Well, ain’t life wonderful?! I have a 40+ year old rental house with slab floor and one-piece molded shower base that is cracked in several places and leaking.
It is a square corner unit, measuring 34″x34″ from finished plaster walls [might be 35″x35″ from the two nailing flanges – double threshold type] and drain is in the center. None of the manufacturers I can find make that style in that size anymore – closest is 36″. Presumably a 36″ replacement would be off 1/2″ in both directions from the existing drain.
I think replacement will be very expensive and time consuming, trying to re-locate the drain in a slab, so does anyone have experience fixing cracks in a molded shower base with epoxy or something?
any other brilliant solutions?
BruceT
Replies
OK, it's rental property, so here's something I did with a similar situation about 15 years ago.
Roughed up the cracked areas, and applied fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. Then, cut a piece of plaster lath to fit shower base. Removed drain screen and fashioned a drain extension out of PVC pipe that would slide down into the existing drain pipe (so that I could "raise" the new finished drain). Glue extension into existing drain so that the new drain outet is about 1-1/4" - 1-1/2" above where it had been.
Place wire lath in shower (for reinforcement), pour mortar bed in shower pan, and trowel (making sure it slopes from the sides to the elevation of the new drain extension).
After mortar base is dry, install mosaic or 2X2 tile on top. Set tile in thinset, grout and seal, etc.
Make sure to apply a high quality caulk bead along the perimeter of the base where the tile meets the base walls. Re-install drain screen.
I know it's a stretch in FHB, but sometimes on rental property you gotta do what works. And this fix not only worked well for me, but it looked really good , too (better than the base had before I worked on it.
Hope this helps.
DIA
Thanks. That could work.
BruceT