TOPIC: Defective shower pan

I was doing a home inspection on a builders warranty inspection in Boise Idaho last week. The home was a very nice two story home with a tiled shower in the master bedroom. The client had said they had a leak in the kitchen from the master bathroom and the builder had repaired the leak.

The shower itself has some cracking around the bottom edge in the grout that needed to be repaired. The builder had told the client that it was not a big deal because it is a shower and the water will go down the drain, and even if a little water leaked there was a shower pan that would catch the water and drain it out. That would be true if the shower pan worked. I backed water up in the shower to test the shower pan. I went downstairs and was running my moisture meter around the kitchen ceiling when I heard water dripping on the sheetrock. I ran upstairs to pull the plug, but was to late. By the time I got back downstairs water was running through the kitchen ceiling. Even though there was a mess to clean up the clients were very happy that the defect was discovered prior to thier builder warranty expiring. I have been told it can be a 4-6k repair.

Yikes! Nice find.

Nice work Davin. That is why people hire us.

Ian, you may want  to offer the warranty company your services to monitor this repair .
Is the builder implying that there is a fiberglass or acrylic pan under the ceramic?? or a man made pan made from some type of membrane.
Either way they will have to remove the shower door, ceramic from the pan and if there is a seat they will need to remove the ceramic there also, as well as 6 - 12" up the wall up the wall.
If it is a membrane and they could not get it correct in the pan you can rest assured they did not get it correct (or did not install) in the other areas.
Don't be surprised to find out that the drain was never glued, builders for some reason want to let the ceramic installer do the membrane pans.

Good luck

Tim

The was implying that it didn't matter that there were cracks in the grout around the shower base, because it had a shower pan and would not be an issue.

I did offer to recheck after work was completed, but before they started putting the finish work back together. The builder is the one responsible for repair.

The was implying that it didn't matter that there were cracks in the grout around the shower base, because it had a shower pan and would not be an issue.

I did offer to recheck after work was completed, but before they started putting the finish work back together. The builder is the one responsible for repair.

I guess they now know it does matter