Did some demo of tile in bathroom and shower to find a leak. Turns out the shower wasn't completely sloping to the drain and was not waterproofed correctly. Subfloor and joists were wet and rotted.

Before pics:

More pics. Continuing with demo of rotted subfloor and joists.

If it's like a lot of contractors doing work for apartment in CS (from back in the day living there), they ripped the old stuff out and slapped new stuff on. Water be damned! Who needs to dry the wall out?

~egon

Whoop Delecto said:

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That bathroom remodel looks fairly modern. When was it done? Seems like that all that damage took a long time to occur.

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I think it was about two years ago. For every shower that was taken for a couple years, most of the water never made it to the drain.

More pics.

seems like it would be a lot easier to demo the bath and start over?

sts7049 said:

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seems like it would be a lot easier to demo the bath and start over?

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I think it would be easier in a lot of ways. But I also think it would be much more expensive.

Insurance claim or is the client SOL?

YellAg2004 said:

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sts7049 said:

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seems like it would be a lot easier to demo the bath and start over?

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This was my thought. How much time is being spent trying to keep the half wall and some of the other stuff in place vs. just clearing it all out? Also, since the shower was clearly not waterproofed at all, even if you put a new pan in, the shower still won't be water proofed correctly.

So I'm assuming the owner knows that doing it this way still leaves them with a faulty shower that will be prone to leaking?

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We are going to install correctly so that it doesn't fail. Mud pan sloped to the drain with waterproofing membrane.

YellAg2004 said:

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mrmill3218 said:

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YellAg2004 said:

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sts7049 said:

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seems like it would be a lot easier to demo the bath and start over?

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This was my thought. How much time is being spent trying to keep the half wall and some of the other stuff in place vs. just clearing it all out? Also, since the shower was clearly not waterproofed at all, even if you put a new pan in, the shower still won't be water proofed correctly.

So I'm assuming the owner knows that doing it this way still leaves them with a faulty shower that will be prone to leaking?

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We are going to install correctly so that it doesn't fail. Mud pan sloped to the drain with waterproofing membrane.

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How are you getting the waterproofing behind the rest of the wall if you're not removing the tile?

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We will be removing whatever tile is necessary. The guys here now are just the framers.

More pics from this afternoon.

Wow, that sucks!

I've only lived in slab houses but why would there be framing on top of the slab to elevate the floor?

Is the slab uneven with the rest of the house?

87IE said:

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I've only lived in slab houses but why would there be framing on top of the slab to elevate the floor?

Is the slab uneven with the rest of the house?

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They furred it up to match the floor height of the rest of the pier and beam house. This bathroom was an addition.

Gotcha.. I guess cheaper than concrete.

Pics from today. Starting laying floor decking.

Final product before tile.

This is incredible on so many fronts.

Thanks for sharing. I'm in Dallas, and have a feeling our master bathroom is in a similar place as your clients. We allowed to hit you up after you finish this one up? Had some foundation work done a few months ago that was long overdue even from our previous owners and the majority of the repair was in that part of the house. If I was a gambling man, I'd wager the shower pan was leaking.

COAg15 said:

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This is incredible on so many fronts.

Thanks for sharing. I'm in Dallas, and have a feeling our master bathroom is in a similar place as your clients. We allowed to hit you up after you finish this one up? Had some foundation work done a few months ago that was long overdue even from our previous owners and the majority of the repair was in that part of the house. If I was a gambling man, I'd wager the shower pan was leaking.

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Absolutely! Shoot me an email. Would love to help.

markRmiller89@gmail.com

idAg09 said:

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Do those shower walls have any waterproofing? If you're going through all this hassle might as well do the walls so they aren't tearing it out in 10 years again

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This was my point, but I'm not sure it was received/understood.

That shower only had the pan liner. You can see where tiles came off the wall it doesn't appear that there is either a sheet membrane (i.e. Schluter Kerdi) or a fluid-applied (Red Gard) waterproofing present. Going to all this trouble with the pan to still have no water proofing behind the tiles on the walls just ensures that the homeowner will get to do this exercise again in the future.

Tile is decorative, that's it. Any reliance on the tile or cement backer board for water proofing will fail eventually.

I don't mean to get ahead of the OP since the subfloor just went down, but IMO the same waterproofing needs will apply for the tile outside the shower (at the door, around the tub, etc.). If tile is just put down directly to the OSB sub floor or a cement backer board (attached to the OSB), water will eventually get to the OSB and rot it out again.

Not trying to throw stones at the OP as he seems interested in truly getting this repair done correctly, but it looks like the tear-out should have been much more extensive. If this was from the direction of the homeowner to try and save money, be sure to not warranty anything beyond a year, and get it in writing.