Seriously Water Damaged Floor underneath a shower

[hummingbird]

Hello all!

This is my first post here, and I am completely new to home repairs so please bear with me!

I am sick and tired of waiting for my hubby to repair our upstairs bathroom and I am trying to do research to see if it might be a problem I could tackle myself with maybe a friend of two.

Here is the situation:

The caulking in our stand up shower in the upstairs bathroom was not properly maintained. By the time I got around to fixing it I noticed that there was some severe rot around the area, the caulking itself has turned black. My dad was over one day to look and said that he believed there would likely be some serious damage underneath the base of the shower.

That evening my hubby went to have a shower and water started leaking (rather heavily) into the room underneath the shower/bathroom.
We decided that we would not be using that shower anymore until the problem was fixed however my son did have a shower and the water problem got worse.

Now the ceiling underneath that area is molded fairly badly, looks like it is actually rotting away. The upstairs shower, right around the caulking area, is blackened and seems to be getting worse.

Sooo....I know the shower has to come out, and the flooring needs to be replaced, likely even the wall around the shower as well. In regards to the ceiling underneath the shower, can just the affected area be removed and replaced (like a patch job)?

Also, in cases like this is a new shower necessary? Or is it possible to clean this one up and put it in once the area is cleaned and repaired? We really don't have a big budget here so I need to pinch pennies!

Thanks for your help!

[handyandy]

Hi, Welcome to the Forum!

Yes, I think a patch job below will do the trick, although it will probably take some effort to cleanup.

As for replacing the shower, it just depends. Can you post some pictures? Is it a tile shower, or an all in one insert? In either case, I don't see it as necessary to replace the whole thing, but pictures will tell us more...

[pushkins]

I agree with the previous poster, pictures will tell a thousand words.

One thing to note, MOST water leaks especially shower stall / bath stall leaks don't "just" happen, they happen over fairly long periods of time and this generally is a bad thing as the worst damage is done before you even see there is a big problem. Water is insidious and most sub floors are not intended to get water exposure over long periods of time. You said your father suggested that there might be considerable damage under the shower, this would lead me to believe that the shower base or floor immediately around the shower is showing signs of trouble, this part of the repair may be as simple as cutting out the damaged subfloor and replacing or as detailed as repairing rotted floor joists in this area.

I'd start by removing the damaged drywall downstairs as it will give you a great view of what is exactly happening in the shower from underneath and you will need to remove it anyway to clean up the mold issues.
Cut the damaged drywall out with a sharp box knife (be careful) make sure you keep all the edges nice and straight as this will make your drywall repair much easier later.

THEN, when you have removed the drywall take some pictures and post them here.

[www.mikebocktile.com]

My Grandfather would just put a big pan in the shower and drain it when he was done. Me personally, I'd tear the whole shower and bathroom floor apart. Replace the rotten subfloor with new wood. Install plastic wrap over the floor. Then install hardibacker board over that. Plastic line the shower, and install the shower pan liner, curb, hardi walls, fill the gaps, redguard the entire shower floor and 6" up the walls, then install the tile. Sounds like overkill... but I hate leaks.

[ceramictilepro]

showers that leak can create an enormous amount of damage including an invite from termites.

better to start removing and inspecting until you find where the water is coming from.

I use a completely waterproof shower system from schluter and have some vids on my site which may of interest to you.

ceramictilepro