Leaking shower, how screwed am I?

[fozzie52]

I've been looking to tackle this shower. The water leaks and has soaked the parquet flooring, which is rotten. I noticed while I was showering that some of the tiles would rock when you stepped on them, and you'd see air bubbles come out the grout.

I scraped the grout out around a tile and pulled it up, and was surprised to find another set of tiles underneath, that were of course soaked.

I'm worried that if I just grout the "top" layer of tiles again, I'll trap a layer of moisture that will never go away. I'm also worried that I'm about to commit some other sort of faux pas that I haven't thought of by doing that.

Does it all need to come out or am I alright to carry on as intended?

 

[accelerator]

Well obviously all the rotten parquet needs to come out ...

It looks like a bit of a bodge so my vote would be take it all out and it's probably new floor time ...

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Definitely don't add another botch on top of the rest.

I'd be thinking new bathroom looking at the floor and skirting board. Painted parquet?!?

 

[Si_]

From experience, tear it all up, fix the leak, and get a dehumidifier in there. Then put a new floor in, and bathroom too if you can afford it. The ground floor bathroom in my current house was like a cave when I moved in. An inch of water under the bath from a leak that had been ongoing for years, and a wall so damp you could stick your hand into it, make a fist and pull out plaster and grout like clay. That needed digging out then 10 days of the dehumidifier running 24/7 before work could even start. Turned out great in the end, though.

 

[Exedon]

We spent over 10 years subcontracting to a specialist insurance contractor. This sort of job was everyday stuff.
Rip out everything damp rotten and lose (probably the whole floor and shower base) commercial dehumidifier in dry out and start again.
I would seriously check out your house insurance your normal covered for any water damage but not leak itself.

 

[fozzie52]

Thanks for the replies. I have a bit more exposed.

I don't understand why you would just cover it up like this. Was it because it was leaking or just an aesthetic preference do you think?

 

[Si_]

Laziness? Mind you, it doesn't look too bad. This what what faced us on removal of the bath (the darker mark represents the depth of the standing water that lurked beneath)

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Smash it all out. That inaccessible waste probably doesn't work anyway. My old wetroom shower was totally blocked, clearly had been for years. The only way out was from a leak where it met the underside of the former tray, out under the surrounding floor. Which was all obviously a stinking mess.

All now replaced with a normal shower tray and a waste with a removable grate.

 

[fozzie52]

Turns out there was nothing to worry about. No sign of damp.

 

[fozzie52]

Not much left from that 2x2"

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Crikey. Errr looks great. Just pop another layer of tiles back over, job done.

You're definitely heading the right way.

Is it a standard shower tray size? If so that would be my recommendation, i.e. white, not a tiled wetroom thing.

 

[mrrusty]

have to say with showers there's a lot of form over function. IMHO it's hard to beat a quality tray like "just trays" mounted on a riser so plumbing under is accessible with a decent trap with an easily removable core so you can clean the hair out when you are in the shower and realise it isn't running freely - (in my case usually long blonde - not mine ). Hidden slot drains, wet rooms with built-in plumbing? not for me!!!

 

[fozzie52]

The area is 1.6 x 1m. The issue is the drain goes down an old toilet waste pipe on the other side of the room (under the spray bottle in the picture). So you have to build something over that.

 

[noseall]

"just trays" mounted on a riser so plumbing under is accessible

Jeezuz wept!

Sower trays are meant to be as low to the ground as you can possibly get them. I've lost count the amount of trays we've dropped for grateful customers. Raising them up is lazy cowboy stuff, meant only for those that do not give a hoot. Shower wastes are designed to be cleaned from above.

 

[stuart45]

I prefer trays with an upstand as well. Never get a leak problem, and you don't even need a silicone bead along the bottom.