Here is a picture of a master bathroom during the 1st 2 hours of demo. This house is 5 years old, the builder actually installed the concrete shower pan correctly, which is rare but it still failed. Of course most shower builders only have a 1 year warranty so they are left on their own to repair. What happened is where the corner met the vertical wall for the soaking tub a pinhole formed because the rubber rubs on the rough concrete and the 2×4 framing. In Western PA houses out of wood expand and contract depending on how much sunlight and temperature changes during the course of the day. It’s not much, but as you can see this can be an expensive fix. This leak went on for a long time and the customer did not notice till the tile on the floor was loose. When I looked at the job the tile was actually broken. When a tile is broken, that means that structurally (the wood underneath) is to soft to handle the weight anymore. It is unfortunate but we find tiled showers in this state of repair about 15 times a year in various newer neighborhoods in the area. We remodel more than 100 a hear so that is a little than 10% of our bathroom or shower remodels. These people decided to remodel the entire bathroom anyway because the floor needed replaced. 85% of the damage was in the floor and NOT in the tiled shower. The shower was on the right of where I was standing.
ACR Kitchen and Bath uses shower waterproofing systems by Wedi and Schluter for a good reason, because they are easy to assemble and they last. The price difference between a concrete build and a Wedi Waterproofing system is about $1,800. That’s a cheap insurance policy compared to what it costs to replace the shower and not to mention we guarantee our work and products for 10 years or more.
There is one thing I have learned over the last 19 years in bathroom remodeling: Cheaper is not always better but it is always cheaper to do something once instead of twice. Learn more about ACR Kitchen and Bath business practices and call 724-853-7757 today!
