Getting my elderly parents’ house ready to sell, and
see that the floor of the shower (circa 1963) has cracks
radiating from the drain, mostly through the tile (but some
through grout). Tiny hairline cracks. I expect a buyer’s
home inspection will catch this and I’d rather
deal with it now rather than under a short time
frame.
Before tearing into it, what is the
likely cause, so I will have an idea how
much work is involved?
(shower is on second floor; no visual evidence of a leak in
first floor ceiling below)
Edited 8/23/2008 3:06 pm ET by _db_
Replies
Your shower is 40 years old, and so is the pan under it. Although there is no apparent leak now, there may be one soon -- the age is ripe.
You should either leave it completely alone, or you should plan on replacing the pan.
If you plan on replacement, and you've not done one of these is the past, you've got some studying to do -- but its not at all impossible. But it can be quite time consuming.
If you're a weekend DIYer, plan on one weekend for demolition, one for the mortar pre-slope, a third one for the pan and mortar bed, a fourth one for the tile and plumbing, and maybe one extra for good measure.
Agree it is time consuming but it should not take five weekends even for a novice. Is it leaking? if not why are you worrying about it, nothing has been done for 45 years so why now. If it is leaking then a course of action should be taken. If not either leave it alone or redo the whole bath not just the shower. If you fix just the pan the new owner is probably going to redo the whole bath any way, shower and all, I would.
You start on just the pan before you know it you are tearing out the shower walls. You will need to tear out 6-12 inches of wall tile any way just to do a pan. 6 if fiber glass or composite 12 if tile pan and that is at a min.
If you want to do something tear it out and put in a fiberglass shower stall.
Now why did it crack around the drain, the hole in the sub floor around the drain is probably too big to afford enough support to the drain, standing on the drain has pulled it downwards cracking the concrete and tile.
Wallyo
Edited 8/23/2008 7:23 pm ET by wallyo
Thank you both. In the real estate market where I live (SoCal) it's a buyer's market, and additional time on the market means a lower price. If a buyer has narrowed their choice down to 2 or 3 houses, and one has cracks in the shower floor that don't yet leak, that house will either be cut from the short list or they will say "we'll buy if you fix the shower". And the home inspector *will* find the cracks. Believe me, this is not something I look forward to.
I pulled three tiles at and near the drain and it appears that no thinset was used; that the tiles were laid on wet mortar bed. And that the tiles nearest the drain were laid last and did not adhere as well.
And if, as suggested, the drain hole was cut too large, well, eventually that area yields to the weight upon it.
In most markets people want ready to move into homes. Not projects.Now if the whole bathroom is 40 YO with a pink vanity and stool and pink and back tile on the shower then it might be time to gut the whole place and redo it.But if 90% of the homes in the neighbor that are for sale and selling have pink and black bathrooms then I would only make repairs.Depending on your skills and knowledge you might want to pay for sellers inspection, probably about $300-500 so that you know what all needs fixing. Or if you are capabile they get some check list and make a detail area by area inspection.But having a buyers inspection all with a fix for any "real problems" that they might find gives you a leg on against the other sellers.The other thing is that I would get a couple of RE agents that sell in that area and price range and see what they think the house needs in terms of "updating".In most cases a full remodel of a kitchen or bathroom won't be recovered in a sale. But if the existing is so bad the house might be unsalable without doing that.But often you can do an update for a small fraction of that cost. For example in a kitchen new counertop, cabinet hardware, paint the cabinets and new flooring for a fraction of kitchen remodel. But it will look new and clean.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.