We moved into our house about a year ago. One of the tiles next to the drain was loose. I stepped on the drain and it moved a tiny bit and got caught under some other tile; the loose tile popped off. The drain was a tiny bit off level but now much. No problems with drainage. In my efforts to straighten the drain, I realized I could screw it off, so I did. The mortar base, at least around the drain itself, is not hard. It's like packed sand. Is this normal? I get the impression this isn't normal. Do we have a problem? Is it a big problem? Please tell me I don't have to rip up my whole shower.

First read what the Home Inspector report says about that.
While waiting for TxAgs plumbers to respond, assemble reviews about the Builder & Realtor then post those.

Home inspector would not have seen this unless he stepped ON the shower drain. There's really no evidence of it otherwise.

The shower drain was slow-draining and I was trying to put in a hair trap… figured out the drain itself screwed off. When I took it off I noticed "wet sand" rather than hard concrete or grout or whatever else maybe should have been there. The inspector would've had no reason to remove the drain.

Is this a new build, a renovated bathroom, or original to an older home?

It doesn't really sound like an easy fix. What you are probably seeing is the dry packed mortar starting to break apart.

The good thing is the dry packed mortar isn't the water proofing so you wont have to worry about a leak for now.

I think you probably have a three piece drain with a vinyl liner as your water proofing. The drain can be screwed off and the bolts tighten its flange to sandwich the liner creating the water proofing.


The bad thing is you will probably have to keep breaking up the tile until you get to the solid dry pack mortar and then redo the affected areas. There just isn't an easy way to diagnose and remedy this type of issue.

It's a 2014 built, Trendmaker build-on-your-lot. The drain is not a three piece. It's the PVC drain that goes to septic. It has a threaded end near the shower. The pvc drain screws into that. When I take the drain out I can see the mud. Then there's a entail cover that screws onto the drain.

This is the drain. I've cleaned that nasty PV?drain but that's as clean as it will get. I need to buy a new one and a new metal grate. Those look nasty.

All of that base material is soft. I haven't done any excavation, but I've poked around a bit with my screwdriver and it all gives like wet, packed sand.

This install is a new one to me. I have only come across 3 piece assemblies and the flange installation similar to below:


Your installation seems like an awful lot of mortar between male threads and the top of grate. I typically only see 3/4" - 1" of mortar bed unless the photos are skewed to make it seem larger than it is.

Nope. It's a lot of mortar. Builder quality sucks… in a not inexpensive house. Who would I call to see if this is really a problem? Plumber was not helpful.

Sand pack base over membrane. You can see the membrane in two of your pictures. Is a common install method and it's probably fine, until you start removing things and poking at it.

I've only done a tiny bit of poking. Not enough to hurt anything or dislodge anything too far out of place.

What is the membrane? The gray plastic looking layer?

combat wombat said:

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I've only done a tiny bit of poking. Not enough to hurt anything or dislodge anything too far out of place.

What is the membrane? The gray plastic looking layer?

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Yes

Random Youtube video to skim through to see it. Depends on city whether membrane is under sand pack or on top of it.

Thanks. Unincorporated Montgomery County. They could probably build my shower on a styrofoam takeout container and get away with it.

Sounds like a good excuse to renovate the shower….which based on the couple pictures of the tile isn't a bad thing….

Yeah, it's dated. It's on my radar. But the thought of tipping out the master bath… ugh.

Does this type of shower need caulk where the wall and floor meet like a tub does where it meets the tile?

It's good practice to use sanded caulk instead of grout wherever you have a change of plane (like a wall to floor transition) but should not be required for waterproofing. The mortar bed with embedded membrane should run up the wall behind the tile several inches before the transition to backer board.

akaggie05 said:

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It's good practice to use sanded caulk instead of grout wherever you have a change of plane (like a wall to floor transition) but should not be required for waterproofing. The mortar bed with embedded membrane should run up the wall behind the tile several inches before the transition to backer board.

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One can only hope. Thanks for the info!