feet IIRC.

Been a while since I've posted some progress. Right now I'm just waiting on the granite and then I'll be able to measure the glass. I'm really pleased with the the results.

On another note - any thoughts on replacing the toilet? I took it out to install the tile, and it's original to the house (mid-90's). I put it back on, and a couple of the parts need replaced, I'm sure because they were sitting dry for a month for the first time. I'm considering just upgrading, but I'm not excited about going to a 1.28 gpf toilet. Anyone had a bad experience upgrading an older toilet? I've heard that sometimes the drains in older homes were larger, and that newer toilets don't use enough water to flush the drains on older homes. I'm not sure this is actually a thing, but just thought I'd ask if anyone has had this experience.

Here's what I'll probably upgrade to: link

I would only replace a toilet if it was broken or the new one a) warmed my ***, b) wiped it, or c) both. An argument could be made for one with a better height or something. Otherwise, it's really just porcelain and looks, and I could spend that money on something more fun than replacing a toilet.

Replace the toilet.

I replaced all 4 of my home toilets with brand new ones. Solved rocking toilet issue on one, found broken flange on master toilet and cut about 1 to 1.5 kgals a month in water. The low flow old toilets (ones right after the change was made) did not flush well. They originally just cut the water, but did not change the design of the toilet. Newer dual flush or just single flush low flow toilets will actually flush more stuff than the old ones. In 8+ years of using dual flush/low flow toilets in 3 different houses, I have only ever seen it clog 1 time. And that was a kid learning to wipe...

I got the taller toilets, which make sitting easier. Nothing fancy, just dual flush toilets from HD.

~egon

That looks really good. Good job.

Nice choice of tile there!

A lot of hard work! Great job!

Thanks y'all!

Fife - I ended up following your method on the mortar bed and it worked out great. Thanks!

If anyone considers an undermount install like mine, I would recommend you cut a single piece of granite for the tub deck. I used the wastage in the center of the tub for all the other granite pieces in the tub/shower area.